The Hi-Fidelity Formula

[admin_exported]

For each 25% improvement in sound you need to spend twice the amount of your current system

 

[the record spot]

A bit more detail on that maybe?!

 

[Andrew Everard]

How do you measure a 25% improvement in sound?

 

[davemartin01]

matsuli:
For each 25% improvement in sound you need to spend twice the amount of your current system

... is this what the typical hifi shop sales assistant tells most people?

 

[Anonymous]

I think 25 percent is exagereated, yoiu will need to spend much more then double to get much noticible improvement, another thing is that some expensive kit is much worse then cheaper one's, so the calculations isn't much accurate and it is difficult to substanciate.

 

[Anonymous]

I've always noticed that there has never been a linear relationship between what one has to spend and the improvement it brings. Originally I was going to posit a 10% improvement for spending double, but I think if you spend well you can push this to around 25% improvement. Yes difficult to quantify but I think many people on limited budgets will get what I'm saying.

 

[jaxwired]

Way too many factors to have any type of meaningful formula like that. Also, the relationship between price and sound quality is unreliable to say the least. In general, more money does bring better sound, but that's about all you can say.

 

[Anonymous]

I think there is a limit on what you can achieve in sound quality for the amount of money you spend. If your listening room is of a certain size then you would be limited to achieve above a certain wall of sound, no matter how much you were willing to spend. My local hi-fi guy installed a complete b&w nautilus system in a dedicated room for a football player in his new house. It cost the guy just under £100,000 and after it was installed my hi-fi guy told me that he could have gave him the same quality of sound for £40,000.

 

[davemartin01]

If the OP's kit list was 100k's worth I would take what he says as his experience but I have to assume he started with a battered cassette deck and doubled his spending from there.. Maybe his formula works at that price but really basing everything on price is a fools way to buy hifi.

 

[John Duncan]

I can think of plenty of ways of spending 100% more and getting 25% less sound quality...

 

[Anonymous]

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Well, I guess I need to go over the other
posts to be able to catch up with what others are saying. I am interested but I
am quite slow with how the discussion flows.

 

[the record spot]

JohnDuncan:I can think of plenty of ways of spending 100% more and getting 25% less sound quality...

And I can think of spending 100% less and getting 25% more! Thank God for Ebay/Gumtree/used hifi!

 

[Anonymous]

The only formula is that which defines how much you can afford to spend.

 

[Alec]

the record spot:JohnDuncan:I can think of plenty of ways of spending 100% more and getting 25% less sound quality... And I can think of spending 100% less and getting 25% more! Thank God for Ebay/Gumtree/used hifi!

Um... you know that 100% less of anything is 0, dont you?

And people seem to muddle the words difference and improvement. Dont budget Cambridge speakers sound different to budget MA speakers? And then you may interpret that difference as an impovement. So you could get an improvement for pretty much the same money.

 

[the record spot]

Moving speakers...?

 

[Alec]

Indeed, but ebay cant really help with that...

 

[the record spot]

True, but then again, that wasn't the OP's point (which I don't agree with anyway!).

 

[idc]

I agree with al, different is often mistaken for better, particularly when you spent a lot of money on something different.

 

[John Duncan]

the record spot:JohnDuncan:I can think of plenty of ways of spending 100% more and getting 25% less sound quality...

And I can think of spending 100% less and getting 25% more! Thank God for Ebay/Gumtree/used hifi!

Forgetting the arithmetical pedantry for a minute, I mean even at full retail, where I can think of plenty examples of even very expensive kit that I wouldn't give houseroom to. I can only imagine that my idea of 'enjoyable' was different from the manufacturer's...

 

[Alec]

idc:I agree with al, different is often mistaken for better, particularly when you spent a lot of money on something different.

"Dear Diary..."

 

[daveh75]

idc:I agree with al, different is often mistaken for better.Sometimes different is better!

 

[idc]

daveh75:idc:I agree with al, different is often mistaken for better.Sometimes different is better!

Yes, but look at the whole of what I said. I say that if you spend thousands, you are going to say different is better, even when blind tests show that is not always the case.