High End Audio - not just for audiophiles

Computers have made setting up high end stereo systems more complicated than ever. Back in the day, setting up a high end audio system was easy. All you really needed was a good receiver, a record player, and some top quality speakers. Even once the tape deck and cd player came around, it wasn't too hard to set up a really killer high end home stereo system. Nowadays, however, there are so many different audio products in so many different music formats that  it has gotten very expensive and very difficult to figure out what musical system is best for you.

When you first set up a high end audio system, there are some really serious choices that you have to make. The biggest one is how digital you want to go. Every high end audio system, of course, makes some use of solid-state technology, but some them make it more important than others. A lot of serious technophiles, especially the ones who play games on the computer, like to run their entire sound systems through their PC. Other people prefer a more traditional approach, focused around a high-quality stereo receiver. Eventually, high end audio gear will move more and more towards the home computer, but for many reasons the two haven't been integrated yet. For my money, the best way to do it is to set up your stereo around the receiver, But who knows how it will change in a couple years.

Another issue is how you want to use your high end audio system. Do you want to listen to music, or do you want to watch movies more? There are high end home theater speakers that you can buy, but they are designed more around providing realistic soundtracks to movies then reproducing musical sounds. Don't get me wrong - this is serious, high end audio gear that will work well for everything. Nonetheless, a lot of it has gotten very specialized recently. It used to be that good speakers were good for everything. Now, you are increasingly asked what you will use them for.

My favorite high end audio gear to play with is in my car. The great thing about high end car speakers is that they are so simple to work with. A high end car audio system is a pretty unambiguous thing. It will work well for anything you are likely to listen to in the car. I wish that home audio equipment was that simple!