View Full Version : What is the weakest component?
I have been passionate about hifi, in all honesty, the equipment probably a bit more than the music for over 40 years and its only very recently that i have discovered where i have been going wrong.
Why that ultimate upgrade may be so far off the mark. For many
Si the big question is what may be the weakest component in any system? A venture into the unspeakable for many, but the answer may be sadly true
Undoubtedly any device which includes mechanical parts, many existing in vinyl, and most significantly loudspeakers where there are numerous solutions and resulting failings and sounds.
The weakest component in my system? Without doubt it's my ears!
Am amplifier can be as close to perfect as makes no difference, as can a digital source. So I'd have to say the loudspeakers (and the room they are in).
anthonyTD
11-09-2021, 09:15
Speakers IMHO have without doubt the potential to be the least accurate at reproducing the signal they are given, ie; distortion figures etc, However; any mechanical device ie; cartridges, turntables, CD players etc also have the ability to add high levels of distortion, I guess once you accept that no piece of equipment within the replay chain is perfect, its a case of building a system using components that when put together make the best of each others strengths, and highlight least their weaknesses.
The weakest component in my system? Without doubt it's my ears!
That is exactly what i have found. After years tuning the system to give a balance i like the arrival of hearing aids turned everything on its head. With my hearing aids in it sounds totally, i mean totally different to the way it did before, changing speakers, room eq, etc are like minor tweaks in comparison.
Just asked my hearing aid consultant for a music program as i get the impression that my hearing aids are only correcting a relatively narrow bandwith and the bass is not being corrected. Adding a house curve via equalisation helps but i suspect i wider bandwith program on the hearing aids is the way to go
walpurgis
11-09-2021, 10:40
Hearing aids will no doubt tend to be optimised around the essential speech audio bandwidth. Anything further will likely be regarded as less necessary and 'a luxury'. I've never looked (despite impaired hearing), but I anticipate 'audiophile' hearing aids must be available.
anthonyTD
11-09-2021, 11:00
As you mention Geoff, there are hearing aids available that are far superior to the standard ones dished out by the NHS etc, and they can be fully tuned to suit the individuals need due to which parts of the audio spectrum the person has loss, unfortunetly they are very expensive, but if cost is not the issue, i would urge anyone with a hearing issue to visit a proper audiologist to first get a proper test and evaluation, and then see what is on offer as far as the latest hearing aid technology.
Hope this helps.
A...
Hearing aids will no doubt tend to be optimised around the essential speech audio bandwidth. Anything further will likely be regarded as less necessary and 'a luxury'. I've never looked (despite impaired hearing), but I anticipate 'audiophile' hearing aids must be available.
Am amplifier can be as close to perfect as makes no difference, as can a digital source.
Yet to hear one of those though!;)
'Weakest' component? I'll apply some lateral thinking on this... Not a box of electronics, but certainly a 'component', in terms of making a system 'sing', I'll go with set-up/infrastructure, i.e. the judicious use of equipment supports, attention to mains supply/vibration control and the general optimisation of such.
In the 30-odd years of being into high-end audio, if I had a pound for all the badly set-up. poorly supported systems I've heard, where as a result, the owner was only hearing about 60/70% of what the assembled components and speakers were capable of [especially the set-up/optimisation of turntables], I'd have a few grand more in my bank account!
IME, too many folks focus too much (or worse, solely) on the boxes and speakers, and forget (or don't even think) about how best to set it all up, in order that each constituent part of the system is performing at its maximum (or as close to that as possible).
It's therefore no coincidence that the best systems I've heard have *always* been those where the owner has not only successfully 'married' together the boxes and speakers, but has paid due attention to the 'infrastructure' of the system, and optimised things on that basis:)
Marco.
As you mention Geoff, there are hearing aids available that are far superior to the standard ones dished out by the NHS etc, and they can be fully tuned to suit the individuals need due to which parts of the audio spectrum the person has loss, unfortunetly they are very expensive,.
NHS can supply hearing aids that are tailored each individual ear's frequency response, with multiple programs and control by mobile phone. All the service parts are free too. My personal research suggests privately you pay to get physically smaller models but not necessarily better performance.
Test your own hearing via the link below. With good quality headsets i found it to be pretty accurate.
https://hearingtest.online
worth noting that as with any medical hearing test it doesn't cover the full frequency range of hearing (or, technically at least, music).
''The frequencies (or pitches) that have been used during your hearing test are shown on the horizontal axis (the vertical lines). These frequencies are low on the left side of the audiogram (250Hz), then gradually climb to higher frequencies on the right side (8000 Hz or 8kHz). Humans hear frequencies from 20 Hz up to 20,000 Hz, but an audiogram only shows a subset of our hearing range: it focuses on the frequencies that are the most important for a clear understanding of speech (the spoken words)''.
Have a go at this one too, :lol:
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/
How far do you need to increase the volume to hear each higher tone.
If you can get up to 10 KHz you're pretty much good for anything music-related. Cymbals just about push 10kHz.
https://i.ibb.co/1RkrnHm/range-of-instruments.jpg (https://ibb.co/L93xP4Z)
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