THE CD PLAYER PLUS - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

Does your music system
finally sound the way you
had hoped? Congratulations
if the answer is yes. Now you
can leave it the way it is and turn your
attention elsewhere.
Or maybe not. Is anything ever so
good that it couldn’t be better yet? As
Robert Browning famously said, a man’s
reach should exceed his grasp, else what’s
a Heaven for?
So yes, you’re going to upgrade your
system, since otherwise you wouldn’t
be reading this, but in what fashion? It
depends on how satisfied you are with
what you hear. If you are, look in one
direction, but if you’re not…
Over my years at the helm of UHF,
I’ve seen literally thousands of letters
from audiophiles who were more or less
satisfied with the sound of their systems,
but who in any case wanted advice on
how to improve them. Or fix them. Different
problems, different solutions.
The philosophy of this magazine
has remained steady over the years.
Whether a music system is capable of
thundering bass, liquid midrange or
light, sparkling highs, it must above all
get the music right. The melody should
be easy to follow. Rhythm should be
communicative. In a good recording,
harmony should give you at least a small
case of goosebumps. Words should be
intelligible. I need hardly add that the
system should not annoy you in any
way.
That looks like a pretty tough list,
and certainly there is no inexpensive
mid-fi system in existence that can give
you even half of it. However there are
well-chosen entry-level systems that can
give you most of it, perhaps even all of it.
Such a system need not cost a fortune,
perhaps $3000 or $4000, or about the
price of the decor group on a mid-sized
car. It can be improved, to be sure, and
we’re here to help with that.
But perhaps you’re not at all happy
with your system, even if you’ve spent
a lot more money than the strict minimum.
Perhaps it puts you to sleep,
or — this is a lot worse — it hurts your
82 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
State of the Art
by Gerard Rejskind
ears. Perhaps you can’t figure out what
anyone is singing, or what instruments
you’re hearing. One symptom of serious
trouble: you search through your music
collection, and you can’t find anything
that tempts you. Oops!
If you’ve already spent a lot on your
system, you may go into panic mode.
Perhaps a new interconnect cable is what
you need. How about that power filter
you’ve read about? A $600 power cord
should make things better, shouldn’t
it? Is it true that silver bullets can stop
werewolves? Please, doctor, anything,
only make it stop hurting!
Those are the worst conditions for
making a decision. Werewolves are
found only in books and movies, and
there is no silver bullet for hi-fi. However
the potential for wasting money is huge,
and money ill spent can make a system
worse rather than better.
We suggest starting with measures
that are free, or at least inexpensive.
Repositioning the speakers is such a
measure, and you’d be surprised how
much difference even a small change in
placement can make.
STATE OF THE ART:
THE BOOK
Get the 258-page book
containing the State of the Art
columns from the first 60 issues
of UHF, with all-new introductions.
See page 6.
And placement is just one aspect of
room acoustics, as you no doubt know.
You can considerably improve your
room by adding materials (Paul Bergman
wrote an entire series on this topic
in issues No. 77 through 85), and these
are not necessarily expensive. Some
affordable changes can be good enough
to let you know you’re going in the right
direction. That will encourage you to
proceed cautiously, confident that you’re
not travelling the wrong way on a oneway
street. Also remember basic maintenance,
such as cleaning connectors.
A good dealer can be of great help.
Perhaps you suspect your CD player of
being at the origin on the pain in your
ears. Pack it carefully, and make an
appointment with the dealer to go and
hear it in the showroom (don’t just drop
in unannounced if you want to stay on
good terms). Of course the associated
equipment and the acoustics will not
be the same as at home, but the session
may possibly answer one key question:
can this player be made to sound good?
If it can, then it isn’t the leading cause
of what’s bothering you.
Of course, a friend who also owns a
high end system can fill that role too.
What’s important is not to start
throwing money at a problem without
knowing what the problem is. With a
few exceptions, gear from competent
manufacturers can be made to sound at
least pretty good, which is to say reasonably
revealing and not annoying. Perhaps
your player or your amp was not a good
choice, but that doesn’t make it the sole
cause of your woes.
What you need to do, with the help
of your own ears, a friendly dealer, and
of course UHF, is getting your existing
system to sound at least reasonable. It
may not be as revealing as you like, but
it shouldn’t be opaque to music values,
and it definitely shouldn’t be painful to
listen to. At that point, you can move
forward again.
But if you’re hoping for a silver bullet,
you will in fact be firing a lot of expensive
buckshot at a target you can’t see. Fix the
worst stuff first.