Common Audiophile Misconceptions

Every craft has its folklore, and high-end audio has more than most. Here are the misconceptions we meet most often, with what careful listening and basic acoustics suggest instead.

“More watts means more volume and better sound.” Doubling an amplifier’s power adds only about three decibels, a clear but modest step up in loudness. Loudspeaker sensitivity matters far more. A sensitive loudspeaker driven by a few good watts can play louder and sound cleaner than an insensitive one on a large amplifier. What an amplifier does in its first watt matters more than its maximum figure.

“Burn-in explains every change.” Some components do change with use. Loudspeaker suspensions loosen, and some capacitors settle. Listeners also adapt to a new sound, and the two effects are easy to confuse. If you want to know whether something has changed, take a break of a few days and compare against a reference you know well, at the same level.

“Better sound starts with a better component.” In most systems, loudspeaker placement and the room offer the biggest improvements, and they cost little or nothing. Turn to the components once the room and set-up have been sorted.

“Higher sample rates always sound better.” CD resolution already covers the range of human hearing on paper. High-resolution releases can sound better, but often because they come from a different, sometimes better, master. Compare the same master at matched levels before drawing conclusions about the format.

“Measurements tell you everything,” or its opposite, “Measurements tell you nothing.” Both are wrong. Measurements reliably reveal noise, distortion, frequency response and stability problems, and a component that measures badly in these areas rarely sounds right. They do not yet describe everything listeners value, such as how a system handles complex, dynamic music in a real room. Use both measurements and listening.

“Cables transform a system.” The basics of resistance, good terminations and sensible routing are real and worth getting right. Beyond them, differences tend to be small and system-dependent. Listen before you spend heavily.

“Tubes are always warm and soft.” The character of a tube amplifier comes from its circuit, its transformers and its tubes. A well-designed one can be neutral, fast and precise.

One habit protects against almost all of these: change one thing at a time, match levels, and give yourself time. Read this before your next upgrade, not after.