Audiophile

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An audiophile, from Latin audire "audio", Compact Oxford Dictionary, Accessed 2007-05-11 "to hear" and Greek language philos "phile", Compact Oxford Dictionary, Accessed 2007-05-11 "loving," can be generally defined as a person dedicated to achieving high fidelity in the recording and playback of music .

Overview Audiophiles are people who seek to listen to music at a level of quality as close to the original live performance as possible. They use high-fidelity components to try and attain these goals. Most are music lovers who are passionate about high-quality music reproduction. Some hobbyists build their own equipment, especially loudspeakers.

Audiophile magazines include Hi-Fi News, Hi-Fi Choice, and Hi-Fi World in the United Kingdom and Stereophile and The Absolute Sound in the United States of America. Hobbyist audio societies also exist. Stereophile's website has a list of societies in the United States.

Audiophiles can purchase special recordings made with extra attention to sound quality; some companies specialize in re-issuing recordings for this purpose. Many audiophiles feel that gramophone record sound better than compact discs (CDs), and audiophile records are often remastered and pressed on extra-heavy virgin vinyl—180g or 200g. Audiophiles also collect recordings in the so-called high-resolution formats such as Super Audio CD or DVD-Audio.

Audiophile values may be applied at all stages of music reproduction: the initial audio recording, the production process, and the playback, which is usually in a home setting. High-end audio refers to expensive, high-quality, or esoteric products and practices used in the reproduction of music. Electronic gear used by audiophiles is typically sold at specialist shops. Prices range from not much more than mass market electronics to astronomical heights: high-end audio systems can easily cost more than a new automobile and in extreme cases can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of this gear is produced by companies that specialize in high-end gear, although some also produce equipment used by audio professionals such as by recording studios.

The hobbyist will usually have great interest in the gear used, and may travel to listen to equipment not available in his own city, and spend hours in making minor changes to his gear and comparing the results. In Asia, hi-fi ownership and upgrading is often a hobby in its own right, where the pursuit of sound fidelity seems to be almost completely disassociated from the love of music. These "audiophiles" are solely into the gear. The music is just considered incidental or a means of "testing" equipment. The Chinese refer to this hobby as 發燒 or "fever outbreak."

On the other hand, many audiophiles have a true passion for music, and frequently attend live concerts. Audiophiles are more likely to listen to acoustic music, like jazz, classical or vocalists, where it is possible to compare the sound quality of the reproduction to the known sound quality of the original, than to electric music such as rock music.

Audio system components An audio system typically consists of a number of components. These include one or more source components, one or more amplification components, and (for stereophonic sound), two or more loudspeakers.

In addition, specialty cables or wires are used to link these components. There may also be a variety of accessories. These include equalizers, including digital equalizers, specialized equipment racks, speaker stands, power conditioners, devices to reduce or control vibration, and peripheral devices such as record cleaners, anti-static devices, phonograph needle cleaners, and many others.

The interaction between the loudspeakers and the room plays an important part in sound quality. Sound vibrations are reflected from walls, floor and ceiling, and are affected by the contents of the room. Room dimensions can create standing waves. As a result, audiophiles sometimes design their listening rooms specifically for optimum audio reproduction. There are devices for room treatment that impact the sound quality. Soft materials, such as draperies and carpets, reflect high-frequency sound less than hard walls and floors.

While mass-market electronics is almost always solid state, some audiophiles appreciate the sound of vacuum tube gear and buy audiophile components that use a mix of tubes and solid-state electronics.

In addition to its sound quality, much high-end gear is designed for aesthetic appeal as well. Many devices, however, although striking in appearance, do not have universal appeal. They are often large or must occupy specific locations in the listening room, which may be the living room. This leads to the issue humorously known among audiophiles as the spouse-acceptance factor.

As with many hobbies, audiophiles use a certain amount of jargon. This includes a variety of language describing the sound of a system. Examples include bright (excessive energy in the upper frequencies), dark (excessive midbass), or lean (insufficient midbass).

Sound sources

Audiophiles usually play music from compact discs (CDs), gramophone record, and FM radio (FM). Since the early 1990s, CDs have become the most common source of high-quality music, obliterating the mass market for records. But because of hobbyist record collecting, the extensive back-catalogue of music on records not available on CDs, and the perceived better sound quality of records among some audiophiles, records remain popular among a minority of listeners. Debate is sharp in this area, with analogue proponents arguing that analog sound is warmer--has a bit of distortion which they find pleasant--and does not suffer from digital sound's alleged loss of information in the sampling process, while digital proponents decry analog formats as having a smaller dynamic range, greater deviations in frequency response, and greater distortion, which lessens sound quality. Nevertheless, phonographs, tonearms, and magnetic cartridges are among the most exotic and lavish high-end audio products despite the difficulties of keeping records free from dust and the delicate set-up associated with turntables.

