5 Hi-Fi Listening Room Habits for Healthy Audiophiles

Ive made major improvements to my music listening experience over the last year, some at no cost. The following distills the top five guidelines Ive followed to optimize my enjoyment.

1. Rip your CD collection: The last CD I played through my Pioneer DV-47ai Universal Player sounded flat, thin and hard; the last album I played through Airtunes sounded dimensional, full-bodied and airy. Whats the difference? Could be the CD optical format is flawed and by ripping the album to a hard drive and then sending the tunes wirelessly to my Airport Express and DAC Ive removed the CDs bad influence on the sonics.

2. Focus on the two front channels: Although I have one AV system and set of loudspeakers for both home theater and music, Ive sacrificed neither. My Vandersteen 1c front channels benefit from my Anthem MCA-2 stereo amplifier that is fed signals from my AV receiver for movies and video games and from my Rogue Audio 99 pre-amp for music whether from Airtunes, CD or vinyl. I overcome this AV hybrid hurdle with some interconnect splitters, in-line crossovers and the Rogues home theater bypass.

3. Buy Used: If youve ever salivated over a Musical Fidelity X-DAC v3 but coughed on its $1000 price tag, then Audiogons used and demo classified and auction marketplace has your cough drop. You can find almost any past or current hi-fi component on Audiogon for a fraction of the suggested retail price. I saved lots of cash on my Anthem MCA-2 amp and bought and sold my old Rogue 66 Pre-amp on Audiogon. Audiophiles are fickle and quick to sell components that just never synergize with their system or were replaced by the latest model.

4. Acoustic Treatments: The room you enjoy music and movies in is acoustically flawed. You can help your ailing room with DIY acoustic treatments that cost a fraction of their equivalent commercial products.

5. Measure Your Sonics: After installing your used stereo separates, ripping all your CDs and acoustically treating your early reflections youll want to measure your results. The measurements will point out problems in your room and peculiarities of your equipment. If you are lucky theyll reveal the benefits of your equipment and acoustic treatments with flatter frequency responses and faster reverberation decays.

What factors enter into your buying and building decisions when youre trying to better your listening experience for music and movies?

Father, Husband and Geek. My geeky interests have not changed since I was a kid. I still love comic books, anime, role-playing games, console video games, indie rock, imported toys and mecha models, bad American and great British sitcoms, and all the tech that lets me experience these hobbies to their fullest. Now that Im married with children, Ive had to strike a balance between supporting and pleasing my family and feeding my geekery hunger. Lucky for me, my wife is very accomodating and even geeks out with me on occasion (the ladies love Joss Whedons "Firefly"). My two year old likes anything that moves on the front projection screen and makes noise, so far she is easy to please. Geekwithfamily.com exists to enrich the lives of fellow geeks and the friends and family who put up with them.

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