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    Is Hi-Fi For You?
    Is Hi-Fi For You?
    Is Hi-Fi For You?
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Is Hi-Fi For You?

    By John O'Reilly

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    About this ebook

    Is Hi-Fi for you? It may not be. You may never know. Unless of course, you read this little book.

    Do you enjoy recorded music? Should the answer be positive, we are on firmer ground. What this unique little book does is allow you to explore what better sound reproduction of your favourite music means for you. The book then provides an important guide as to how you can acquire better sound reproduction at modest cost.

    Should you wish for even better high-fidelity sound reproduction, costs are considerably higher. Even so, this highly readable book provides ways of achieving astonishingly fine sound reproduction for a fraction of the usual cost. And one too that the family can buy into.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTroubador Publishing Ltd
    Release dateOct 21, 2021
    ISBN9781800466722
    Is Hi-Fi For You?
    Author

    John O'Reilly

    John O’Reilly is a performing arts presenter whose credits include producing: The Bolshoi Ballet  The Mariinsky Theatre (Kirov) Ballet The Mikhailovksy Theatre Ballet. John was the executive director of the special care facility Recovery Acres Society. He is now the president and owner of Harlequin Holmes. 

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      Book preview

      Is Hi-Fi For You? - John O'Reilly

      9781800466722.jpg

      Copyright © 2021 John O’Reilly

      The moral right of the author has been asserted.

      Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

      Matador®

      9 Priory Business Park,

      Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,

      Leicestershire. LE8 0RX

      Tel: 0116 279 2299

      Email: [email protected]

      Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador

      Twitter: @matadorbooks

      ISBN 9781800466722

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Matador® is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

      Acknowledgement

      The assistance of Stephanie Carr at Matador in the preparation of this book for publication is gratefully acknowledged.

      Contents

      PREFACE

      1.HI-FI IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

      2.THE COST OF ENJOYMENT

      3.WHAT IS HIGH-FIDELITY (HI-FI)?

      4.THE KIT, THE DEALER AND THE RACK

      5.LOUDSPEAKERS: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

      6.BUDGETS AND A SECRET UNTOLD

      7.HI-FI’S BEST-KEPT SECRETS

      8.THE VINYL DEN

      9.PRE-LOVED AND VINTAGE HI-FI KIT

      10.A SUMMARY OF SORTS

      EPILOGUE

      PREFACE

      Music is the staff of life. Memorable concerts, operas, dimly lit clubs and live performances spring to mind. Most of the time, however, it is to recorded music that we turn our head and ears. The source of this great music may be our laptop or smartphone. It scarcely matters since the music sounds just great whatever it is played on.

      Most people, of course, are aware that this great music will sound even better were they to plug a pair of inexpensive headphones into their laptop or phone. Should you do so, it will be the start of your exploration of better sound reproduction of your favourite music. You will be amazed at how much more you will enjoy the music. Musical enjoyment is the name of the game. It really is that simple and there for the taking.

      In our head, we have a highly sophisticated and delicate audio-sensory system – think of it as our ears and our brain. Our ears and brain commonly have to cope with terrible recordings and terrible playback systems of our favourite music. They do so uncomplainingly to provide us with, on the face of it, unexpected listening pleasure. What decent recordings and a decent sound reproduction system do is make our listening pleasure that much easier for our ears and brain to process. It is that simple – it sounds better, much better.

      What this unique little book does is to help you along the way in your musical journey. The reader is centre stage throughout. The signposts are clear. In this listening pleasure journey, you will finally discover whether hi-fi – high-fidelity sound reproduction – is really for you.

      Disclaimer: The author has no financial interests in any audio company mentioned in the text, save that he has spent a considerable amount of money on their products.

      CHAPTER ONE

      HI-FI IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

      First of all, we need to be clear as to what hi-fi is. By hi-fi, we mean high-fidelity sound reproduction of pre-recorded speech or music. Speech might be important to dramatists, theatre buffs, and the like. For most of us, however, it is from recorded music rather than the recorded spoken word that we will gain most pleasure. We can listen to either of course. That we would wish to listen to the reproduction of that music as faithfully as possible would seem to go without saying.

      But does it? A glance round the typical living room might reveal the presence of a large, flat-screen television set, quite an expensive item, and yet little visible evidence of any other sound reproduction system. None of the traditional boxes that we associate with hi-fi systems, the amplifiers and loudspeakers, will be present in the room. Certainly, nothing that our parents would have recognised. And thank goodness for that, I hear you say. Not only are these hi-fi ‘boxes’ notoriously expensive, but they can also be bulky and mess up an otherwise decent living room. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned the cables that could trip you up.

      Little wonder then, that hi-fi remains the preserve of a small number of white, elderly, middle-class men of the post-Second-World-War baby boomer generation. And they are dying out; their hearing has gone. In fact, quite a number of the baby boomer generation have already expired if I can judge by the wonderful jazz record collections I have seen and purchased second hand in pristine condition. Indeed, I am mindful that will also be my own fate: to leave behind a record collection in pristine condition.

      So, things might appear not to be looking so good for the pursuit of high-fidelity sound reproduction. Yet, hi-fi is a lot closer than you might think, to pick up on the chapter title. Yes, in recent years, a veritable revolution has been taking place in consumer electronics that promises to put better fidelity, if not high-fidelity, sound reproduction within immediate reach of a considerable number of people.

      And what might that be? The internet. What, could you be more specific? Internet streaming. You know how you can stream films from Netflix and other internet streaming service providers on your television, laptop, computer, or smartphone. You can do exactly the same with audio or music files from other internet providers such as Spotify. But my grandchildren have been doing this internet streaming business for years. What’s new here? Bear with me whilst I give you a couple of real-life examples.

      I chanced to bump into Darren the other day when he was listening to some YouTube music on his laptop. Darren is doing quite well in his new company’s sales department and sports a rather nice car out front. The headphones that he had plugged into his laptop looked very basic, and so I offered him my headphones to try out. Okay, he said. And how much did the ’phones cost you? My reply of fifty pounds was met with a pitying look. Darren was not impressed.

      As it happens, Darren has a younger sister Ashley who is training to be a nurse. Ashley was also listening to some music on her laptop through headphones that looked rather better than Darren’s. I asked what the music was to get the reply, Motown.

      I was surprised. How did you get into that?

      "Oh, my friends are into ’60’s and ’70’s Motown at the moment. It’s great. You can dance to it. It’s got

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