Setting Up a High-End Audio System

First published in The Absolute Sound. Copyright © 1994 by Absolute Multimedia. Reprinted with permission.

Note: although this article was written in 1994, it's still applicable today.

Purchasing the components which make up a High End system, be they of modest or skies-the limit proportions, is only the first step. To get your system performing at its musical best, the constituent parts must be set up properly, in order to realize their maximum potential. The thought of "tweaking" a system may seem daunting to the individual who has never done it before, but in truth, the techniques involved are easily understandable. Following is a step-by-step guide to how to get the most out of your stereo system.

The Preliminaries

The first step is figuring out which room is going to be your listening room. The ideal choice is one which is medium-to-large, close to rectangular in shape, and is neither too "live" (too reverberant, echoey, or "hard" sounding), or "dead" (dull sounding, where your voice seems to disappear a few feet into the room.) Hard surfaces reflect sound; absorptive surfaces, such as carpets, drapes, and upholstered furniture soak it up. Walk around the room, talk, and clap your hands repeatedly, all the while listening for the amount of room reverberation or lack thereof, and you'll get a good idea of the room's nature. If the room is too "live" or too "dead," absorptive materials, whether furniture or many of the room treatment products available, can be added or removed. Generally, speakers should be placed along one of the shorter walls of the room, and there should be no furniture (tables, etc.) between the speakers and the listening seat—these can adversely affect the speakers' performance. If you're limited to one room which may be less-than-ideal—i.e., a living room which has a TV and other furniture which can't be moved--keep these principles in mind and work out the best compromise.

Once you've taken all the components out of the box, you have to figure out where to put them. Simply stacking them on top of one another in a cheap cabinet or on the floor is not a good idea. Electronic components contain transformers which can radiate significant electromagnetic fields, turntable have motors which are also often sources of such fields, and CD players can give off substantial amounts of RFI (radio frequency interference). These produce noise, which can be picked up and amplified by the sensitive gain and amplification stages of your electronics. Therefore, components should be separated from one another as much as possible. (Induced noise falls off as the square of the distance; a component two feet away from a noise source will pick up one-fourth as much noise than if it were one foot away.) Separating components also keeps them well-ventilated, especially in the case of tube gear.

The equipment should be on solid footing, especially in the case of turntables. The ideal situation is a concrete floor; if the floor is too "springy," the turntable may vibrate so severely from footfalls that the stylus will jump out of the groove. In such cases, lally columns (those jack supports one installs under a floor to prop up the area above) can work wonders; if these are impractical, experiment with different locations within the listening room to find the least-springy location. Ideally, the equipment should be placed as far away from where the speakers are going to be placed as possible, as these are a considerable source of airborne vibration, especially when you're playing Prokofiev or Pearl Jam at high volume. (More on speaker placement later.)

Once you've found the best location for the equipment, it should be placed in a sturdy, well-ventilated rack or cabinet. Many high-quality units designed especially for this purpose are available. The equipment should be installed on top of the best type of vibration isolation/resonance control accessories your budget can accommodate; we'll talk more about those later.

Making the Connections

Once you've determined where you're going to locate the electronics (along with the approximate position of the speakers; we'll discuss fine-tuning them later), you've got to hook plug them into the wall and each other. And there's more to it than plugging in a toaster.

Ideally, your stereo should be plugged into a dedicated AC line—that is, a set of electrical outlets which have a circuit all their own, to preclude interference from washing machines, refrigerators, and so on from contaminating the power going to your components. (If you want to take this principle to the limit, you can have dedicated lines installed for the amplifiers, and for the rest of the electronics, to allow better isolation of the individual components from one another.) If not, make the best compromise. Insider tweak: The quality of the AC outlets themselves can make a big difference, especially if they are old and internally tarnished—the electrical connection will not be optimal. Try replacing them with high-quality outlets. The best are the orange-colored hospital-grade ones, available from electrical supply houses. You might be amazed at the improvement in sound quality!

