There are countless different audio products claiming to pursue sonic accuracy, but Barry Willis believes the hi-fi industry would be much better off if it admitted things are not that simple
Early this past summer, I enjoyed dinner with an audiophile friend. While he puttered in the kitchen, I perused his hi-fi publications. Among them was a 2024 equipment guide, an incomplete but aspirational compendium of products currently on the market, and in a couple of cases, no longer produced but still in plentiful supply. The listings included hundreds of items - phono cartridges from US$99 to $20,000 each, and amplifiers and loudspeakers from a few hundred up to the purchase price of an exotic high-performance automobile.
Barry Willis believes a subwoofer can bring a performance boost to your hi-fi system as long as you take the time to calibrate it - so look out for models with remote/app control
A properly setup subwoofer can add enormously to your musical satisfaction. Improperly setup, it can be an annoying nemesis.
Many subwoofers are designed for maximum dynamic impact with multichannel movie soundtracks. While they may excel at making explosions sound convincing, they may not contribute much to your enjoyment of music. Truly musical subwoofers are rare.
There's no one-size-fits-all approach to high-quality music playback, says Barry Willis - and it's emotional engagement that's important, not the technology which is used to create it
This past winter I visited a new audio dealer, a fellow I'll call 'Colin'. He's a high-end hobbyist working from his home - a time-honoured practice and an increasingly prevalent one in the Internet age. His large demo room was festooned with recent examples of quality gear from multiple brands, but most conspicuous were the many brightly coloured cables connecting them - the work, he said, of a friend who had spent years researching the behaviours of such cables.
Hi-fi’s traditional distribution model has evolved due to the Internet, but the price of high-end equipment will always remain high, says Barry Willis – it’s more fine art than mass-market tech
Last month I touched upon the economics of audio – in particular, the unlikely possibility of getting back a substantial fraction of the money put into high-performance equipment. Long ago, the rule of thumb was that suggested list prices for high-end products were generally five times factory cost. That was when multi-tiered distribution was still the rule – manufacturers delivered goods to distributors, who in turn offered them to dealers. Distributors provided marketing assistance, employing sales reps who called on dealers, did demonstrations, and could intervene in the case of defective products.
Barry Willis has turned some impressive profits reselling vintage audio gear, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule. In fact, much of the time he’s left counting the cost..
An enduring bit of wisdom cautions against extravagant purchases – the must-have new car, for example, that loses 20% of its value the moment it’s driven off the dealer’s lot. Something similar happens with high-end audio, but worse, because were you to try selling your latest cost-be-damned amplifier or ultra-performance DAC two weeks post-purchase, you’d be dismayed to learn that you might recover only 50% or so of what you paid.
An electric shock from an antique valve amp finally sends the rose-tinted glasses flying from the face of Barry Willis. Vintage gear? You can keep it, because the golden age of audio is happening now...
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