We’ve all been there. You realize one day that your favorite album just doesn’t sound quite right. You adjust what you can on your receiver, buy some new cables, and maybe even replace the cartridge. Is it the turntable? Or maybe it’s the speakers. The pre-amp perhaps? Screw it. It’s time for a complete overhaul of your listening set-up. You crack your knuckles and sit down at your computer. Time for some hi-fi research.
You spend hours upon hours reading articles and reviews on various obscure forums hoping to find the perfect setup. The ideal combination of equipment to create your ideal sound that also fits within your budget and will fit into your listening space. Only then will you achieve true sonic bliss. One more turntable, a new tube amp, a nicer cartridge, and so on. But it never ends, there is always someone with a nicer set-up than you.
Never Quite Good Enough
There are many different kinds of record collectors, but they all fall into one of two categories: Equipment obsessives or music obsessives. Either your set-up is good enough, but the size of your record collection never is, or your record collection is big enough, but your set-up isn’t good enough.
The Problem with Record Collecting
Let’s talk first about the problem with being a music obsessive: There’s a hell of a lot of music out there. If you’re like me and have what doctors might call “obsessive-compulsive tendencies,” the idea of starting a collection that will never be complete can be daunting. There is a never-ending amount of music being released, especially when it comes to records. It’s no longer just new music being released but old music that is getting repressed or maybe getting pressed for the first time. Deluxe editions, special re-releases with bonus tracks, anniversary editions, etc.
I fit into this category. Thankfully, I have mostly avoided the trap of buying four different versions of the same album because this one has bonus tracks, this one is pressed on color vinyl, or whatever the new pressing has that the old one doesn’t.
The problem boils down to the fact that my collection will never be complete, and I’m ok with that. The whole beauty of record collecting is the fact that there is always new music to buy and new music to be discovered.
BUT
Don’t I want to listen to these precious pieces of music that I spent so much money on to sound good? Not just good but great. I want to hear every single sound that was recorded exactly as the artist intended it to so that I can truly and fully appreciate this vinyl disc of artistic expression totally encumbered by the inadequacies of my setup. But how do I get there?
The Problem with Hi-fi Equipment Collecting
Herein lies the problem buying new sound equipment and “upgrading” your hi-fi or turntable set-up. Unlike buying records, there is a major issue of diminishing returns. I don’t enjoy a record less just because it was the 500th one added to my collection. However, the difference between a turntable set-up that costs me $500 and one that costs me $5,000…well who’s to say that it sounds 10x better?
So when do you stop? Is there such thing as a perfect set-up and once all of those components have been obtained it’s simply a matter of maintenance? This is one way to go about it but it presents several problems. The first being that not every set-up is perfect for every album. Hip-hop albums sound drastically different than rock albums and rock albums sound different than jazz albums. Sure tube amps might give many of your records that desired “warmth,” that many people are after but is that really what you want when listening to a rap or hip-hop album? Do I want my pressing of Charli XCX’s Brat to sound warm in the first place?
Basically, if you listen to a wide variety of music, there isn’t such thing as a perfect set-up.
There is also the problem with the ideal equipment for your listening space. Rooms of different sizes will benefit from different systems. If I move, am I expected to completely redesign my hi-fi system if the room it’s in is a different size or shape?
When Does it Stop?
I’ve already said that I fall on the record-collecting side of the aisle when it comes to how I spend my money as a record collector. I recently bought speakers that cost 3x as much as the pair I had used for years. Do they sound 3x better? Absolutely not. Don’t get me wrong, there is an improvement, but despite the relatively low cost of my set-up, I am already getting into the area of diminishing returns. For the price of those speakers, I could have purchased dozens of records.
So what’s the solution? An algorithm of sorts is what many people end up leaning towards. There should be some type of correlation between the value of your collection and the amount of money you spend on your listening equipment. This is far from a perfect method but perhaps the one I agree with the most. I think it is perhaps a little silly to have a vinyl listening set-up that costs you $300 when you’ve spent $5,000 on records. At that point, your records probably deserve better. But there’s certainly a limit to this as it’s much easier to acquire records slowly over time than it is to acquire equipment.
I think people should know what’s possible when it comes to what good equipment sounds like. If you’ve only listened to an album on the speakers in your Honda Civic, listening to it on a proper pair of speakers can be a revelation. If you can, test some high-quality audio equipment and be honest about whether or not you can hear the difference.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the music.