HIFI has no fixed formula, the choice is up to you

I often see people asking in forums what kind of equipment is good for listening to music, and what kind of amplifier should this speaker be paired with, and what audio source should be used. OK, wait for this kind of question, I can clearly say that there is no unified standard answer to this kind of question! Everything comes from your own needs! First you need to understand a few things!

1. What kind of music do you usually listen to? Beethoven or Little Apple?

2. Budget, how much money you are willing to spend on the entire system. Just like decoration, the actual expenditure will often exceed the budget.

3. Where to use it? How big of a space it is, be it a living room, a bedroom, an outdoor space, or an office!

Only after clarifying these points can you find the equipment that suits you. Taking my current system as an example, I will talk about my matching principles.

Let me introduce my system:

Speaker: BT-AUDIO Opera No. 1 coaxial box (four-way three-unit design)

Amplifier: BT -AUDIO MS-34C tube amplifier (KT88 tube)

Sound source: D1 HIFI CD player

Wire: WZ98 single crystal copper audio cable, PR35 HIFI speaker cable

How to choose a speaker that suits you

Taking myself as an example, I usually listen to some musicals and pop vocals ( Including European and American), folk music, which is relatively complex and tests the overall quality of the speakers. The high, middle and low frequencies should not be too bad, and the level and resolution must be ensured. Then ordinary bookshelf speakers are definitely out of the question, and my listening experience The environment is the living room, which is about 15 square meters and is relatively small. It is difficult to deploy a large floor-standing box, and listening to the dynamics of musicals cannot be weak. Considering the overall situation, a bookshelf like Opera No. 1 is more suitable.

First of all, Opera No. 1 is a coaxial box. The sense of positioning and layered resolution are the advantages of this kind of speaker. The four-way three-unit design ensures that the high, middle and low frequencies are relatively even, without obvious shortcomings. board, and the size of this box is also moderate. I have just enough space to listen to musicals and folk music, while ensuring dynamics and low frequencies. Considering its price, it is naturally my first choice.

Pairing a power amplifier is a technical task

Although choosing speakers is simple, it is not that simple to get the best out of the speakers, because the power amplifier determines the upper limit of the sound of a speaker. This is why when playing HIFI, you need to use separate speakers and power amplifiers, rather than integrated active boxes. Different combinations of power amplifiers represent different possibilities, and active boxes limit the upper limit of the speakers. There’s a lot less sex!

For example, I chose the MS34c tube amp, which has a smooth and warm sound and a wide dynamic range. It uses 4 KT88 high-power tubes. The push-pull structure design ensures the thrust, so that the tone of the tube amp can be maximized. Better and has good linear performance. Some people may also ask me why I chose such an expensive amplifier to match the Opera No. 1. First of all, a amplifier of this quality is not expensive. If it were replaced with other amplifiers, even if it is more than 10,000 yuan, it would be difficult to achieve the performance of the MS34C. effect.

What kind of sound source is good?

At present, the mainstream audio sources are CD players and lossless music players. There are also some audiophiles who play PC HIFI and vinyl. No matter which audio source is used, as long as you choose it well, you can get good results. I prefer The focus is actually on the source of the film. There are actually very few true lossless music downloads online. I think it is easier to buy than genuine CDs.

For example, the D1 CD player I chose uses the PCM1798 decoding + OPA 2134 operational amplifier solution. The sound quality is clear and beautiful. It is very suitable for listening to instrumental music and vocals. The price is also very reasonable. For CD players, only the materials are used. It's adequate, well designed, and the difference in sound quality isn't huge. It's completely adequate for a CD player in the price range of the D1.

Final few warnings for newbies

1. Don’t pursue the best

I don’t know the upper limit of HIFI, nor do I know What is the best? But like my Opera No. 1 system, it can already achieve three-band balance, coherence and unity, excellent sense of speed and imaging, which is enough for my current listening needs. Is there anything better than Opera? There must be better equipment on the 1st, but so what? It's not what I want. No matter how good it is, I can't appreciate it.

2. Don’t fall into the misunderstanding of price

I have always believed that something that is expensive is definitely better, something that is cheap is definitely not good, and you must not spend money where you should. Being stingy, for example, my investment in amplifiers and speakers is necessary, but where you should save money, don’t spend too much, such as audio sources and cables, just enough!

3. Don’t blindly pursue big brands

Although the HIFI circle is not big, the water is very deep. The big brands you think may be just appearance. Many brands have already Acquired by domestic companies, they are completely localized, that is, they are fake foreigners wearing foreign brands. Danish DANI, Zunbao, Crown, Japanese Shanshui, Ailang, and even Shandong Dynaudio are like this. . . We still need to keep our eyes open, take a look at them all, make more comparisons, and be more practical.