Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I was lucky (if you like HiFi) as my first job was for Sevenoaks HiFi and then later a super high-end shop selling all sorts of expensive toys from Krell amps to the B&W speakers that adorn many a mastering studio. I even got to do some product training at Mission and Meridian. The experience of going inside an anechoic chamber is still with me 28 years later.

Eight years after the Mission Cyrus visit, I went to university to study Music Technology and converted from audiophile to sound engineer. The two have vastly different approaches but the latter is less rife with snake oil, but both can lead you down a rabbit hole. The Mission training got me interested in acoustics as well as speaker design and placement, which led to the idea of studying it in more detail.

With all the experience of working with HiFi, it is easy for me to scour eBay and Reverb for second-hand separates and speakers, yet I don’t as I see no value in it. There is one glaring flaw with the audiophile world that keeps me away, acoustics. In the pro-audio world, far-field listening (monitoring) is the preserve of a room that has been built from the ground up (control room) with soffit mounted speakers in a room designed to steer reflected sound away from the main listening area. And as the rooms are usually bigger than a typical domestic space, RT60 is factored into the equation too. The other pro-audio environment is the mastering suite, which may not be built from the ground up but is selected based on the ratio of its dimensions and then treated after determining the optimum listening position within the room.

Then we have the semi-pro environment, which is more common nowadays as more engineers work from home. In these environments, near-field monitors are usually chosen due to room size and its non-acoustic specific shape. Usually some treatment is applied, although not always. If a bigger domestic room is chosen – and budget allows – mid-field monitors are chosen and coupled with a decent amount of acoustic treatment.

What has this got to do with HiFi and this thread? Listening experience; however, we should divide this into two categories. Listening to music is the activity, and enjoying music in the background while doing other activities. I do both almost every day. The way the vast majority of people approach HiFi is only really useful for the latter. Far-field listening in an untreated domestic space or moving around with music in the background lacks an enormous amount of detail. That is not a problem as you don’t need the fully immersive experience to enjoy music while doing other things. What I take issue with is the value proposition of buying expensive HiFi for this, it’s incredibly wasteful. And it makes sense that Velocio may end up settling for a fairly humble system.

What about those who want to have the full audiophile experience? To remove the veil and hear what the engineer has really done. To close one’s eyes and fully immerse oneself in the music and only the music for a moment. It can be an incredible experience, but to achieve it you need to step into the pro-audio mindset for a moment. And before you do that, consider the possibility that you can have two systems, so you can have the best of both worlds. Although, depending on your environment, you may only need one. And sadly, for some you may not wish to break from the audiophile status quo of positioning – you may not be able to. But once you have heard it, you cannot unhear it.