The 44.1 kHz sampling rate of the CD format, in theory, restricts CD information losses to above the theoretical upper-frequency limit of human hearing--20 kHz, see Nyquist limit. Some believe, however, that the brick-wall filter used by CD players to remove ultrasonic noise can create audible distortion. Newer formats such as DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD), with sampling rates of 96 kHz or higher, have been developed in an attempt to address this criticism.

Despite the popularity of MP3 digital audio player, some audiophiles criticize these devices because of their reliance on lossy data compression. In MP3 encoding, musical information is lost in proportion to the degree of compression. Audiophiles who use a digital-audio player will often encode their music at higher bit rates to maintain sound quality at acceptable levels for casual listening. Many digital-audio players, however, can also accept uncompressed formats such as WAV (Pulse-code modulation), foregoing compression in order to retain quality. Some players, including iPods, also allow lossless data compression algorithms, which can compress audio files without degrading their sound quality. Popular lossless formats include FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio (APE), Apple Lossless, True Audio, Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless, and Shorten.Although many digital audio devices have integrated converters, there is a healthy demand for after-market digital-to-analog converters.

Amplifiers II, an early monoblock valve (vacuum tube) amplifier.

Many audiophile systems separate the functions of the preamplifier from that of the power amplifier. A preamplifier selects among several audio inputs, amplifies source-level signals (such as those from a turntable), and allows the listener to adjust the sound with volume and tone controls, switchable filters, etc. A power amplifier takes the "line-level" audio signal from the preamplifier and drives the loudspeakers; typically the only control on a power amplifier is a gain (level) control (or none at all). Some audiophiles use two monophonic power amplifiers in a 'monoblock' configuration rather than one stereophonic power amplifier. Some use no preamplifier, instead connecting a CD player with a variable output directly to a power amplifier. Some go even further and use multiple amplifiers per loudspeaker to drive the woofer, Mid-range speaker, tweeter, etc. The terms bi-amped and tri-amped are sometimes used to describe these systems. There are, however, those who advocate using integrated amplifiers that combine a preamplifier and power amplifier in one box, arguing the benefits of minimalism.

Audiophile amplifiers are available based on solid-state (semiconductor) technology, vacuum tube (valve) technology, or hybrid technology—semiconductors and vacuum tubes. Very low power single-ended triode tube amplifiers are often claimed to provide superb sound when paired with appropriately sensitive loudspeakers. On the other hand, there are others who use solid-state amplifiers rated at over 1,000 watts RMS per channel. Some subjectivists believe that Valve sound, despite their much higher distortion, produce a more faithful and detailed reproduction in comparison to solid-state amplifiers. Objectivists respond that this is largely a matter of opinion and personal taste, not proper reproduction of sound. Tube amplifiers, however, are heavily used in music production, primarily in guitar amplifiers because of their soft Clipping (music) when overdriven, compared to solid-state circuitry.

Loudspeakers Audiophile loudspeakers use a wide variety of technologies and range greatly in size and cost. Starting at prices well under $500 budget audiophile loudspeakers are often the beneficiaries of more advanced technologies developed for higher priced flagship designs. Exotic loudspeaker designs and flagship models are some of the most extreme audiophile components and it is possible to spend more than $100,000 USD on a pair of high-end loudspeakers.

In contrast to the more exotic audiophile speakers, monitor speakers used by professional audio engineers are seldom priced at more than $5,000 per-pair.

The cabinet the loudspeaker is made from is referred to as the loudspeaker enclosure. There is a wide variety of loudspeaker enclosure designs, including sealed, ported, transmission line, infinite baffle, horn loaded, and aperiodic.

The drivers are the actual sound-producing elements, commonly referred to as tweeters, midranges, woofers, and subwoofers.Driver designs include dynamic, electrostatic, magneplanar, ribbon, planar, ionic, and servo-actuated. Drivers are made from various materials, including paper pulp, polypropaline, kevlar, aluminum, magnesium, berillium, and vapor-deposited diamond.