Connect your components together with High End interconnects. Don't believe what the mid-fi magazines tell you about all cables sounding the same—they don't; the generic interconnects often supplied for free with components, and light-gauge "zip cord" speaker wire will drastically "choke off" the sound, particularly at the frequency extremes. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get quality cables; a reputable dealer will be able to provide you with good, affordable choices.

Neatness counts. Cables can act both as antennas and as transmitters of the signals passing through them; therefore they should be neatly dressed and kept as far away from one another as possible. In particular, keep interconnects away from power cords and speaker cables. If your wires must touch, cross them at 90-degree angles to minimize the area of contact. Insider tweak: This particularly applies to phono cables—If your cables are not well-shielded, you'll hear a slight-to-moderate hum through the speakers. If you can't replace them, move them around until you hear the least amount of hum, then fix them in place. This may look weird—cables suspended in space, snake-like—but the reduction in hum will be worth it (as well as the looks on your friends' faces when they see your system).

Attention must be paid to how the system is grounded. A component is grounded (connected to the AC power ground) by means of it's AC plug, either via the third prong of the plug or via the second blade of a two-prong plug. This is all well and good—we don't want to get shocked when we touch the faceplate of our equipment. However, without getting too technical, the various components' grounds are also interlinked through their interconnects. This creates the possibility of a ground loop—more than one path for the system's AC to return to ground. This can create a 60 cycle hum, often quite loud. There's an easy solution—make sure the system is grounded at one point only. The way to accomplish this is by using "cheater plugs," those little gray three-into-two adapters. They should be put on all three-prong plugs (please don't break off the third prong!) except one. (To be electrically and legally safe, check with the manufacturers to make sure this will not harm the equipment, or void the warranty). Conventional wisdom says the grounding point should be the preamp, or the amplifier; however, your best results may come from grounding another component—you'll have to experiment. (The great Enid Lumley maintained that the best sound would be obtained by "floating" the entire system, i.e. defeating all the grounds. It may work for you—keep those safety requirements in mind—in some systems, however, this will result in a nasty 60 cycle hum.)

Finally, the AC plug polarity of the individual components should be set. Come again? Simple: A component will usually sound better with the AC plug oriented in either one direction or the other. This may sound bizarre, but believe it—the "everything sounds the same" brigade will tell you this is quackery, but this was common knowledge as far back as the 1930s, and was referred to even in instruction manuals for inexpensive table radios. There are two ways to determine correct AC polarity. The first is by measuring with a multimeter. Set the scale to "AC volts." With the component powered up but the interconnects disconnected from the rest of the system, touch one probe of the meter to a metal part of the system which is electrically grounded (a chassis screw, the female sleeve of an RCA jack, etc.), and the other to an AC ground, such as the screw which holds the outlet cover plate to the wall, or the hole for the third prong of the plug. Observe the meter reading. Then, reverse the component's AC plug orientation (you may have to use a cheater plug to defeat the third prong, or the wider blade of a two-prong plug) and check the meter again. The position which indicates the lesser voltage is correct. The second method: Use your ears! With the system interconnected, listen for soundstage width and depth, image placement and focus, and fullness of tonal balance. In most cases, you'll hear a difference between the two plug positions. (As in every rule, there are exceptions. In rare cases, when using a multimeter, the higher AC voltage reading will sound better.) What I like to do is: Orient the polarity using the meter—this usually gets you there—then flip each component's plug and listen, and let your ear be the final judge.

Insider tweak: Try leaving electronics on all the time, or at least, turn them on 24 hours before you want to listen. High End equipment sounds best after its had a chance to "warm up," and at its worst from dead cold. Solid-state electronics don't use much electricity—most, a couple of light bulbs worth—same for tube preamplifiers. (Tube amplifiers, especially large ones, use up a good deal of energy in the form of heat—if you're shy in the sauna, an alternative is listening to Jadis 500s on a 90-degree day—and can run up the electric bill as well as waste valuable output tube life if left on constantly.)

