Five things to consider

This post presents five main considerations when first getting into (or rethinking your approach to) an audio system. Note that I will have other posts that expands on each of these main themes. The goal of this post is simply to state what they are so they can be looked at as a whole.

1. How much money do you want (or have) to spend? Sounds obvious, and it is – however, although audio systems can and typically do sound better with the more money you spend, the amount you spend on an audio system has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of enjoyment you will experience. You do need a starting point as you will allocate your budget across the different component(s) that will comprise your system.

2. Where do you want to listen to music? In which room(s) will you listen to your music? Your living room? Your bedroom? The basement? A dedicated listening room? The main point here is that the size of the room can potentially have an impact on what you purchase. For example, if you will listen in your 1,000 sq foot great room, don’t expect a 4 inch pair of speakers to fill that room with music and booming bass. You cannot escape the laws of physics.

3. How do you want to listen to music? With my ears, thank you very much. This consideration is more about things like – do you want to listen to music critically as a solo experience? Do you want to have your system in the living room for all in your family to share? Do you just want background music for activities like cooking or cleaning?

4. One time purchase or will this be the start of a hobby that turns into a journey? This could be restated: What is your goal for your audio system? Some people just want a music “appliance” – set it and forget it. Others want to build out a system of individual components and/or continue to upgrade their components – I call this the hobby part although there are those who do not like using that term – I am not one of those people. But, if you think you will be bitten by the “upgrade bug” it could influence what you initially purchase.

5. What will be the source of your music? I am old enough to remember when there used to only be one answer to this question: a record player. Today, you can still purchase a record player (excuse me, a turntable!). And, CDs are still a very popular format. But digital streaming is huge today as is purchasing digital music for download to your local device(s). And tape is making a comeback! Based on the source of your music, your purchase decisions will vary.

Sound complex? It doesn’t have to be. That is what is so fun about this hobby and something that all of us in this hobby share in common – enjoyment of music. From there, you can get as technical and complex as you want. But you do not have to. As I noted in the first consideration, the amount of money you spend has absolutely nothing to do with your level of enjoyment (but it can help and each of us has a “back of mind” $$ amount for what we think is reasonable for us to spend).

Look for future posts where I go into each of these considerations in detail – links to be added here as I create those posts.