High-end and general consumer audio products do the same basic thing: they play recorded sound for personal entertainment and information.  This naturally leads to questions, like:

• Are there real differences between these categories, or is it just marketing hype, to charge a premium for high-end products?
• If there are differences, how can I identify the category where a particular product belongs?
• Do the differences determine which category of product I should use?

The two consumer audio categories, high-end and general or non-specialist, are broad and imprecisely defined.  It would be convenient to say that general audio products sound bad and high-end audio sounds good.  However, this is misleading. It is rare to find an audio product today whose sound quality is completely unacceptable for general use.  More importantly, it misses the fundamental point that high-end audio seeks to provide the best possible sound quality, functionality and product reliability at its price point, while general audio products focus on price, features and convenience, while aiming to provide acceptable sound.

This difference reflects the ways in which we consume audio, and the different needs they create.  Most people just want to get sound into their lives, to accompany their activities, daily routine, or TV watching.  They’re looking for a solution which provides adequate sound and is affordable and convenient.  They’re not focussed on the sound per se, nor do they want to invest the effort associated with optimising the sound quality.  This is the need for which general audio products are designed.

On the other hand, some listeners place particular importance on the sound quality of the audio experience.  They expect the most realistic, undistorted, noise-free sound available, within practical and budget constraints.  They want deep, tuneful bass, a rich midrange, and clear sparkling highs, all reproduced in a three-dimensional soundstage at realistic volumes.  Key to this is the recognition that audio products must be chosen for their sound, and that they sound different from each other.  High-end audio products are designed to satisfy this need.

The best way to choose a high-end audio product is to listen to and evaluate it.  Detailed reviews by professional reviewers, and the opinions of experienced listeners, also play a critical role in guiding selection decisions, especially when demonstration opportunities are limited.  Brand reputation is important, but is seldom decisive on its own.  On the other hand, customers buying general audio seldom conduct a careful listening evaluation before buying.  This is less important for their intended purpose.  Rather, they assume generally acceptable sound quality, possibly validated by a quick listen, if possible. Selection tends to be based on price, advertised feature sets, specifications[1], appearance, and brand name.

These are broad, but useful generalisations.  The following are some typical differences between high-end and general audio products.  They give a flavour of the differences, rather than presenting absolute truths:

• Price: High-end audio products tend to have higher prices than broadly comparable general audio equivalents.  In some cases these prices can be stratospherically high. However high-end audio need not be extremely expensive, and there are many very affordable high-end products available that provide exceptional sound quality.  There are also audio products that are not high-end, whose prices are significantly higher than warranted by their build quality and sound.  These may be priced based on a heavily marketed brand name, or an attractive design.
• Materials, components and construction quality: Practically every aspect of an audio product has an effect on its sound quality.  High-end products use designs, materials, components, and construction approaches which seek to optimise sound quality. General audio products focus on cost and the available feature set, selecting components and approaches that sound adequate rather than optimal.
• Colouration of sound: High-end audio typically aims to provide as accurate a reproduction of the recorded sound as possible, minimising colouration.  In the case of general audio there is usually a higher level of colouration, sometime deliberately introduced to provide a sound that listeners might find more pleasing.
• Specifications: High-end products tend to have more conservative specifications than roughly comparable general audio ones.  This is because they are intended to satisfy a more critical user, and also because they avoid design approaches which can produce impressive specifications, but at the cost of lower actual sound quality.
• Power supplies: Power supplies are a major contributor to both the sound quality and the cost of audio products.  While high-end designs devote significant effort to power supply design and construction, general audio products typically use low cost, lower quality power supplies.
• Durability and maintainability: High-end products tend to be more reliable, durable and more easily maintained than general audio products.  In the event of failures they tend to be repaired, and they can provide service lives measured in decades.  They are often resold when customers seek to upgrade their audio systems.  By comparison general audio products tend to be discarded when they fail, and often have little or no resale value.
• Connections and interfaces: High-end audio products tend to be designed to work with one another, including with products from other manufacturers.  Therefore they use standard connections and interfaces, which provide compatibility and high sound quality.  By comparison, cost reduction plays a greater role in general audio connection options.  For example high-end amplifiers and speakers typically have 5-way loudspeaker binding posts[2] for connecting high quality speaker cables. By comparison some general audio products provide push-type terminals that can only accommodate low quality, small gauge, bare-wire connections.
• Support: High-end audio products tend to be accompanied by significant pre-sale and after-sales support, which is usually not available with general audio products.

So in summary, there are real differences between high-end and general audio products.  If sound quality is critical to the audio experience you desire, you owe it to yourself to explore high-end audio.  It need not be prohibitively expensive.  Attractive high-end products are available at a wide range of price points, and you’ll find that the enjoyment you get from the higher quality sound is more than worth the price.

[1] It has been said that “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”  The same can certainly be said of the use of specifications in marketing consumer audio. While a specification has the appearance of an objective measure of quality, that is often not actually the case.  Audio product selection based on specifications faces three particular challenges. Firstly, many published specifications are vague, misleading or even inaccurate.  Secondly, you need some technical knowledge to understand the sound quality and equipment compatibility implications of an audio component’s specifications.  Thirdly, products with similar specifications can sound quite different.

[2] 5-way binding posts are robust, high quality terminals for attaching speaker cables to amplifiers and speakers.  The five ways refer to the types of cable connections they can accommodate: spades, banana plugs, bare wire, pin connectors and alligator clips.

© Wayne Butcher