HIGH-END AUDIO

'High-end audio' is a term used to describe equipment that is purported by the manufacturers to be the best, regardless of the price.

Contents

Definition of 'high end'

Professional recording studios

Costs

Controversy

See also

External links

Definition of 'high end'

''High-end audio'' can refer to the build quality of the components, but more specifically, refers to the ability to reproduce a recording with the highest fidelity to the original performance that has been committed to the recording.
Typical qualitative attributes that are scaled by audiophile publications and experts are:

★ accuracy vs. warmth

★ tonal color vs. speed

★ timbre

★ size of sound stage vs. depth (spatial origins)

★ clarity

★ pace

★ timing
A theoretically perfect high-end audio system would create the illusion of the listener being present in the performance venue and with the musical performers performing on stage. There would be no sonic signature that imparts any clue as to the fact that the performance is a playback of a recording instead of witnessing a live performance given by the actual musicians in the particular performance venue. This is obviously more important with performances involving acoustic instruments and without studio manipulations of vocals.
It is important to note that the term ''high-end'' is not always synonymous with ''audiophile equipment''[1][2][3]

Professional recording studios

Professional recording studios seldom use high-end audio gear for mixing and monitoring recording sessions. Instead, studios use players, amplifiers, signal processors, and speakers that are built to very high standards. These speakers are referred to as studio monitors and are specially crafted to produce very accurate sound, reflecting exactly what is on the recording. Most high-end speakers will tend to add color or tone shaping the music so that it sounds "better". For this reason studio monitors must be used to ensure that changes being made to the audio are accurately represented to the engineer.
Publications that interested parties can peruse include Stereophile (US), The Absolute Sound (US), Hifi News (UK) and Hifi + (UK).

Costs

High-end audio equipment can be extremely expensive. It is sometimes referred to as cost-no-object equipment. Owners of high-end audio tend to be either audiophiles or conspicuous consumers. Audiophiles run the gamut from budget to high-end in terms of equipment price range and are primarily concerned with the quality of music reproduction (accuracy with personal preferences). However, even though the retail price of the product may be high, regular components, circuit boards and wires are often used inside. This gives the manufacturer very high premiums, which is essential as these devices are not sold in large quantities.

Controversy

The high-end audio market is often criticized for very expensive products, misleading allegations, or even snake oil. Although the mechanism of hearing is generally understood, the brain is involved in the process and that makes it subjective and difficult to define. Psychoacoustics is a division of acoustics that studies this field.
Measurements can also be deceiving and high or low figures of certain technical characteristics do not necessarily offer a good representation of how the equipment sounds. For example valve amplifiers produce great amounts of total harmonic distortion, but the type of this distortion (2nd harmonic) is not as disturbing as higher order distortion produced by transistors. [4]
The items most often questioned are accessories such as cables utilizing exotic materials and construction geometries, cable stands for lifting them off the floor (as a way to control airborne induced vibrations), connectors, sprays and other tweaks. [5] [6] Some reviewers have begun talking of the ''listening feeling''. Listening to the equipment can be more pleasing and the ''perceived'' audio quality may in fact be better when the listener knows that he is listening to an expensive high-end system (placebo effect).
Manufacturers spend a great effort in designing good looking products, sometimes instead of trying to maximize the audio quality, which should be the primary concern. A typical valve amplifier, for example, has its vacuum tubes exposed outside the case of the device, as many potential customers find the glowing tubes attractive. Some claim this is a trade-off with audio quality as hiding the tubes inside the case protects them from electromagnetic interference, others that heat dissipation is better thus prolonging tube life.

See also

★ Audio quality measurement

★ Audiophile

★ AV Receivers

★ European triode festival

★ High-end audio cables

★ High fidelity

★ List of high-end audio equipment manufacturers

★ Professional audio

★ Studio monitors

External links

★ pure-hifi.info - Resource site for high-end audio, technology and music groupe, Manufacturer Links.

★ Audiophile Manufacturer Links - Extensive quantity of high-end audio manufacturer links.

★ The Audio Circuit - Information on and user reviews of loudspeakers, headphones, amplifiers, and playback equipment.

★ Stereophile Magazine

★ Enjoy the Music.com - High-end audio equipment & music reviews, show reports, and educational information.

★ Stereo|411 - Resource site for high end audio and video manufacturers, dealers and equipment.

★ eCoustics.com - Resource site indexing reviews of high end audio and video gear (and more) from around the web.

★ Testing audio fidelity with absolute dynamic range

★ theaudiocritic.com - A hifi magazine. See Issue 26, Fall 2000 article 'The 10 Biggest Lies in Audio'