The Audiophiliac

The Audiophiliac with a high-end Klipsch speaker.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

I know what's wrong with high-end audio: it's a secret.

Unlike high-end cars, watches, clothing, etc., 99 percent of potential high-end audio buyers are completely unaware of its existence. It's interesting, car magazines regularly plaster shots of cars that only a miniscule number of readers could ever buy, apparently because guys who drive Dodge Caravans love to read about Ferraris. Even the New York Times runs fawning features about the glories of exotic cars and not a peep about high-end audio.

High-end audio magazines and Web sites are only read by folks already in the game; the Audiophiliac's primary mission is bringing awareness of the better stuff to the wider world.

Sure, a lot of high-end audio is silly expensive, but there's a lot of good stuff that's fairly affordable. And the price of entry plummets when you buy used gear on eBay or Audiogon. Chances are your five year old Sony receiver is nearly worthless, so it may actually cost more to own than a high-end amplifier that you can use for decades.

When you factor in just how long a great set of speakers or electronics can last, it's easier to swallow the investment. A good friend is still using a Linn LP-12 turntable he bought more than 30 years ago. If you really love music, don't you want to hear it sound as good as it can?

Let us know by voting.

For long-term satisfaction, speakers trump video every time.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

A good friend of mine is still fuming over picking HD-DVD over Blu-ray. He's held the grudge so long he just recently dumped the player and even some of the discs and bought a Blu-ray player.

I know another guy who's steamed that his $2,000 6-year-old receiver doesn't have HDMI switching, so to get Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio he plays his Blu-ray over the receiver's 5.1 channel analog inputs. Fine, but the receiver doesn't do any sort of bass management over its analog inputs. The sound isn't so hot.

Do you know anybody who bought a plasma TV in 1999 for around $10,000 who still uses it as their primary display? I don't, but I'd bet most of those buyers are on their second or third display by now.

Side and top of an Ayre MX-R oh-so very high-end power amplifier.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

It's the hi-fi's job to produce the sound of music encoded in a recording.

Does how well or how accurately it produces the sound affect musical enjoyment? I'm not so sure about measurements; they just define distortion levels, power rating, and frequency response, but they don't have all that much to do with good sound. Good sound is much harder to nail down; we like what we like. You know good sound when you hear it.

Studio recordings rarely sound "live," or even realistic. How could they? Chances are the band never played the entire tune together "live" in the studio. Their music was patched together from bits and pieces, overdubbed, pitch corrected, rhythm corrected, EQ-ed, dynamically compressed, and processed in a gazillion ways. Of course, a lot of that also goes into modern "concert" recordings. So what constitutes a good sounding recording is pretty impossible to define. Play it back over a great system and what do you hear? Does it get your blood pumping?

So the question really is, does the music fully engage the listener? Sometimes, the better the hi-fi, the more music the listener hears, the more they like the music. Why that is? I don't know.

The 1C, not just another box speaker.

(Credit: Vandersteen)

Last year's HDTVs are yesterday's news, but great audio designs, like Vandersteen's Model 1C floor-standing speaker ($995/pair) stick around for decades.

Richard Vandersteen designs speakers for buyers who care more about sound than fashion. His stuck-in-the-1980s styling isn't a calculated stab at retro. The handsome 1C tower speaker was originally introduced in 1981 as the Model 1, and the "C" iteration debuted in 1996. No matter, it still sounds better than any speaker I've heard near the 1C's price. It's as good as it gets for under a grand.

Change for the sake of change isn't an option at Vandersteen, and that extends to bucking the industry stampede to move production offshore. Vandersteen still builds all of his speakers in Hanford, California, and every speaker is tested and measured in the factory's anechoic chamber. That's commitment.

It's a two-way design featuring a 1-inch alloy dome tweeter mounted just above an 8-inch woofer. The speaker is 36 inches high and weighs 44 pounds. Build quality is absolutely superb.

As you can see from the picture, the 1C isn't a conventional "box" speaker; the baffles supporting the drivers were designed to be as small as possible to reduce the reflections that are (unfortunately) part of the sound of conventional speakers.

The audible differences between box speakers and the 1C aren't subtle, so the very first thing you'll notice about the Vandersteen sound is that it's remarkably "open" and dare I say it, it approaches the purity of some high-end panel speakers. It's simply more natural sounding than any box speaker near the 1C's price.

The Vandersteens' soundstage depth is positively addicting; the spacious image isn't just wide and deep, it's also taller than average, which adds to the believability of the sound.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Our economy is in a shambles. We all know there's a lot of blame to go around, but the fact is that most of the products we buy are made offshore. It's going to take some time to see if the stimulus plan's billions of dollars are going to turn the economy around, but each of us can do our part by buying American right now.

Our troubled domestic auto industry is at least still building cars here, which is more than you can say about electronics, computer, video, and camera vendors. Even clothing and shoes are mostly made elsewhere. It's not just the loss of blue-collar manufacturing gigs; design and engineering jobs are increasingly outsourced.

When shopping, do you look at the label or box to see where the product you're about to buy is made? If you had a choice of an American-made product and an imported one, would the country of origin play a part in your buying decision? If the American product was 10 percent pricier, would you buy it, even if you judged quality of the two to be about the same?

I just bought a new couch (for a great price), and it was made in North Carolina. That's my personal stimulus plan.