The direction and intensity of the output of a loudspeaker, called dispersion or polar response, has a large effect on its sound. Various methods are employed to control the dispersion. These methods include monopolar, bipolar, dipolar, 360 degree, horn, waveguide, and line source. These terms refer to the configuration and arrangement of the various drivers in the enclosure.

The positioning of loudspeakers in the room and of the optimum listening position (referred to as the "sweet spot") is of great importance in producing optimum sound. Loudspeaker output is influenced by interaction with room boundaries, particularly bass response, and high frequency transducers are directional, or "beaming." In addition, audiophiles care a great deal about accurate stereo representation of sound. A typical placement is for the loudspeakers and the listening position to form roughly an equilateral triangle, with the loudspeakers a few feet from the back wall.

Accessories Audiophiles use a wide variety of accessories and fine-tuning techniques, known as "tweaks", to improve the sound of their systems. These tweaks include: filters to clean the electricity, equipment racks to isolate components from room vibrations, power cables, interconnect cables (e.g. between preamplifier and power amplifier), high quality speaker cables and stands (and footers to isolate the speakers from the stands), as well as room treatments, to name but a few. Among the most controversial of these tweaks are expensive, high-end shielded audio cables used for electrical power, line-level, loudspeaker, and digital-signal connections.

Room treatments typically consist of sound-absorbing materials placed strategically within a listening room to reduce the amplitude of early reflections. Room treatments can be expensive and difficult to optimize, but are considered by many to be the least tweaky of the many available tweaks because their effectiveness is easily measured and grounded in verifiable science. Some tweaks do work, and much of the fun of the hobby is to squeeze more performance out of an already excellent-sounding component.

Headphones Another, less expensive, practice of some audiophiles is the use of premium headphones. Most audiophiles-standard headphones retail in the region of $60-$500, although it is certainly possible to spend upwards of $20,000 (e.g. the Sennheiser HE-90{{cite web|url=http://gadgets.luxist.com/2005/12/14/sennheiser-he-90-headphones |title=Sennheiser HE 90 Headphones |publisher=Luxist |first=Deidre |last=Woollard |date=December 14 [ |accessdate=2007-06-30 -->). Most headphones marketed to audiophiles are a tiny fraction of the cost of comparable speaker systems, and do not require any room adjustment for music enjoyment. Newer Headphones#Canalphones, while as expensive as their larger counterparts, can be driven by less powerful outputs like portable devices and are increasingly used by audiophiles.

Testing Audiophiles are split into two separate schools of thought regarding testing. Objectivists believe that measured performance, and double blind testing is of the greatest importance and subjectivists who believe that measured performance can not account for all discernible differences in sound quality and rely on extended listening tests to form an opinion.

Beliefs Minimalism Even though there is general agreement on the goal, opinions vary widely among designers and listeners on how best to achieve high fidelity. One design principle is minimalism. Given that each step in capturing, storing, and playing back music may degrade it, some audiophiles believe that the fewer and simpler the stages, the better. Many audiophile components, for example, lack tone control circuits, since it is felt that these may degrade the audio quality while moving the sound away from the ideal.

The minimalist subjectivist assertion is that music contains elements which cannot be measured by electronic instruments,{{cite web|url=http://www.stereophile.com/features/203/index11.html|title=Stereophile|accessdate=2007-03-25 --> so the less one alters the original signal, the more likely it is that this unmeasurable quality is preserved.

Objectivists, however, want to reasonably quantify and specify the effects of input source, amplifier set-up, system power, speaker configuration, etc. on the listening experience. This desire is complementary to purely subjective preferences in quantifying the perceptible effects of different equipment set-ups.

Restoration While minimalists strive to keep the signal unmodified from studio rendition to final listener output, a non-minimalist desires the opposite, and attempting to either restore the original environment or, in some cases, enhance the original rendition. DSP algorithms such as real-time mono-to-stereo conversions, Sound Retrieval System (SRS), and Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) manipulate the signals to enhance listener experience. EAX, for example, can simulate a room environment or simulate a stadium environment by using mathematical acoustical algorithms to add Echo (phenomenon) or reverb to the signal, taking a rendition of a song and placing it in the simulated environment. For example, a recording could be sent through a DSP algorithm mimicking outdoor echo effects, which would not be present if the recording was captured directly from the musical instrument or in a studio designed to dampen any acoustics effects. Non-minimalists may also choose to manipulate the sound with an equalizer in order to enhance certain frequency ranges that may have been lost during recording or that are not reproduced during playback. Minimalists would argue that these devices alter the natural sound quality.

