My journey as an audiophile
I’ve always loved music. My earliest memories are of my father’s turntable and a single homemade speaker in his basement workbench area. He only had two albums: Marty Robinson’s “Gunfighters Ballads and Trail Songs,” and Julie London’s “Julie is Her Name.” I wasn’t against Country and Western music, but I was only 15, and Julie London looked a lot more interesting. In any event, I added my own copy of the Beatle’s “Revolver” album, and that was the extent of my musical repertoire.
Shortly after, I took up an interest in playing the guitar. I couldn’t afford anything expensive, and lessons were out of the question, but I did acquire a guitar made in Japan. At the time, I knew it was a cheap guitar, but my best friend Dave Norton lied and claimed it was really a quality musical instrument and even offered to teach me what he had learned from his guitar classes. I didn’t believe him for a moment but out of concern that he might actually believe in the Japanese conspiracy and wanting not to hurt his feelings, I went along and took advantage of his free guitar lessons on the long school bus rides home.
I ended up marrying my high school sweetheart (to whom I am still married), and as soon as we started setting up our home, I convinced her to use what little savings she had acquired slaving in high school at K-Mart to purchase a stereo console—a sweet little no-name cabinet with two speakers and a turntable. (I still feel terrible about that, but fortunately, all my past sins have been forgiven.) Amazingly, it lasted forever, and 50 years later, it was still in the family, albeit not at our house and not playing music, but doing a fine job of supporting some lovely house plants.
Moving along, one of the best birthday presents that my wife bestowed early in our marriage was a pair of “Advent” speakers. Advent was a term that the attornies used to specify a product that hadn’t formally adopted a brand name. Advent meant that the product’s name was “coming” but wasn’t yet finalized. Apparently, the developers liked the temporary title and kept the name “Advent.” In any event, I loved those speakers, and I loved that my wife cared enough to get them for me. I only wish I was that clairvoyant about her needs and desires.
Musical gear was not cheap. Fortunately, I was in a position to satiate my addiction as my career really took off, and, as they say, money was not a constraint.
My first solid system was a Meridian CD player with a Krell integrated amp and a pair of Audio Physics Virgo I speakers. The combination was as musical as feasibly possible at the time. The Virgo speakers were solid Class A speakers in the Stereophile Magazine, and at that time, nothing was or could be wrong with the world.
Unfortunately, the Krell Amp was placed in a box when we moved back from Colorado to California, and one of the movers apparently felt it was high time they possessed a quality integrated amp. Along with the down jacket and pillow that we packed to keep everything safe, it never made the trip back to California.
Coincidentally, and unfortunately, the Virgo speakers suffered a typical first production run issue, and some of its core components simply fell apart. As such, I was in the market for both an integrated amplifier and a speaker. Enamored with the Virgo I, I made arrangements to purchase a used Virgo II, which I ended up keeping for another fifteen years or so at a cost of only $2,000. To replace the Krell, I ended up with the French Devialet Expert Pro 200. Not cheap, but the amp was amazing and also had a built-in DAC. At the time, CDs were on the way out since streaming from sources such as Tidal and Qobuz was all the rage. As such, I needed a streamer, and the quality and expensive Aurender was available at a used price and took care of my needs for another 15 years or so.
We’re now into 2024, and because the existing audio equipment is older and, should it go out, my current retirement status would probably not be capable of supporting a viable replacement, I’ve decided to sell everything. I normally sell products through Audiogon.com, but because I wanted to transfer a moderate warranty to the buyer, I’ve decided to use the Music Room. A trustworthy company, they inspect the reliability of the products they sell and even offer a return policy and warranty.
Now, I was without music and awaiting proceeds from the sale of my old gear.
But it’s also a whole new world as audio equipment is much more competent and, interestingly, less expensive.
Even after all these years, the cost of the replacement stereo system was substantially under the sales price of the old equipment. Either I bought well or had been screwed all those years and just didn’t know it.
I’ll save you the multiple iterations. Since there are very few viable stereo stores, Amazon is one of the best purchasing opportunities to test and buy new stereo gear. You can, in fact, buy a product, test it, and return it if it doesn’t meet your requirements. I might have overdone that since Amazon has placed me on their “bad boy” list and threatened to charge me a fee for any returns as well as other nefarious threats. If that happens to you, just ignore it, their bark is worse then their bite.
Okay, now for the recommendations:
First of all, there are a number of audio reviewers on YouTube you should be aware of. Some, which I won’t name, conclude that every single new product is the best thing ever. Really? Ignore these guys. Others are really good, and here are my top three recommendations.
SteveHuffPhoto.com and https://www.youtube.com/user/stevehuff1969 – Steve has been around since 2007 and is a solid source of information. Very highly respected.
A British Audiophile—https://www.youtube.com/@abritishaudiophile7314—is one of the few who gives a rating of Recommended, Highly Recommended, and Outstanding. His highest ratings are golden, and his reviews are solid. He even offers individual consulting with an inexpensive Patreon membership.
Pearl Acoustics—https://www.youtube.com/@PearlAcoustics—Although they rep their own line, some of the extraneous information he releaseases is worth noting.
Here are my recommendations for a current audiophile system:
Cables:
You only need a few cables, but buy good here without getting scalped.
I recommend Puritan power cables, which at MCRU in England are cheaper than any supplier in the U.S.
Chord RCA cables which are available at Amazon – quality without the premium price.
You’ll also need an Ethernet cable, and I recommend the Audioquest.
Finally, you’ll need some speaker cables, which can range from the inexpensive Amazon-supplied $40.00 12′ Mica Cables to cables from Galion at only $149.
Source:
Instead of CD players, you will now employ a Streamer and DAC. The Streamer takes in the digital feed from the Ethernet Cable and, using a proprietary application serves up the various musical digital streams to the DAC, which outputs an analog stream to the speaker inputs on the Integrated Amp.
I highly recommend Qobuz over Tidal for selected musical choices and Calm Radio for pre-selected or curated music, along with the free vTuner for streaming FM music.
As a source, the recently released Wiim Ultra for only $319 is an amazing product. The associated software is amazing and consistently being updated, while the Sound Quality of the feed virtually rivals products selling for 10 to 20 times the cost. Steve Huff recently reviewed this amazing product.
Amplifier:
There are a number of great Integrated Amps to meet your needs here, ranging from the $675 Rega Integrated, reviewed by A British Audiophile, to the $1,700 Musical Fidelity A1, also reviewed by A British Audiophile.
Speakers:
I like monitor speakers versus tower speakers. Here, you can play around. The Galeon TS Voyager Mark 2 Special Edition, which was recently released but, unfortunately, sold out, is only $995. An unbelievable price for the sound quality of this speaker. Steve Huff reviewed this recently and put it on a special list with speakers costing $10,000. Here you can also try different speakers from Amazon and return them if they don’t meet your needs. Such as the Q Acoustics 5020, Monitor Audio Silver 50, or even the Dynaudio Evoke 20. In other words, try out different speakers, and those under $1,500 or even $1,000 might positively surprise you.
Conclusion
Being an audiophile has certainly been an interesting journey. Who would have thought that the quality and cost of extraordinary sound would have changed so dramatically and for the better was even possible? A high-quality sound system is no longer out of reach.
Enjoy.
