wjm@lcuxc.UUCP (B. Mitchell) (01/25/85)
<this article is being reposted due to usenet problems> <gulp,gulp,gulp> Jay, Your questions are certainly reasonable ones for a newcomer to the wooly world of stereo and the even woolyer (sic) one of net.audio to ask, which is why I'm posting my reply to the net for the benefit of other neophytes out there in net.land. As you can probably tell, Dick Grantges (hound!rfg) and I often agree since my answers are similar to his. 1) Separates vs. a Receiver. If you're concerned about your budget and getting the maximum sound for the buck, get a receiver. In all but the high end price range, there really isn't any different in performance. Separates cost more, and what they buy you is flexibility - you can upgrade your amplifier without replacing a tuner you're satisified with. Also, if a receiver goes down, you've lost your entire system until you get it fixed, while you may be able to work around a separate component that's out of service (of course, if you lose the pre-amp, the game's all over.) 2) Again, in the budget/mid-price range, you can save money by ordering things by mail order. The only drawback to mail-order is that if you should get a defective unit (believe me, it happens to the best of products, I had a high-end, top-of-the-line tuner go bad after 2 hours of operation - the dealer was very cooperative and replaced it with another new unit), you have to ship it back. Most high-end stereo shops worthy of the name pride themselves on their service and the caliber of their service technicians. Many of them will fix things bought elsewhere, but they tend to favor their own customers. Setting up a turntable and installing a cartridge is somewhat tricky for a newcomer to hi-fi. A dealer will do it for you as part of the sale, but with mail order you're on your own. One thing to watch out for wherever you buy is "gray market" goods. These are products imported into the United States (and other countries) by other than the factory authorized importer. They will be cheaper, BUT DO NOT CARRY THE MANUFACTURER'S WARRANTY! Also, authorized service centers may refuse to service these goods. CAVEAT EMPTOR!! 3) Sonic holography is a gimmick in my book - I've yet to see a convincing demo of it - I'm generally not too impressed with the Polk speakers, but decide for yourself - compare them to some of the best speakers in the same price range. Frankly, why buy the high-end Polks, when you can get JSE-1's for about $100 more?? 5) At the very high end ($300+), the cartridge market is dominated by moving coil cartridges. However, for a system with less than that price class, the Shure V15-VMR (which is a moving magnet model) at $125 (actual price - cartridges are heavily discounted) outperforms anything costing under $300 - and you don't need a pre-preamplifier. 6) I've never been very impressed by linear tracking arms - the error introduced by a good pivot arm is not very great and more than offsets the mechanical complexity of a linear tracking arm. I've yet to see anyone make a linear tracking arm of the caliber of the best high end arms for high end turntables (turntable + arm costing > $1000). 7) You'd have to find a Carver dealer. You could call Carver to get his dealer list. Not all stereo dealers stock all brands, and if they don't sell Carver (or any other brand) they'll try to sell you Brand X, which may be (not as good, just as good, or better - pick one) as Carver. 8) Certainly "linear phase" (which implies that all signals are delayed by a constant time - thus the phase relationship between different frequencies in the input signal (music) is preserved) is a design goal in all high fidelity audio equipment. However, in the real world, engineering trade-offs must be made between linear phase response, frequency response, distortion of various forms, etc. I wouldn't choose a component based on linear phase response ALONE, although it is a very desirable trait. CONCLUSION) Listen to the components you are considering, especially the speakers. Bring some of your favorite records/tapes to the store with you. Stick to name brands, they have a reputation to live up to. Happy Hunting! 186,000 miles per second - its not just a good idea, its the LAW! Bill Mitchell(ihnp4!lcuxc!wjm) Disclaimer: all opinions expressed here are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.