The Right Sound – E-Book

Buying a hi-fi system — or wondering why yours doesn't sound the way it could?

Both are the same question. I have made my living selling hi-fi equipment since 1987, and yet this book opens with a sentence you would not expect from a dealer:

Roughly 60 percent of the sound quality you experience at home does not depend on the components themselves.

It comes from the room acoustics, from cabling and accessories, and from placement. That is not an opinion but a rule of thumb from four decades in the listening room: components about 40 percent, room acoustics 30, cabling and accessories 20, placement 10.

Know this before you buy, and you will buy better. Own a system already, and you will get out of it what is actually in it — much of that at little or no cost.

If you are about to buy

• You will budget for the whole chain — not just the components, but everything that makes them sound.
• You will know which speaker principle and which amplifier concept fit your room, your music, and your life — tubes or solid-state, vinyl, CD, or streaming.
• You will know the five questions that prevent expensive mistakes before any purchase.
• You will know how to audition properly — and why first impressions mislead in every demonstration. That is the most important lesson from thousands of demos.

If you already own a system

• You will know why it does not sound the way it could — and what you can do about it tonight, without spending a cent.
• You will place your speakers properly and understand what your room does to the music.
• You will upgrade in the right order: foundation first, components second. That is how every dollar becomes audible.
• You will know where effort pays off — and where you can keep your money.

What you will not find here

Rankings and test winners. Instead you get the craft to answer such questions for yourself — from your first purchase to the summit. Where an effect is scientifically disputed, the text says so openly, and asks you to listen for yourself, in your own room. My commercial relationships with the brands mentioned are fully disclosed in the book.

What you get

• PDF and EPUB — both in one purchase, for screen, tablet, and e-reader.
• No copy protection. You buy the book, you own it. Read it on every device that belongs to you.
• 167 pages, with diagrams, checklists, and a glossary that translates brochure language into plain English.
• Download immediately after purchase — no waiting, no shipping.

Who is writing

I founded HIFI TEAM in Graz, Austria, in 1987. Four decades behind the counter, around seventy international shows, some fifty of them as an exhibitor. Our rooms were named "Best Sound of Show" by reviewers and audiences in Las Vegas, New York, and Vienna — never with the most expensive equipment, but with the better setup. What those years taught is on these pages.

And when you reach a limit

This book takes you exactly as far as you can go on your own — and that is further than most people believe. Aligning a tonearm with gauge and protractor, matching an amplifier to a speaker, listening in the right room: at some point that calls for someone who has done it a thousand times.

Then write to us. We are at the foot of the Schlossberg in Graz, and we are glad to hear your questions — whether you bought from us or not.