Sure, quality matters, but if we go on exporting jobs, how will we maintain our standard of living? I could make the same case for buying online versus shopping in your city or town. Those local shops employ your family, friends, and neighbors; would you pay extra to keep the dollars in your community?

The Panamera

(Credit: Porsche)

The Panamera is a different kind of Porsche.

It's a four-door sedan, a really fast sedan. The Panamera S at $89,800 comes with a 400hp 4.8-liter V8, capable of punching out 0-to-60 mph in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 175 mph. Not quick enough for you? Move up to the Panamera Turbo, with a twin-turbo 4.8-liter V8, 0-to-60 mph in 4 seconds, and a top speed of 188. That bad boy will retail for $132,600.

So why is the Audiophiliac filling space with upcoming German super sedans? 'Cause they're going to have totally awesome ultra-high-end audio systems from Berlin manufacturer Burmester Audiosysteme. I love of the idea of matching super-performance luxury cars with bona-fide high-end audio systems. Hey, if Porsche buyers happily pay an extra $42,000 (!) to go a little faster, why not also spring for a sweet sound system?

For Panamera, Burmester crafted a 16 channel amplifier system that drives, you guessed it, 16 loudspeakers. The speaker system was designed specifically for the Panamera. In keeping with the Panamera's spirit as a true sports car, the sound system's weight was a key concern.

Specially developed software-supported menu functions allow for precise sound contouring for each individual seating position. They can also compensate for cabin and engine noise, and use proprietary sound algorithms developed exclusively for Porsche. Funny, the press release didn't mention an iPod dock, but I'm sure it's in there.

The Panamera is set to go on sale in the U.S. on October 17.

Adam Wexler, who was always into hi-fi equipment, started hanging around high-end audio shops when he was just a kid. By the time he was in college, he was selling a local shop's traded-in components and speakers.

He wasn't just into it for the money; he wound up with a really cool hi-fi on the cheap.

Adam Wexler with some recent buys, but what about that trippy green tube amp?

(Credit: Stereo Buyers)

After college, he worked for a couple of stores before landing a sales-and-design position gig with one of New York's top high-end dealers. Now with Stereo Buyers Wexler is ready to take it to the next level. He buys high-quality audio for cash in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, though he will occasionally accept equipment shipped to him.

Please understand: Wexler isn't interested in your Sony receiver, Marantz CD changer, or the Pioneer cassette deck you bought at a yard sale for 10 bucks 20 years ago. No, he's looking good stuff, high-end audio of any vintage, in good working condition. Tube gear, sure, and high-end solid-state amplifiers, turntables, tuners, speakers, etc. E-mail him a list of your gear, and he'll get back to you.

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2008 was held at two hotels: the Denver Marriott Tech Center Hotel and the Hyatt Regency Tech Center on October 10 through October 12, 2008.

UPDATE: Click here to view more pictures from the RMAF.

The hundreds of manufacturers participating at the show proves high-end audio is alive and definitely kicking. RMAF has a very different vibe than the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas every January--RMAF is friendlier, without a hint of corporate oppression that dominates mainstream shows.

The KEF Muon super speaker.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

High-end audio is a smaller industry, where established brands such as Krell and Vandersteen compete against fledgling start-ups. Every manufacturer sets out to build the very best performing products, without the dulling constraints that Sony or Bose has to contend with.

Cruising through the 160 demo rooms I noticed an interesting trend, a minority of companies were using CD players. Maybe half had music servers/laptops, 30 percent were spinning vinyl, a couple had reel-to-reel analog tape machines, and the remainder was CD based.

Jolida's new $399 JT-10 all-tube integrated amplifier sounded awesome. It's a gorgeous glass encased design, a little jewel of an amp. Jolida also showed the JD 9 tube phono preamplifier, which was also sounding phenomenal. I believe it's $450, what a deal!

Vacuum tube electronics were plentiful, perhaps even in the majority compared with solid-state. Sure, a lot of gear was pricey, but budget high-end brands, such as Audioengine were making great sound on the cheap, the Audioengine 2 speakers run $200 a pair. Clever name, the Audiophile One is a tiny, $249, 30 watts per channel stereo amplifier. It's no toy, the little thing comes in a bunch of colors and it's built to a very high standard.

The audiophile lexicon goes way, way back, at least to the early 1950s hi-fi craze. Here's a place to get a grip on it.

The Audiophile Wiki was initiated by PS Audio's Paul McGowan to help answer questions about audio.

"For years, I have been on a personal crusade to put whatever effort I could into helping raise awareness of our industry," McGowan said. "I have spent hundreds (probably thousands) of hours answering questions about everything from how to connect a loudspeaker to how a transistor works, all in service to PS Audio customers and the high end."

The Audiophile Wiki logo

It's all in the Audiophile Wiki: audio companies, designers, analog, digital, tubes, transistors, reviewers, speakers, amplifiers, turntables, etc. For example, if you're just getting into vinyl, check out the entry for Phono Cartridge:

"A phono cartridge is a device that reads the grooves on a phonograph record. There are multiple types of phono cartridges, moving magnet, moving coil, strain gauge, ceramic cartridge, and many others through the years.

All phono cartridges share in common the conversion of mechanical movement into either sound (mechanical cartridge) or electrical energy for later amplification.

The Audiophile Wiki launched in May of this year, so there's lots of gaps. Feel free to fill in missing facts.