Turntable Setup

I don't have to go into detail here; Laura Dearborn covers the subject brilliantly in the introductory section to Turntables, Pickup Arms, and Cartridges. [Note: the section referred to here was originally in the same issue as this setup article.] I'll just mention a few points: Many people are intimidated by turntable setup, thinking it a mysterious, black art with few qualified practitioners. Not true—although the details are specific and exacting, as long as they are properly executed, your turntable should sound its best, with little if any adjustment, for years. You can learn the techniques yourself by having a qualified friend or dealer show you, or if adventurous and relatively dextrous, try it yourself after reading Dearborn's article. Or call me; my fee is $5000 per day. (Just kidding.)

CD Player/Transport/D/A Converter Setup

Uh-huh. You don't just plug them in. In the case of integrated CD players and CD transports, vibration control is important—these things spin the disc at up to hundreds of revolutions per minute, and benefit greatly from being mounted on a stable, resonance-free mooring. Insider tweak: Try putting a weight on top of your unit. A VPI brick; or even a real brick will do. You may be surprised at the improvement in sound resulting from the player being securely held down. As mentioned previously, keep digital electronics as far from the other components as possible. Insider tweak No. 2: When listening to analogue, turn the digital electronics off. The lack of noise radiated into the analogue electronics may be dramatic. Also, the quality of the digital interconnect liking the transport to the D/A converter can have a profound effect on the sound.

Another Myth Exposed: The mid-fi reductionists will tell you that "bits is bits," and the cable can have no bearing upon the sound quality, as long as the bits are transmitted from the deck to the decoder intact. The truth is that, in the case of 75-ohm coaxial connections, impedance mismatching caused by the use of improper cable or improper connector termination can cause reflections within the signal which can degrade the data stream into an inaccurate semblance of the original. (The aerospace and communications industries have known of standing wave reflections within cable for decades.) Also, different optical connections can have differing effects upon sound quality, as the signal has to go through conversion processes from digital data stream to optical transmission back to digital data stream, and each of these conversion interfaces can adversely impact the sound if not properly executed.

The Electronics

In the case of solid-state preamplifiers and amplifiers, the tips related in previous sections will apply, in addition to the fact that proper vibration and resonance control techniques will usually have an advantageous effect on the system's sound. (Don't worry; we'll get to those techniques soon....) Insider tweak: Regarding tube electronics—aside from their additional ventilation and space requirements, much can be done to tailor and tweak the sound by experimenting with different brands of tubes. Different manufacturer's tubes vary greatly in their construction details—look at any two brands of 12AX7s and you'll see that they hardly look like the same tube—and each can have a unique sound. (Note that a large part of a tube's sound is a function of the circuit in which it is installed; although accumulated audiophile experience has indicated that generalizations about a particular brand's sound can be made.) In many cases, the manufacturer has done the work for you; in others, you may hit upon a combination which makes your system sound better than ever.

Speaker Setup and Placement

In its own way, speaker placement and optimization is just as exacting as analogue playback setup. In order for speakers to produce a correct tonal balance, image and stage properly, and "disappear," leaving the illusion of music filling the room from a three-dimensional soundspace, they must be placed properly. The ear must be the final arbiter in getting them to resemble live music as closely as possible, but the techniques for getting there (somewhat different for dynamic and planar loudspeakers) are well-known and time-tested. There are five basic parameters with which to be concerned: Distance of the speakers from each other; distance from rear walls; distance from side walls; degree of toe-in (the angle which the speakers are aimed at the listening position); and degree of vertical tilt.

Here's how I do it, a procedure learned after dozens of speaker setups (and visits to the chiropractor):

Begin by measuring and dividing the wall along which the speakers are to be placed into thirds, and place the centers of the speakers at the one-third and two-thirds points. I cannot emphasize this enough: When making measurements, use a tape measure, and get the measurements as equal and as close as possible—a difference of one-eighth of an inch will be audible. Start with the speakers at least three feet away from the rear wall; any closer and bass can become boomy and imaging can suffer (in the case of dynamics), or bass can be weakened (in the case of dipole designs, which radiate sound behind them; when the back wave hits the wall, it can bounce back 180 degrees out of phase with the main, front wave, an effect known as dipole cancellation).

