I would just like to deviate a little from the normal style of my articles and take the opportunity with this one to put forward some musings as to exactly which component within a hi-fi system is the most important!

Sources For Courses

To this extent there are those who will put forward the view that the source component (turntable, compact disc player, DAC, streamer, FM tuner, etc) is the most important part of the system as it is the provider of that all important signal at the very beginning of the chain. Indeed if you are an audiophile of a certain age you may well remember that old Linn mantra of “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” True to an extent I will grant you but let’s see where this train of thought goes!

Speakers Corner

Then of course, perhaps the biggest perceivable difference to a hi-fi system may well be entirely down to the loudspeaker choice and how it interacts with not only the rest of the system components but also (very importantly) the room within which they are being used.

Very often rooms are entirely the cause of lousy sounding hi-fi systems (this subject may well be worth a blog all of its very own!). Of all the components in your set-up, the loudspeaker’s job is probably the most difficult in a never ending battle against the laws of physics to reproduce that believable three dimensional sound-space that hangs in the air in front of you from a relatively small box. And of course just to baffle you even more, there are so many of them!

Control Freaks

Next comes the amplifier conundrum. Does it drive your loudspeakers adequately? More importantly is it degrading that all important delicate music signal before it even reaches your loudspeakers. It undoubtedly is a very important part of the system chain enabling the selection of signals from various inputs and sending them on for the speakers to do whatever they can with them. Skimp here and be damned.

It’s Just A Piece of Wire Isn’t It?

Loudspeaker cables and interconnects are also very important to consider being as they are essentially the finishing touch to the system chain. They need to be compatible with the system components and most importantly not do any harm to the music signal. Do you mix and match cable brands or should you stick with one manufacturer for all. That will quite probably only become apparent upon careful experimenting and listening.

All of these are very important questions to be taken into account and all will need very careful consideration whilst you choose your new hi-fi system or upgrade your existing one.

But here’s the thing…

Isn’t the most important part of the hi-fi system and potentially it’s limiting factor entirely down to your choice of music and the quality of the recording that you play on it?

I would argue that yes, using that old Linn “Garbage in, Garbage out” theory, the ultimate source of the hi-fi system becomes the music played on it. For example, this will more often than not be on my preferred vinyl format and the record that prompted this little rant which is… Alpha by legendary prog rock supergroup, Asia. Now this album ain’t gonna sound good on anything ‘cos it sounds LOUSY! It’s a real shame as in there somewhere are some very pretty tunes by some top notch musicians. We have the collected talents of Geoff Downes from Buggles and Yes, Steve Howe also from Yes, Carl Palmer from ELP and John Wetton formerly of Family and King Crimson, so it should be all good. Sadly, that is not the case.

The sound is bright and flat with no depth, no width and no perceptible bass on it at all. I have played this album so many times on so many great and good hi-fi systems and have never ever got it to sound good. You would never want to use this one as a demonstration album.

Oh well… at least the beautiful cover artwork by prog legend, Roger Dean, is great. I think if the cover art was lousy I would probably have binned it a long time ago! It is still one of my guilty pleasures though and gets an outing every once in a while- if only to remind myself how good it could have been.

The Flip Side

Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons…Timeless classic!

Now this is the polar opposite of the album by Asia. This little gem is the brand new album from Beth Gibbons called Lives Outgrown. And both the music and the sound quality are stunning. You may know Beth as the singer with genre defining trip hoppers, Portishead.

Here she collaborates with Lee Harris of TalkTalk and the resulting album is all at once eerie, spooky and well suited to the time of year. There is a little bit of Pink Floyd in here too and lyrically the album seems centered on fighting personal battles and then whatever may come after! The overall package is great too, coming in a retro effect tip-on gatefold sleeve with a studio booklet, art print and gatefold lyric sheet with pictures of Beth in blurry reflective mode.

One to file next to Out Of Season and in between Kate Bush and TalkTalk. As I touched upon before the sound quality of this album is amazing and the pressing is faultless. That bass thump at the end of the first track on side two “Reaching Out” is just awesome. The real star of the show is just how well the vocals are recorded. There is space aplenty with a goosebump inducing palpable sense of reality As such this is the kind of album that will make your hi-fi system really sing. And that is what I mean when I say that the most important part of your hi-fi system and the gateway to the best musical experience will always be the music you play on it… I rest my case m’lud!