Brett Gideon introduces Tone’s hi-fi issue coverage with a general warm-up on the subject

Hi-fi is wide awake again after snoozing through the long, cold winter of the home theatre age, and it sounds better than ever. At Tone, we love hi-fi as much as any of our other technology fixations, and with the increased interest in the good old two-speaker system, we thought the time had come to celebrate stereo and all things that sound good enough to make the world a better place.

We love home theatre too, of course, but it seems that many music lovers have got over the whole HT thing. Unless you’re the movie buff from hell, it’s quite easy to get to the point where you’re totally happy with your HT but find that your 5.1 system just won’t do justice to your CD collection.

Two-channel systems will often sound better in stereo than HT systems at twice the money, which makes sense. After all, any HT system has to deal with processing and decoding complicated digital signals (both audio and video) and amplifying them over multiple channels, but a stereo system can be kept simple, so more of the build cost can be spent where it counts – making good music sound good.

Things haven’t changed all that much in the two-channel world in the last decade or so, but a look at the current contenders shows a few new (and some really old) technologies doing the rounds.

Amplifiers

Class A, AB and B solid state amplifiers still make up the bulk of the market. We’ve listened to amps at every price point over the last year or so, and there are some superb buys at the entry level that sound fabulous for the money. Class D amps are a recent innovation, providing massive power outputs in unfeasibly small cases while running ice cold. For example, Tone tested a Class D power amp last year that pumped out over 600 sweet watts per channel, so if you need to drive power-hungry speakers, this newish technology may be right up your street.

On the other hand, the ancient valve is back on the scene, with valve amps and hybrid valve/solid state products becoming more commonly available. I personally love the way valves sound, so a valve amp would definitely be on my audition list. You’re not going to get huge power outputs from a pure valve amp (unless you’ve got a pair of VTL Siegfrieds with 800 watts per side) but a moderately powered valve amp will do a surprisingly effective job of driving difficult speakers.

Click to the next page to carry on reading Stereo the Resurrection

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Sources

As far as sources go, the older high resolution formats (SACD and DVD-A) have more or less gone the way of the dodo, so you’re still looking at spinning CDs or playing good old vinyl albums. Don’t stress if the CD player you like doesn’t play SACD discs because you’ll probably end up buying CDs almost exclusively. Also don’t assume your current DVD player can do double duty as a CD player; it may sound tolerable but the audio quality will most likely be compromised compared to an equivalently priced CD player.

It doesn’t take much money to get a superb little CD player these days but the humble turntable is still a very compelling option. An old audio adage says something along the lines of “a turntable will outperform a CD player costing twice as much”, and I’d have to agree. There’s a purity of sound to vinyl that just rings my bell, but given that I love valves, maybe I’m living in the wrong millennium. At any rate, there are affordable turntables on the market (those, say, up to the $1000 level) that would be phenomenal additions to any stereo system, and vinyl is plentiful both locally and on the internet, so it’s not as odd a choice as it may initially seem.

Monitor Audio BR5 Floorstanders (Tone 62) and those little fellas over there are PSB Image B25 Stand Mount Speakers (Tone 53)

Speakers

Tone ran a group test of entry-level bookshelf speakers late last year, and our ongoing speaker reviews show that it’s actually quite hard to buy a bad speaker from a major manufacturer today. New Zealand consumers are able to buy speakers from an almost endless list of companies and the sheer value for money is amazing. Speakers have benefited from new thinking and controlling cabinet resonance has become an important consideration; extensive internal bracing is widespread, with curved cabinets also being seen more often. Exotic driver materials are being found at the entry level, usually pushed by the trickle down of technology from higher end speakers.

Active speakers are available and they’re a great idea. With built-in amplification that’s perfectly matched to the speaker drivers they’re well worth a listen, especially in a single-source system. It’s hard to find better value or sweeter sound in such a simple package.

Cables

This is the most controversial aspect of hi-fi, with opinions on audio cables varying more than thoughts on the World Cup at a United Nations barbeque. An oft-repeated hi-fi rule of thumb is “spend ten per cent of the cost of the system on the cables”, and that’s a fairly safe bet. Spending $500 on cables for a $5000 system would get you a pair of really good interconnects and some high-quality speaker cable with insulation that won’t degrade in a year, and sturdy, well-made connectors. You could always use a five-dollar RCA cable and that bell wire from the garage, but that’s like running a 400 horsepower HSV on 80 octane petrol. The Tone team has fiddled around with cables in its systems and the differences are noticeable. A good hi-fi shop should have no hassles lending out a set of cables for a weekend, so try before you buy.

Shopping

Read the last line of the cable section again for the most important recommendation in this article.

Whether you’re new to the thrill of hi-fi or an old hand who’s seen it all, listening to the kit before you buy is critical. Listen with music you know well, preferably at your own place if at all possible, and listen for long enough to decide if you really like the system or component you’re auditioning. You may well be impressed after a short listen but find after an hour or two that you can’t wait to turn off the hi-fi and turn on the telly. Best to find this out with a piece of expensive kit that you don’t actually own and which you can take back to the shop on Monday.

Also keep reading Tone; we’ll be reviewing hi-fi bits for every budget leading up to Christmas and beyond, and we’ll keep separating the wheat from the chaff and giving you the best buys and the right advice.