HiFi on a Budget. Review on Choosing a Sound System

Title : Hi Fi on a budget

Review : The all in one systems with phony meaningless displays have been proliferating of late. While they add to the bottomline of the company, their sound generally sucks! So here are my couple of watts worth of advice if you are seriously want good sound and not flashy displays. Believe me - I've made many an amp and speakers myself. But my present gear is bought at the store since I no longer have time to pursue my hobbies. I'll happily tell you what all I own - if someone requests.

First some tips -

1) Don't watch a movie to judge the sound of a system - movies generally consist of loud noises. They will sound impressive whenever the volume is loud! It tells you nothing of the quality of sound.

2) Amplifiers - Don't be misled by a meaningless quantity called PMPO - its the RMS power at a specified distortion that is important. Anything below 1% distortion in an amplifier is very hard for the human ear to make out and most speakers have far higher distortion levels than that.

3) Remember - for an amp to sound twice as loud - it needs to put out 10 times more power. This means - a 100 watt amp is only twice as loud as a 10 watt amp. It also tells you that the difference in loudness between a 10 watt and 20 watt amp is barely perceptible. However, the larger amp can generally handle more dynamic range and plays better at high volumes. Don't believe me?? Remember - audio is/was my hobby - I know these things inside out.

4) Amplifier technology (Because of IC's this has literally saturated). Spending more in this area will not fetch you better sound. 5) Speakers are the weakest link in any system. Spending more here will get you better sound. HOWEVER - if you think that a 3 way system is better than a 2 way system - think again. You will have far better sound from a properly designed 2 way system than a 3 way one. Why? Because a proper crossover design is hugely complicated the moment one has to split sound passively into 3 frequency spectrums. It introduces all kinds of frequency response anomalies and phase shifts. In addition - almost any woofer upto 8 inch can easily handle upto 2Khz = and anything above it can be easily handled by a tweeter. There is no real reason to include a midrange - except as a sales tool to mislead the consumer.

Buying advice -

1) Get a receiver - the cheapest one you can find with bass treble controls. It serves as your switching center - so you can connect other devices such as TV, MP3 player, Game cube - etc to it and switch between them. Plus they have very high quality amplifiers and include a quality radio as well. This device almost never goes bad since it has no moving parts. Other components of the system can be replaced or updated - provided you have a receiver to hook it to. An Onkyo will sound NO different from a Sony in this department. One feature to look for is a ''tape monitor loop'' so you can connect an equalizer or some other device when the upgrade bug strikes you.

If you cannot afford a receiver - buy a locally made IC based amplifier from a chandni chowk type of place. Make sure its a design that does not use output capacitors - (ie - it uses a dual voltage supply design as opposed to a single voltage supply) and you will be fine. Designs based on the LM series of audio IC's from National work quite well.

2) Don't buy a regular CD player or a deck anymore - just get an MP3 player. If you have old tapes lying around - use your friends tape player to copy them to a computer and then compress them into MP3's. Any pentium level computer with a half decent soundcard is good enough for this task. Which MP3 player? - the cheapest and reliable one you can find. Digital technology sounds almost identical - no matter what the brand you go for. If you need to record live - use your computer's sound card! Its frequency response will beat any nakamichi tape deck any day - Leave alone the el cheapo ones sold in India. Software for sound recording is frequently included with the soundcards and can be found on the internet as well.

3) Speakers are a BIG problem - If you can - make your own - using Peerless woofer/tweeter combination. Bolton's are useless - Philips is slightly better in this area. Try to use a 2KHz crossover (make your own using designs that can be found on the internet). Its better to use cone tweeters rather than a cheap dome tweeter. Make the box out of 1/2 inch board and seal the box well - the sound will surprise you. Make sure you fill the insides well with glass wool. The key is not to leave any air gaps and don't put a large speaker in a small box - if space is limited - use a 6 inch woofer. But if you have to buy a speaker -

4) Sony floor standing speakers are generally quite good in the Indian context. I believe they are the best ones out there for their price. They sound the same or better than the high priced Bose's - no I am not anti bose - I myself own Bose 301's and quite like the sound. But Bose speakers cost too much..

And lastly - be kind to your neighbors - play softly!!