Thursday, February 4, 2010

Hi Fi confusion.

People get messed up in this term "Hi Fi". Hifi actually means high fidelity, that's it, regeneration of sound as close to original as possible.

So, the equipments will be:
1. Source- CD players, LP players (long play), tuners, hard disk streaming, cassettes etc.

2. Pre Amp-this amp controls the power amp with varying voltage different. For your info, power amplifier has only one fixed gain (signal amplification factor).

3. Power Amp- This amp drives the speakers. It amplifies signals, making it very large and could move the speaker diaphragm.

Integrated amp is where the pre and power amps both joined together in a "thing", sharing the main power source. It's more convenient to be used, but it can't give as much power output as the mono blocks (aka power amps). Separated power sources of the pre-power combination gives a better control of the power source, hence eliminated the possibility of left & right channel power being unequally distributed (especially when driving fast paced loud).

Other stuff:
a. Amp can be further divided into tube amp and solid state.

b. Amp can also be divided into class A, A/B & D.

c. CD player can be further divided into 2 compartments: Transport>DAC (digital analogue converter).

d. etc etc....

e. Hardest thing in hi-fi.. Room tune.

That's it!

Cables, for Hi Fi.

(Purposely do not write out all of my thoughts, to reduce complaint!! I think it's short enough =D)

Once i think that the interior and exterior properties of speaker/interconnect cables do make sonic difference in Hi Fi. (I'm talking about high fidelity sound). This is because the inductive, capacitive and conductivity of the cables do change the sound characteristic.


But, scientists say it doesn't cause any difference in your ear, or our mind. Is this true?

I do still believe hifi cables do make a different in the sonic element!!

"The human mind is such a suggestible, inaccurate device, why do we bother to listen at all? We should just measure music and go home. " -