Next, determine how close or how far apart the speakers should be from one another. (The rule of thirds has gotten you in the ballpark.) Select a well-miked recording which possesses a credible sense of spatiality, width, and depth—most of the Mercury Living Presence recordings will do, as will many classical titles from the "audiophile" labels such as Wilson Audio, Chesky, Reference Recordings, and so on. If the speakers are too far apart, you'll hear a "hole in the middle" effect, where the sound seems to come from both speakers, with a noticeable lack of sound between them. If they are too close together, the sound will be bunched up in the middle, depth and imaging will be lacking, and the sound will not appear to extend outside the speakers' edges. With the speakers facing straight out—we'll tweak the toe-in later—move them closer together or further apart until you hear a continuous, even soundfield. At this point, you'll start to hear depth and imaging. Note that in the case of dipole loudspeakers, you may have to compromise the ideal placement a bit; if dipoles get too close to side walls, staging and imaging can suffer.)

Next, determine the distance from the rear walls. Too close, and sound will suffer as mentioned above. (Note: With dynamic speakers that roll off the bass, don't make the mistake of placing them too close to the rear wall to compensate; imaging and staging will suffer, and the bass still won't be right.) Experiment until you get the best combination of image solidity, three dimensional soundstage, and tonal balance.

Now we're ready to adjust the degree of toe-in. In the case of dipoles, the best orientation is usually parallel to the rear wall, i.e., no toe-in, although a slight amount of toe-in towards the listening position can improve image focus. (In rare cases, a slight degree of toe-out might work—don't rule it out until you've at least tried it.) With dynamic speakers, some degree of toe-in is usually called for. A good rule of thumb is to aim the speakers toward the listening position so that when viewed, the inside edges of the speakers are just at the point where they can't be seen. Again, experiment until you get the best combination of image focus, center fill, and soundstage. (You might even find that parallel alignment works best in your room.)

The final adjustment would be, in the case of dipole speakers, to set the degree of vertical tilt. Start with the speakers perpendicular to the floor, and then tilt them back until you've achieved the best combination of imaging, staging, and tonal balance.

Are we done yet? No. If you want the setup to be right, there's no getting around the fact that these adjustments are somewhat interrelated, and changing one parameter can affect the others. When you think you've located the optimum position, mark the locations of the speakers, and continue experimenting. You may find that you "hit the spot," or you may find that further experimentation yields even better performance. I know people who spent a year getting it right, but don't let that intimidate you—I've also gotten lucky and placed speakers perfectly, as it turned out, in an hour. It's easier than it sounds—your ear will guide you in the right direction, and if you enlist the help of a friend with good ears, the job will go much more quickly (it also helps to have someone else aid in the measurements, as well as the lifting!) Insider tweak: Finally, when you've determined the final placement, take out that tape measure and get the locations of the two speakers symmetrical to the sixteenth of an inch, or better. No exaggeration—when the speakers are precisely symmetrical, the focus "locks in" to a degree you may not have thought possible if you've never tried getting them that exact before.

Tweaking to Perfection

The difference between a system that performs well and a system that achieves sonic Nirvana is often in the tweaking—those details that extract the maximum from your assemblage of components. Again, there's no mystery involved; the principles are straightforward and easily understandable.

I've already explained a few of the major tweaks: placing your components and speakers properly; maximizing your room acoustics, keeping your cables, interconnects, and power cords neat and away from one another, and orienting your AC polarity. The most important thing not yet discussed is vibration and resonance control. (Ah, finally he got to it.)

