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James Milner is another of our regular forum contributors and is a self-confessed music freak describing himself as a bit of a purist and very anally retentive when it comes to sound quality. Perhaps controversially, his favourite piece of AV equipment is his Sony SACD player, to quote the man himself - “Sorry, vinyl freaks - you didn't convince me before and you surely must now stop this silly nonsense. Show me a turntable that, for £800, will produce sound like this!”
As you might expect James doesn't have a favorite film as he channels all his free time solely into music!
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The audiophile can be very much like the pub bore who knows everything about everything or the tyre kicker who drools at the 0-60 time of a Vauxhall Corsa. Do we really need to balance each piece of our hifi on a precision engineered platform costing £5000? Is there any merit in ripping up your floor to install a dedicated mains circuit using titanium plated cable? And what about the age old theory that a needle touching a piece of plastic can produce superior sound to a laser shining on a disc? All questions that the audio enthusiast and his detractors will have touched on at some point in their time.
Magazines tell us what we should have, what we must not buy and what we cannot possibly live without. In the terms of audio this can relate to a staggering array of 'enhancement' products from the simple speaker spikes to interconnects costing hundreds of pounds per metre. Do any of these products really work? Are you doing your ears a favour or your wallet a disservice?
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| Mains cables - do they make a big difference?
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It's a difficult one to fathom because there's always going to be this underlying factor that convinces you that you CAN hear a difference with your £6000 per centimetre mains cable. After all, you don't want to admit to yourself that you've just wasted a load of money and been taken for a ride by smug marketing men. But when you come down to the nitty gritty of it all, is it REALLY worth the effort and expense.
I have to admit I am guilty on several counts. Yes, I've got costly interconnects, speaker cables and mains filters. I have a purpose made hifi stand. My speakers stand on spikes that in turn stand on graphite feet. I even have a special spray for CDs that eliminates static from the laser (and yes, it really does work)! But the best enhancement I ever did to my equipment was free. Let me explain. You switch on and sit down. The CD you're playing sounds great, right? Well, perhaps not. If you've just powered up your equipment the chances are it's not at its optimum operating temperature and therefore not performing at its optimum capability. Many things work better when warmed up. Cars, for example, perform much more smoothly and economically when warm. Even people work better when they've warmed up (just ask those miserable buggers you work with)! Hi-tech equipment is no different. Your hifi needs a warm up before you can expect it to perform to the best of its ability.
There's no great shakes about this. No additional equipment needed and no cost to worry about. My advice to listener is this - before sitting back to peruse a new purchase or give a remaster a thorough exploration play some other music to get the system warmed up. Just normal volume, normal music. Nothing special. Give it 25 minutes or so. This should give the electronics time to reach a good operating temperature and the speakers will be nicely exercised. If you have new equipment your retailer will probably have explained about not expecting the best out of the equipment until it's run in. This isn't an old wives' tale. It's tried and tested.
For anyone with a decent hifi I really would advise leaving your entire system powered up 24/7. It won't cost a lot (OK, electricity is not free but we're not talking 3 kilowatt fan heater here!) and it isn't a fire risk. It's better for the equipment too as constant powering up and powering down causes much more stress to components than allowing them to exist at a constant temperature. Your ears will thank you.
And that's another point worth mentioning. Give your ears a chance to become accustomed to the sound. Don't assault them with an immediate onslaught of sound as it will sound shrill and uncomfortable. Increasing the volume gradually over a period of time will allow your hearing to settle into the sound much more effectively.
Cynics may not be convinced but what is there to lose. If you value sound quality you can do yourself no harm by following this simple concept. It works wonders for me. I usually listen to CDs in their entirety and they always sound better after about 25 minutes. Better imaging, cleaner vocals and a much heightened awareness of the individual instrumentation in the mix. Try following the bass line. That's a good test.
They say nothing in life is free. Judging by the amount of money NOT in my bank account I am convinced this is true. You don't always get what you pay for though, so it's worth being cautious when it comes to splashing out on so called enhancements that may seem impressive in theory but sound as convincing as Westlife covering Black Sabbath!
Do you agree with James or are his opinions way off the mark?
Have your say on our forum.
If like James you've got an AV topic you'd like to write a Member Feature on, just drop us an email at: news@avreview.co.uk - we'd love to hear from you.