Digital versus analog Some believe that digital technology's absence of clicks, pops, wow (recording), flutter, audio feedback, and Rumble (noise) make it superior to records. Digital technology also has a higher signal-to-noise ratio, has a wider dynamic range, has less total harmonic distortion, and has a flatter and more extended frequency response. Other audiophiles, however, feel that analog sound lacks the deleterious effects caused by the analog to digital conversion necessary to produce CDs and therefore analog signal music reproduction from gramophone record played on a properly configured phonograph/tonearm setup is superior to digital music reproduction from CDs played on CD players.

Equipment concerns

In audio filtering, the process of converting a bit-stream to an analog waveform requires heavy audio filter to remove spurious high-frequency information, and such filtering is believed by some audiophiles to degrade some of the signal due to loss of information and potentially a large amount of phase shift in the upper reaches of the passband. Commonly-used consumer-grade digital-to-analog converters (DACs) exhibit very poor linearity at low levels. Both concerns, at first dismissed, were then addressed by digital filtering, oversampling, and the use of DACs operating at 20-bits or higher resolution. The introduction of the new higher-bandwidth so-called high-resolution music formats is an attempt to address this concern of some audiophiles. Musician Neil Young, for example, is a harsh critic of the sound of the original CD format, but has approved of the sound of the newer Super Audio CD format.

Solid state (electronics) amplifiers are often not used for guitars due to the harsh sound created by an overdriven solid-state amplifier compared to valve. In the high fidelity debate, some prefer vacuum tube electronics over solid-state electronics, because despite inferior measured performance, some claim a warmer or more musical sound. Vacuum-tube amplifiers are often attacked as inferior because, in addition to their substantially higher total harmonic distortion, they require rebiasing, are less reliable, generate more heat, are less powerful, and are often more expensive.

Some believe that higher-quality capacitors, such as those made with tantalum, improves sound quality when large electrolytic capacitor or paper capacitors are replaced or bypassed with these capacitors in the signal path. These audiophiles believe that the capacitors were inferior due to significant inductance caused by their spiral-wound construction which interferes with the passage of the highest audio frequencies.

Some have long believed that sound quality was degraded by large levels of negative feedback in amplifiers. Poorly-designed feedback systems can produce poor sound quality. Thus the association of feedback with poor sound quality is likely a reflection of poorly-designed power amplifiers that use feedback incorrectly.{{cite web

|url=http://www.hificritic.com/downloads/Archive_6.pdf |title="A Future Without Feedback?" |author=Martin Colloms |publisher=''Stereophile'' |date=January 1998 |accessdate=2007-05-09 |format=PDF -->

Criticism of audiophile marketing practices Some audiophile products are exorbitantly priced. It is possible to spend over one hundred thousand dollars for a pair of loudspeakers, tens of thousands of dollars for amplifiers and CD players, and more than seven thousand dollars for a power cable or speaker cables Colloms, Martin. Wilson Audio Specialties X-1/Grand SLAMM loudspeaker system in Stereophile, December, 1994, Accessed 2007-05-11 JPS Labs Kaptovator Power Cord, Grant Samuelsen, Soundstage magazine, June 2000

For marketing purposes, subsequent introductions of newer components often claim to lack the problems existing with prior components even though every properly conducted and interpreted double-blind test has shown that no audible differences have ever been detected.

Some vendors of the most questionable products make fanciful and unscientific claims for their products.

One audiophile has written that early home-theater sound was inferior to high-fidelity sound.Harley, Robert. Home Theater, Music, or Both? in Stereophile, October 1993.

See also

Analog sound vs. digital sound Brief discussion of differences.
Audio system measurements
DIY audio Enthusiasts make their own equipment.
European triode festival
High-end audio High-end and Audiophile gear and internal links to high-end audio companies.
Tube sound
Videophile

References External links

The Audio Critic - Thirty-year publication, now online only, with in-depth independent verification of vendors' claims.
The Audio Press - Criticism of industry, magazines, and reviewers.
Audiophilia - Online magazine featuring high-end audio equipment and music reviews.
Enjoy the Music.com - High-end audio equipment, music reviews, show reports, and information.
Positive Feedback Online - Print magazine that merged with audioMUSINGS and morphed into an online forum for the audio arts.
Science and Subjectivism in Audio Technically-detailed article by Douglas Self.
6Moons.com - Online magazine.
StereoTimes - Equipment reviews and articles of general interest to audiophiles.
TNT-Audio - Non-profit, Internet high-fidelity review.

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