HI FI, A NEW STEREO WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

This is what most of us have grown up on, a pair of speakers being driven by a amplifier that you connect your cd player or other sources into. It is still the most common way of playing back recorded music.

There are many options and choices when assembling a home stereo system and each home will have a different set of requirements. One important issue these days is speaker size and how they fit into the decor.

This aesthetic decision can often override what we recommend to be the best sounding speaker for a particular room. Generally we recommend a small speaker for a small room and a larger, usually floor standing speaker for a bigger room.

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for, therefore the more you invest in a stereo system the better the reproduction of your favourite music will be. By this we mean better resolution of instruments and vocals, better dynamics and impact. Overall it becomes easier to follow and understand what the musicians are playing. This is the goal of a good high fidelity system.

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Five FAQ about stereo:

1. Q.
“How many watts are these speakers?”

A. Speakers do not generate watts, the amplifier does that. You don’t talk about the horse power of a trailer, it’s the vehicle towing it that has the power rating. It’s the same with the amplifier/speaker relationship. If it’s a 40 watt amp, then it’s a 40 watt speaker all things being equal.
Speaker manufactures generally give their speaker models a amplifier power recommendation i.e 25-100 watts.

2. Q.
“Because it’s digital, therefore don’t all cd players sound the same?”

A. No they certainly don’t all sound the same. Their sound will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer depending on how they ‘voice’ their players. As you go up in the range the sound will improve. The digital part of a cd player is only one step in the complicated process of getting the music off the disc.

3. Q.
“Aren’t the speakers the most important part of a hi fi system?”

A. While speakers are very important, it is widely acknowledged that the source (cd/record player/tuner) is the place where quality reproduction starts and if this is not up to the task then the amplifier and speakers cannot improve the signal. The absolute potential of your system will be dependent on the quality of the source. ‘Rubbish in equals rubbish out’ is a common phrase used to explain this when the source is lacking. When buying speakers it is important to choose what works with your room, matches your amplifier and plays at the volume you require.

4. Q.
“If my speakers are rated at 100watts then don’t I only need a
50 watt amp?”

A. While a good 50 watts per channel amplifier will drive most speakers, it is generally underpowered amplifiers that damage speakers. When the volume is turned up to an amount that requires more power from an amplifier than it is capable of delivering, the amp goes into ‘clipping’ and sends distortion to the speakers that can result in damage. To use a car analogy, a bigger more powerful car is going to tow a trailer with more ease than a little underpowered car.
It is fine to put a 100 watt amplifier onto a 50 watt speaker. Any speaker can be damaged by any amp. Sensible use of the volume control is the key.

5. Q.
“Isn’t a speaker with lots of drivers going to sound better than one with less?”

A. This depends on the price of the speakers. A cheap speaker with lots of drivers that claims to be 3-way will have many compromises in cabinet construction and driver quality to achieve it’s price point. A 2-way speaker at the same price will sound better as the budget for the components hasn’t been spread as thin. Beware the $500 speaker with 4 or 5 drivers!