Your components are being constantly barraged by extraneous vibrations—from air conditioning and heating systems; trucks, subways, and other vehicles; footfalls; as well as those generated by the system itself from speakers, the turntable, and the transport or CD player. These can negatively affect the sound, by adding spurious, unwanted signals to the ones that are supposed to be there, as a result of their causing components to vibrate when they shouldn't. There are three ways to control and/or eliminate unwanted vibrations: by damping them; by directing them away from a component; or by "tuning" them to a frequency less damaging to the audio spectrum.

Damping is accomplished by absorption via some type of elastomeric material ("rubber kinda stuff" to you and me), usually some type of puck, or foot, such as those placed under CD and laserdisc players. These trap unwanted vibrations and convert them to heat (don't worry, not enough to even feel) within their structure. Elastomeric materials can also be found in isolation bases (which are placed under components), pickup arms, some speakers, and inside the cabinets of electronics.

Vibrations can also be directed away from a component by means of cones or spikes. Those little conical items you see in the dealer's display case, or the spikes which are installed underneath speakers, work by allowing the vibrations impinging upon a component to travel in one direction only, away from the component and toward the stand or floor on which it's mounted, by virtue of their design—the vibrations travel from the base to the cone, and on outta there. In the case of speakers, they also keep the speakers stable by mass-loading them to the floor, concentrating all their weight onto a few small points, thereby effecting an extremely rigid coupling. Cones tend to be quite effective under turntables.

The third type of device are those such as "tuning feet," "tuning bases," "magic dots," and the like, which basically transform or "tune" vibrations within their structure from a frequency which can have harmful effects upon the components' sound, to a more benign frequency. These can take the form of feet which are placed under a component; self-adhesive dots or other shapes which are affixed to the structure of a component or speaker, or other exotica: belts, CD dampers, rings which go around interconnects, and more.

As in the case of any tweak, experiment. In some applications, damping works best, in others, cones or tuning devices. Sometimes you'll hear dramatic differences, sometimes not. Don't go into the endeavor with preconceived notions (such as a review where the person gushes that they improved the sound of his system "by 200 percent"), and let your ear be the fnal judge.

We live in a world of massive EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) and RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) generated by radio and TV stations, CBs, police and marine bands, motors, electric lights, power transmission lines, computers, microwave ovens, microwave transmissions, and numerous other electronic pollutants of the modern age. Although unseen, they can be picked up by your stereo's cables, which can act as antennas, and, though inaudible in and of themselves, can have a negative effect on the sound of your system by modulating the high frequency response of your electronics, the resultant subharmonics causing glare, haze, and other sonic grunge to be reproduced by your system. The solution is to block them from entering your system, and a variety of such devices are available.

Unwanted electronic garbage can also enter your system from the AC power lines. You're supposed to be getting a pure 60Hz sine wave from your wall outlet (50Hz in some European countries), but if you look at what's coming out of there with an oscilloscope, you'll see all kinds of unwanted stuff riding on the wave. This may get through to your components, again with negative sonic consequences. There are a number of power line conditioners available to remedy the problem. (Results may vary according to your system and your location.)

Keep your connections clean. Wherever there's a mechanical interface—plugs and jacks; speaker connections; tube sockets; cartridge pins—the potential for corrosion and tarnishing exists. This will degrade the quality of the electrical connection, and subsequently, the sound. There are many available contact cleaners which do a much better job than rubbing alcohol or whatever, and which will not leave a residue.

You should have a good set of tools for system maintenance, including various sizes of screwdrivers and nut drivers (great for speaker binding posts); an adjustable wrench; pliers both regular and needle nose; wire cutters and strippers; cartridge alignment tools, stylus pressure gages, and record and stylus cleaning brushes (if applicable); levels; rulers and tape measures; and a good multimeter, preferably with a continuity tester that beeps when a connection is made. And don't forget to carry around a Swiss Army knife at all times—many's the time I've made an on-site emergency repair with no tools save that red-and-stainless life saver.

Keep in mind—half the fun is in the tweaking; the constant prodding and pushing to get the last iota of sonic excellence from your system; inching ever closer to the absolute sound. You'll find that, once you get started, it becomes a lifelong pleasure.