If you really truly love your music and don’t want anything to get in the way of your eargasms, then the audio setup matters. Big time. However, getting the best quality can seem expensive, not only in the equipment but all the little tweaks you need to keep making and the upgrades when tech breaks down. But you don’t have to bankrupt yourself to love music.
Invest in a little quality
Now, the idea of ‘investing’ doesn’t exactly sound like it’s going to save you a lot of money, to begin with. But when it comes to some of the most important pieces of your setup, like the speakers, then going cheap can be your downfall. If you have cheap speakers, you’ll find them breaking down a lot more often, for instance. Instead of letting that happen, you can even upgrade them with higher-quality parts that are a lot less likely to fail you.
Don’t fall for the planned obsolescence model
Anyone who likes tech will tell you that you should expect your devices to fail at some point. Conveniently, most of them seem to have a life cycle that ends just after insurance policies and the like. Instead of getting taken for that ride, get to know your own guy, like George Meyer AV Repair. Expecting and budgeting a little for repairs can save you a lot compared to paying for a policy and relying on it until you can’t any longer and have to buy new.
Format matters
If you’re using digital music, then the problem might not be on the hardware end. Instead, you might be having trouble because the format of the music you’re getting from your providers just isn’t as good as it could be. If all your music is in MP3 format, for instance, then you’re definitely missing out on the quality of formats like FLAC. But you don’t have to pay a lot more for higher quality files if you go to the right places. Sites like Bandcamp allow you to get directly from the artist and usually in FLAC format which makes them very competitive to some of the more common services out there.
Position means everything
You don’t need a whole bunch of extra speakers to reach the whole room if that’s what you want, either. Instead, you should think about the placement of your current speakers. Most audio placement guides recommend creating a ‘triangle’ of sound. Place speakers as far away from one another as they are from your listening position. Make sure, obviously, there’s nothing blocking those speakers either.
Go analog
There are people who truly love the sound of vinyl over anything else. There’s a physicality to the grooves that just comes through in the sound. They’re also a cheaper way to really build a physical collection of music. So long as you look after them well, they’re not overly expensive either. Most of your maintenance will go towards occasionally replacing the needles for the player and cleaning your vinyl records.
Take care of your equipment, know where you to invest and what you can miss, and the other factors besides that equipment that are going to affect the quality of your listening experience. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to constantly spend to be an audiophile.
