Your Hi-Fi Audio System CAN Sound Better! Here's 10 Reasons why it may Sound AWFUL!

Another reason might be buying gear based on the "review" of YouTubers that have a new favorite speaker or best amp every time they do a review ...

A bad-sounding system can nearly always be attributed to the space in which it's operating. You can make a decent-sounding system in a 10x10 bedroom with a $50 class-D bluetooth amp, a $100 pair of bookshelf speakers, 10' of lamp wire, and a phone. Not a great system -- a decent system with no egregious flaws.

That crafty dealer grabbed you by the heels and shook you until the last quarter dropped out of your pocket.

Just moved into a new house with a large basement room that would be dedicated to music listening. So excited until I turned everything on and it did sound bad. I made some sound absorbers, bought some deflectors etc and after a few days of experimenting with placement "boom" Sounds amazing now.

You have room issues as number 10, room issues should be number 1 on your list!!!! I spent 50k on an audio setup and yes it can literally sound disgusting in an open room, you can have weird nulls, standing waves etc. This is why I tell people that before you buy equipment make sure you have a decent room. Always!! Then fix your speaker placement, and anything else afterwards

Hegel are famous for having a buz/hum. Ifi dc blocker. Sorted.

At times I listen (music focused) when my sweetie is out of the house. My wife & I both love music but at times we both need “personal listening time”. You can source whatever at the moment hits your fancy and you have complete control of the volume with no one to offend.

#5 transformer buzzing is almost certainly due to dc offset issue. Can be eliminated with an ifi dc blocker or emotiva cmx2+, do that before spending big bucks on electrical renovations.

I had a similar experience where I bought a marantz pm ki ruby integrated amplifier. At the show room it sounded awesome. At my friends house it was awesome. When i got it home, it was lackluster. I was pissed because it was kinda pricey. I tried it in another room and it was awesome. My room was the limiting factor.

I knew someone who bought off a white van. Got them home and found out inside the speakers were empty.

Matter fact, With your first item, the room. You have the most important factor if your music will sound well,or not, I have had this experience with my room, no matter what gear I used, it was still bad,

Thanks! It feels authentic and true. I just keep investing a little bit more on speakers and then other devices at the same level.

The editing is so smooth and seamless.

My vintage 2265 B Marantz was fully restored by a respectable company I'm very satisfied by the results.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Nice cat, btw.😊

Doesn’t matter what you have, just enjoy listening to the music.

After buying new speakers I noticed they were awesome about 70db, turning them up made them fatiguing and “metallic” sounding. I thought my amp was clipping but occasionally I could crank them up, forget the system and groove with the tunes. Took three months or more to break in those speakers and they still like to be warmed up. After two or three albums at a righteous volume, the system smooths out and disappears from the music again. This was also aided by finding a “focused” position for my speakers and experimenting with interconnects, speaker wires and power cords. I found there were differences between stock power cords of different gauges and shielding. I’d like to upgrade my DAC but wonder how much tweaking it will take to optimize!

I had a pair Paradigm 200B’s that were wired out of phase at the factory.

Great content. Very useful and informative. Like you, I tend to use my digital sources more than analog. You cannot beta them for ease and convenience. Nonetheless, I still put a priority on my analog front end. I just enjoy the sound of records too much and even though I do not use them as much. I still make sure I am using a quality table, cartridge, and phono stage. My thinking is I enjoy both, so I still equally invest in both.

My living room is not great for sound. Its exactly how you described your living/kitchen space being one long open space with high ceiling. The sound is gone when you go to the kitchen and gets very loud moving right to left in the living room.