Music lovers, Audiophiles, Value minded Citizens, lend me your ears...er, first perhaps, eyes. We would like to introduce ourselves here at the Hi-Fi Stereo shoppe, at CompleteAVguys of South Glens Falls. If you ever thought, "wouldn't it be great to own a nice stereo", here's a word about who we are (Audiophiles and Electronics nuts), what our job is, The Audio Club, and hopefully, why you may be interested in occasionally dropping in, and reading our blog.
Who we are personally; On the custom side, Jim and Tom are absolute masters of their trade, with a list of some of the most distinguished and satisfied customers you're likely to find. For the Hi-Fi store however, it's Tim and I (Mark), and we are both seasoned veterans of the retail electronics industry, and two channel stereo specialists. Tim O'Hare, formally of "House of Hi-Fi", The Audio Den, Audio Genesis, and a variety of pro-audio band tech positions. Myself, formerly Tweeter, a Hi-Fi Store Owner (from the mid-west), a Kenwood military division factory representative, and military Audio Club Manager. Tim is a vinyl nut and our resident professor of all things analog, particularly turntable and cartridges set-ups. I'm more of a digital guy. But we're both first and foremost, Audiophiles.
So, what exactly is an Audiophile? There are some varied opinions on this, but being one myself, I can say what it means to me. An audiophile is someone who really cares about the quality of the sound of music. Whether live or through a playback system. An audiophile is usually someone for whom music is important enough to buy or collect it, and to take the time to listen to it. And for an Audiophile, listening can be a more critical or personal experience, and can be fulfilling, uplifting, even inspiring. Attending live performances is usually a priority, however, if the venue is acoustically poor (like a hockey arena)...not so much. Also, an audiophile absolutely has to have a quality playback system, so favorite artists can be enjoyed on a regular basis. (unless the audiophile is rich enough to hire favourite artists to stop by and play for them personally...which unfortunately is NOT ME...and compared to the cost of that, even the most RIDICULOUS high end audio system...IS CHEAP). For some of us, listening to music can be a sort of a high, not unlike that of runner’s high, sexual climax, or even drugs. So try to imagine being able to achieve such a high state of mind, but while safely relaxing in front of your stereo for as long as you like, and of course, not doing anything dangerous or illegal...or for the RICH AUDIOPHILES not having to cater to some (egotistical guest snob sauntering around their home). As hobbies go, it doesn’t get much better than that.
And hopefully by adding this blog we can help the experience of finding and buying equipment, more meaningful and appreciable, especially for those of us really striving to put together a truly satisfying music or home theatre system. And to help you make more informed choices about which pieces you may connect together, for better system synergy. Ideally, this will result in making your system greater than the sum of its parts, so it can be more accurately defined, as an audiophile system! Even if you’re not an audiophile yourself, it is our hope, that you will still reap the benefits of owning a quality audio system, especially in terms of cost of ownership, as quality is always less costly in the long run! …not to mention, better performing, more reliable and enjoyable to use…
For me, I am always in pursuit of the absolute best possible sound achievable. So I like to try and to compare, lots of new stuff. So, while I'm on my journey, I will scribble down some notes about what I learn in the hope that maybe some of this will help someone else who is also fledgling along in putting together a truly satisfying, high value system. The founder of this company has always placed great importance in making what we offer very high value, or "value added" as he likes to say. It is for this reason, that we try to “cherry pick” the very best examples of sound quality/vice price, and from the small list of "better manufacturers". This is gear that is not just great build quality, but also of great design, from some of the true legends and pioneers of the audio industry itself, like Paul Klipsch & John Curl....I know name dropping (guilty as charged). But, so that when you are able to use one of these exceptional components, you can achieve the ultimate in performance, value, and long term satisfaction. This is one of the reasons I love my job. My job, is essentially, to do people favours and watch them enjoy great satisfaction. It's not a bad way to make a living!
Our Job; One aspect of our job is lots of research and equipment testing. Many standards of measurement are used in the comparison of gear that we may decide to sell. One thing we look for is components that get closest to the sound of the original music. Especially for digital, component designs that have made the least negative impact, for the least degradation possible, to the original source. Today, due in large part to the “portability” and “on-line accessibility” of music, there are almost virtually endless degrades to sound integrity, and ultimately quality, that are manifesting themselves, whether the music has been uploaded, downloaded, converted, copied at different rates, transferred to/from tape, aluminum or vinyl, broadcast, or digitized and compressed into an I-whatever, so that we can hear it wherever. Unfortunately, in many of these cases, for us to get what sounds like “the original mastering” even with all of our techno-wizardry, it can daunting to say the least! So I also look for products which help us get it to playback the way it was originally intended. So here in blog format, I will comment about some of these other technologies, some of which can be very effective in helping us maintain that increasingly elusive, musical integrity.
The Audio Club; if you appreciate music, and maybe would like to appreciate some new music or a different musical style, every Thursday night from 5:00 - 7:00, and Saturday morning from 10:00 - 12:00 we meet here in "the loft" for strictly the enjoyment of music. People bring different kinds, Jazz, Classical, Blues, Rock, etc., on album or vinyl, and we listen, enjoy, and socialize about it. Fun stuff, everyone is welcome, please join us!
Blog Topics: As it's really about the music, we will be doing reviews of audiophile recordings of all musical styles. We will review both new and vintage equipment which can sometimes be of value (and by the way - we have some vintage gear here for sale), and blogs about various interesting things related to the stereo and home theatre industry.
So hopefully this blog will be useful to you. Please feel free to comment, or if you want more personal, system specific advice, please stop in and see us here at CompleteAVguys, 47 Main St. South Glens Falls, NY. Please see our web page for store hours at www.completeavguys.com
