The 25 Rules Of Hi-Fi

MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum

Help Support MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

User211

Well-known member
Joined
May 13, 2006
Messages
4,580
Reaction score
4
Location
Bristol, England
1. The bigger the sound system the better.

2. The more powerful the sound system the better.

3. There is no such thing as a sound system that is too big.

4. There is no such thing as a sound system that is too powerful.

5. You will always find that no matter how big you build the system it is never quite big enough.

6. You will always find that no matter how much power you have there never seems to be quite enough.

7. No matter how deep and powerful the bass sounds, it will always seem to be not quite deep enough and not quite powerful enough.

8. No matter how clear and detailed the treble sounds, you will always feel that it could be improved.

9. Achieving audio perfection is absolutely impossible no matter how much money you spend.

10. No matter how much money you spend you will always feel that the system is not quite as good as it could be.

11. If you think that your system sounds perfect then there must be something seriously wrong with it or something seriously wrong with you, or both.

12. All your friends think that your system sounds much better than you do.

13. The longer you listen to your own system the worse it seems to sound.

14. Any dissatisfaction with a new system, no matter how slight, will always become greater as time goes on.

15. Any new pieces of equipment added to the system will always sound excellent initially, but nowhere near as good when you get used to them.

16. Regularly listening to poor equipment for extended periods is good because it seems to make good equipment sound much better.

17. Regularly listening to good equipment for extended periods seems to make poor equipment sound absolutely dreadful and probably worse than it really is.

18. Any person's opinion on the sound quality of a system is completely worthless because someone else will have a different opinion.

19. Any alterations you make to the system to improve it, no matter how extensive, will never improve it to the extent you wanted it to.

20. No matter how good your system sounds, there will always be someone else with a system that sounds better.

21. You will always detect a difference between the sound qualities of two identical systems and never know why they sound different.

22. Any attempt to match different makes of equipment together will never work out quite as you originally intended.

23. Improving any individual part of the system will always make some other part of the system seem worse than it was before.

24. If you build a big listening room you will be very pleased with the result, but when you get used to it, you will convince yourself that the room needs to be bigger.

25. An infinitely huge attempt to achieve perfection would at best only produce a system that was infinitesimally close to perfection, but still not perfect.

Can we make it 50?:)
 
Last edited:
Hi Justin,

You forgot one.

Most, if not all rooms, need some level of acoustic treatment to optimize the sound.

Gordon
 
sounds like somebody needs to lay of the caffeine and chill.
If I felt that way I would get rid of all my equipment.
 
I nicked it Fish - I just thought it was very funny. Brit humour, you see. Apparently it originally came from the Tannoy forum...
 
I don't agree with 13 - why is it that if I'm able to sneak an hours' listening time, then I'm completely dissatisfied with the sound for about 58 minutes of that, and in the final two minutes it starts to sound really really good!
 
"All your friends think that your system sounds much better than you do"

I think my system sounds pretty great, but most of the (non-audiophile) people I know will listen for a moment, say "it sounds good" in a disinterested manner and move the conversation to a different topic.
 
I think my system sounds pretty great, but most of the (non-audiophile) people I know will listen for a moment, say "it sounds good" in a disinterested manner and move the conversation to a different topic.

Then you still have some room to improve. When my non-audiophile friends hear my system for the first time, their jaw drops in disbelief and sheer amazement.
 
Then you still have some room to improve. When my non-audiophile friends hear my system for the first time, their jaw drops in disbelief and sheer amazement.


yeah what system ??? lololol
 
here's one of my faves...


"If you are not a rich audiophile, you must immediately become one."



(This needs to be read in context. It was taken from a review written in saitre form, by Anthony Cordesman, I believe, from a 1980s review of big-bucks Infinity RS1's, IIRC. Quite applicable in any era, but only if you have your tongue in your cheek, like the author did.)
 
Then you still have some room to improve. When my non-audiophile friends hear my system for the first time, their jaw drops in disbelief and sheer amazement.
"Jaw dropping" - an irritating expression (sorry, Rich) I try to avoid. There are many others. "Blows away" is one. "Lifted a veil" is another - is someone getting married?
 
veils are more than just at weddings Brian - think of a dance with many veils, where each one lifted reveals a bit more of what is truly there.

you might not like what's there, but it's revealed anyway :D
 
Rules to live by

Not sure why you guys think that list is funny. :confused:

Those are rules to live by!

I have them taped to the wall of the dedicated, air-conditioned equipment room next to the dedicated audio room my house was built around.

Don’t know why anyone would do otherwise :p








[Sorta, maybe, just kidding :devil: ]
 
"Jaw dropping" - an irritating expression (sorry, Rich) I try to avoid. There are many others. "Blows away" is one. "Lifted a veil" is another - is someone getting married?

Understood, Brian. There are lots of descriptive terms that get over-used in this hobby as people try to describe the amazing sound produced by great audio systems. But, having actually witnessed more than a couple of people become slack-jawed and speechless on first hearing my system, I can't personally think of a better descriptive term to get my meaning across in a short sentence. So, despite your annoyance, I'll stick with the terminology that fits.
 
Their jaw drops at the sound from those tiny cubes, right?

:ROFL:

The only way we're gonna get Rich to post his system is to damage his ego so hard, he'll have to.:devil:

It could just be, Rich, that they jaw drop in utter disbelief at how bad it sounds, given the cash you've spent...:D?

Which may not be more than a few $$$, I grant you:)

Risky post, I know.;)
 
Back
Top