Would you face the winter season without at the very least getting a look under the hood? Unlikely. In some ways, a stereo system is much like a car...
(Reprinted from issue 57 of UHF Magazine. To purchase the issue, click here. Or click here to subscribe to UHF)
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Ever get the feeling that your stereo system doesn't sound the way it used to? That what seemed magic to you six months or a year ago now sounds...well, banal? Is it because you've been to too many stores and shows, and been spoiled by what you've heard?
Or is your system really headed downhill?
That last point may actually be true. Amplifiers and electronics can gradually deteriorate for a number of reasons, even if they don't have tubes (which are of course another story). Phono pickups get bent out of shape. Adjustments of all sorts go out of whack. As for speakers...
But in many a case there's nothing radically wrong with your system. It doesn't sound as good for the same reason your car hesitates before pulling away from a stoplight when it hasn't seen the inside of a garage for a while. It needs a little TLC.
And it's possible that you can give it some of that care yourself. In cases when you can't, you can at least spot the trouble, and enlist the help of a mechanic...sorry, a technician.
What we describe in this article is not something that can be done just once and then forgotten about. Keep the article around, and do this once a year, perhaps twice a year if you have a really good system.
Most of this advice can be followed without spending a lot of money, and in some cases without spending any money at all. Perhaps you'll still want to drop $5000 on a new preamp, but do all of this first.
Start the exercise when you've got some time available, when it's raining, and a stiff, cold wind is stripping the last of the leaves from the trees, and you'd rather hide under the bed than go out.
Just before you begin, do a critical listening test, using recordings you like, and which you already owned back when (it seems to you) your system sounded somehow more exciting. Be sure to take notes, just as we do when we're reviewing equipment at UHF. If we didn't do that we wouldn't know what to write afterwards. Your own notes will help you evaluate the effect of what you do.
And now...time to do it.
EDITOR'S NOTE: there are six pages of detailed tuneup instructions, involving CD players, turntables, amplifiers and speakers, plus some aspects you may not have thought of. Not only did we write this article, but we followed our own instructions. And it was worth every minute we spent!Would you like to read the full text? Click here to order the print edition of UHF No. 57.
Or is your system really headed downhill?
That last point may actually be true. Amplifiers and electronics can gradually deteriorate for a number of reasons, even if they don't have tubes (which are of course another story). Phono pickups get bent out of shape. Adjustments of all sorts go out of whack. As for speakers...
But in many a case there's nothing radically wrong with your system. It doesn't sound as good for the same reason your car hesitates before pulling away from a stoplight when it hasn't seen the inside of a garage for a while. It needs a little TLC.
And it's possible that you can give it some of that care yourself. In cases when you can't, you can at least spot the trouble, and enlist the help of a mechanic...sorry, a technician.
What we describe in this article is not something that can be done just once and then forgotten about. Keep the article around, and do this once a year, perhaps twice a year if you have a really good system.
Most of this advice can be followed without spending a lot of money, and in some cases without spending any money at all. Perhaps you'll still want to drop $5000 on a new preamp, but do all of this first.
Start the exercise when you've got some time available, when it's raining, and a stiff, cold wind is stripping the last of the leaves from the trees, and you'd rather hide under the bed than go out.
Just before you begin, do a critical listening test, using recordings you like, and which you already owned back when (it seems to you) your system sounded somehow more exciting. Be sure to take notes, just as we do when we're reviewing equipment at UHF. If we didn't do that we wouldn't know what to write afterwards. Your own notes will help you evaluate the effect of what you do.
And now...time to do it.
EDITOR'S NOTE: there are six pages of detailed tuneup instructions, involving CD players, turntables, amplifiers and speakers, plus some aspects you may not have thought of. Not only did we write this article, but we followed our own instructions. And it was worth every minute we spent!Would you like to read the full text? Click here to order the print edition of UHF No. 57.
PARTIAL TEXT: The Music Revolution, A Fall Tuneup, Dynaudio Contour 1.3, Gershman X-1/SW-1, Coincident Super Triumph, Oskar Aulos, KR 18 BSI
FULL TEXT: Castle Inversion 15, Farewell Divx, State of the Art