High end audio can sometimes be hard to justify. Friends, mates, and business associates will question the cost/benefit ratio of such a large expenditure. But a real enthusiast, someone who can tell analog audio on vinyl from digital audio just by listening, doesn't need justification. A true enthusiast requires exceptional sound and is willing to devote the necessary funds to attaining it.
An audio reference studio is the best tool the discriminating listener can employ toward this goal. The sort of excellence that the genuine enthusiast is seeking cannot be measured or determined in the showroom of a retail shop. Of course they all have special glassed-in listening rooms that pretend to offer a carefully tailored listening experience. The fact is that they are glassed-in so that poseurs can be seen listening to the expensive goods. And the tailoring of the listening experience is aimed at selling whichever items return the highest margin. No, for the purpose of choosing the best equipment to suit the ear of the true enthusiast, a genuine audio reference studio is a must.
A reference studio is simply a completely isolated listening environment. It is designed and built so that there is no acoustic impact from the outside world. From the rumbling of passing trucks to the screech of passing jets no audio frequency noise can enter the room. The power supply to the room will be filtered and conditioned to ensure that there is absolutely no electrical noise. The walls of the studio will be constructed so as to constitute a Faraday cage, completely eliminating any electromagnetic noise. It is surprising how much radio and microwave interference is present in today's environment.
A properly managed commercial audio reference studio will have the very best quality speakers, carefully positioned to provide the listener with the full spectrum of output. It will also be equipped with the absolute best available equipment in terms of amplifiers, turntables, digital media players, and equalizers. It should have a complete sound board for balancing inputs and outputs, and the cables and switches should be of impeccable quality.
The whole point of the audio reference studio, so far as the customer is concerned, is the selection of components for the home theater or listening room. The audiophile customer will invest considerable time in selecting what he deems to be the most likely candidates for a particular component or system. He will then bring them to the studio to listen to them in the perfect environment. Here he can make the determination as to whether or not they will meet his needs and satisfy his ear. The only component not usually tested in the studio is the speakers themselves. Speakers and speaker placement are so critical to the environment in which they will operate that little can be learned about them in a reference studio.
We can see, therefore, that use of an audio reference studio is an essential investment in the process of attaining the truly transcendent listening experience.
James Sharot has worked in the audio industry for 15 years following an electronic engineering degree at Brunel University. He has a particular passion for the best possible reference systems and works for TLC Broadcast , an appointed KEF Reference Studio.
by: James_Sharot