HIGH END

An audiophile system is a High-End audio system generally configured in stereo. It can be placed in a living room (dining room, bedroom, etc.) or ideally, in a dedicated and acoustically treated room, depending on the level of performance expected. Unlike the Home Concert, it does not include a significant video part and is not spatialized by the addition of surround speakers.

Stereo does not mean exclusively composed of two speakers, but reproducing an audio recording on two front channels, right and left. To do this, it can be made up of just two speakers or an assembly of elements, each of which is responsible for reproducing part of the sound spectrum.

There are two main families of audiophile systems

Traditional systems

They are generally made up of analogical construction elements but, as technology evolves, they can also contain "digital" elements with the exception of audio correction processors which, for the "traditional" ones, is supposed to distort the quality of the musical reproduction. …Therefore, all the art of the audiophile consists in assembling various machines and cables in order to succeed in restoring a coherent signal in a room which generally is not.

In addition, the "traditional" people most often refuse to entrust the sub-bass to one or more dedicated loudspeakers (subwoofers) and consider that a good loudspeaker must be capable of reproducing the entire sound spectrum. It's a point of view.

Modern systems

They are generally designed like traditional systems except for the fact that they incorporate a digital signal processing to correct the response both of the system itself, resulting from the defects of each elements, and those of the room in which it is installed.They also integrate the separation of the reproduction of the sub-bass to one or more dedicated loudspeakers (subwoofers) because their designers have noticed that the reproduction of the sub-bass by the loudspeakers often disturbs the response of the loudspeaker itself. In addition, they observed that bass and sub-bass adjustment could not always be done only by placing the speakers : this affects the entire spectrum and not just that of the bass.

The war is raging

One of the greatest acousticians in the world, JPL, with whom we used to work before he retired, and who worked all his life for almost all the majors on the planet, who specialized in small rooms (less than 2500 m3) acoustics, both professional and private, summed up traditional Hi-Fi with the following maxim :
“A so-called “traditional” Audiophile System is an un-equalized system in an untreated environment…whose faults appeal to owners. »

Designing an Audiophile System

There is a very wide range of audio systems of all sizes, performances and aesthetics. Our job is to perfectly identify the expectations of the owner and offer him the best suited system to his objectives and constraints.

Of course, the main constraint to take into account is the one imposed by the room itself, what has always made us say : The most important element in any Hi End audio system is naturally the listening room itself.

The choice of the room and the program to be played there will determine the speaker system needed to achieve the desired result. The choice of speakers and the program will determine the choice of the most suitable electronics for the situation.

It is because the consistency of the systems that we install at our customers' premises is a priority for us that in almost twenty years we have rarely touched up a system to improve it, apart from the integration of new technologies, including processors .