HiFi Thoughts: “What would you buy?”

I want to begin with an admission—I do not have the time it takes to properly respond to emails asking for system/gear recommendations.

Properly responding with a recommendation of value entails knowing more than anyone has ever shared in their initial email inquiry. Some of the things anyone offering advise needs to know, aside from the omniscient advisor, include the size of the room the hifi lives in, other gear in the system [footnote 1], cables, power products, rack(s), room treatments, furniture, listening preferences including typical volume levels/peak volume levels, and a general understanding of the kind of preferred presentation that takes at least a few hundred words just to get that part of the conversation started. Photos of the listening room and ideally other rooms are mandatory for a number of (hopefully) obvious reasons.

Notice I did not include “kind of music” because to my mind any and every hifi needs to play any and every kind of music. Why? Because someone who listens to lute and feather music exclusively today may very well come to enjoy death metal tomorrow. Besides, the notion that we need to select a hifi because it’s good at reproducing classical music makes about as much sense as buying a TV because it excels at dramas.

I also did not include disposable income, savings, or debt even though these necessarily factor into any well considered spend.

The good news is I’ve tipped my hand, spilled the beans and sung like a canary by listing all of the gear I own, i.e. the gear I chose to buy, in About Twittering Machines. If you want to know what I’d buy if I was me, that’s the place to get the definitive answer. [footnotes 2 & 3]


1. HiFi performance is the result of a system in a room playing recordings experienced by humans. If you think component or speaker test bench measurements tell all, do me favor: rip your heart from your chest, measure it, and tell me—based on measurement results alone—who you love most and why.
2. I’m not you and you’re not me so when it comes to listening to and ENJOYING music on the hifi the only opinion that matters is each of ours.
3. While I can’t afford to buy everything I review and enjoy, I still have Favorites.