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High-end audio

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High-end audio equipment is purported by the manufacturers to be the best, regardless of what it might turn out to cost. High-end audio equipment can be extremely expensive. It is sometimes referred to as cost-no-object equipment. Owners of high-end audio are 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).

Debate

There is a debate within the audiophile community involving the sonic characteristics of accessories and tertiary equipment.

At the core of much of this debate is the limit of human hearing. While it can be clearly shown with basic electrical engineering that accessories such as audio cables (which we will focus on for this discussion) do modify the signal going through them, some argue that the modifications to the signal cannot be heard. At the center of this issue are a limited number of experiments that have been performed in attempts to determine limits to human hearing. The results from experiments that have been performed generally come up with different limits to human hearing that vary based on the test variables. These experiments generally do not deal with complex signals (such as music) and thus are not valid for extrapolation to this debate.

The second part of the debate stems from claims that are made without direct measurements to support the claims. While basic electrical characteristics such as resistance, capacitance, and inductance can (and usually are) easily measured, other cable characteristics related to vibration, noise rejection (electromagnetic and electric field) can be more difficult to measure. As a result, many manufacturers rely on listening tests to verify the final product designs. Listening tests are frequently performed by industry experts such as magazine contributors who express their opinion about the products in a similar fashion to any other type of product review. Other tests are performed in "blind" testing environments that compare two different cables without the listener knowing which type of cable they are listening to. Some of these tests report that the listener did not hear a statistical difference, and other tests report that the listener did hear a statistical difference. The subject of how these tests are performed is the subject of debat as well.

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, size of sound stage vs. depth, etc. etc. A theoretically perfect high-end audio system would create the illusion, with eyes closed, of the musical performers actually being present and performing right in front of the listener. 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 a live performance by actual musicians in the listening room. This is obviously more important with performances involving acoustical instruments and without studio manipulations of vocals.

Professional recording studios

Professional recording studios seldom use high-end audio gear for monitoring recording sessions. Instead, studios use players, amplifiers, signal processors, and speakers, built to very high standards by the professional audio industry.

Publications that interested parties can peruse include Stereophile (US), Absolute Sound (US), Hifi News (UK) and Hifi + (UK).

See also

(Alphabetical within category)

Historic companies

  • Akai, a Japanese audio manufacturer reaching prominence in the '80s.
  • Advent, speakers and other projects by audio pioneer Henry Kloss
  • Audio Research Corp, Since 1970 to the present, manufacturer of HIGH DEFINITION® vacuum tube and solid state audio equipment.
  • Conrad-Johnson, makers of high-end amplifiers and pre-amplifiers.
  • Denon, pioneers of high-end consumer and pro audio
  • Dynaco, a Vintage Amplifier and preamplifier manufacturer. The Brand survives today with a different organization.
  • Kenwood, a Japanese audio manufacturer made high end gear in the late 1970s up to the early 1990s with mainly amplifiers and tuners, but also a turntable and a cd-player.
  • Kyocera, a manufacturer of CD players, cassette decks, turntables, receivers.
  • Marantz, an early electronics manufacturer; continues in some form in the present day.
  • New Acoustic Dimension(or NAD), a multi-National high fidelity audio company. Revolutionised the acceptance of high-end audio in the 80s.
  • Maxell, a manufacturer of high end recording cassette tape media.
  • Nakamichi, a high-end audio cassette and amplifier company, continues in some form to the present day.
  • Onkyo, a Japanese audio manufacturer reaching prominence in the 1980s.
  • ReVox, a 1980s high-end audio company known for cassette decks, tuners, receivers, amplifiers, speakers, and continues operations in the present day.
  • Rotel, a Japanese audio equipment manufacturer.
  • Sansui, a Japanese audio company reaching prominence in the late 1970s; continues in some form in the present day.
  • Tandberg, a high-end audio company in electronics, including cassette decks and tuners.
  • Teac, a manufacturer of high end audio equipment.
  • Technics, Japanese audio manufacturer reaching prominence in the '80s, subsidiary of Panasonic.
  • Thorens, a historic Swiss manufacturer of phonographs; and more recently, amplifiers.
  • Yamaha, a Japanese conglomerate and audio and musical instrument manufacturer.

General

Cables

Earphones

Headphones

Speakers

Recording equipment

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