Advice when buying a Hi-Fi sound system Hi-Fi sound systems come in four different size categories:
- the full breadth of 43 centimetres.
These components are sold separately and are built purely for sound performance. You are able to combine different brands and models as you wish, dependent only on your ear and your pocket. Within this category you find the heaviest and most expensive Hi-Fi equipment, but the best quality – for the enthusiast.
- midi systems which are 32-36 centimetres
- mini systems which are 27 centimetres
- and the smallest, micro systems which are 18-20 centimetres.
Although in these sizes there are some systems with components sold separately, most are sold as complete packages with the units connected and are therefore convenient and simple to buy. They tend to have inferior sound and are inflexible but often more stylish in appearance than the larger separates.
Stereo amplifier/Receiver Tuner CD-player Minidiscs Cassette deck Speakers You should choose speakers depending on the type of music you enjoy. Test the speakers that you find most interesting by listening to your favourite music through them. There are 2-way and 3-way speakers. This means that the speaker has 2 respectively 3-speaker elements where different speaker elements have diverse frequency areas. The larger bass speaker handles the low frequency and the treble handles the high frequency. If you want an extra strong bass sound you can buy a subwoofer, which is a separate bass speaker. The subwoofer can be a complement to your exiting speakers or you can use it together with two satellite speakers or wall fixed speakers. The last mentioned covers all frequencies except the lowest, which the subwoofer takes care of. Don’t forget that the location of your speakers is important to the sound.
Some good advice on the location of the speakers
Don’t let large items of furniture cover the sound from the speakers. Put the speakers in the corner if the room if you like a stronger bass and ensure the speakers are at the same level. If you don’t have floor speakers, put the them on a stand to get a better quality of sound. The listener should be sitting in an isosceles triangle point. (fig 1) Good quality speaker cable will make all the difference to the sound of your speakers.
What is included when you buy a Hi-Fi sound system and what do you need? The appearance and performance of your system depend on your taste and your budget. You should consider if you might want to upgrade individual components of your equipment at a later date, whether you want something compact and stylish for a small appartment or for children’s bedrooms, or even if you might want to connect the system to your VCR and TV?
Whatever the source, be it CD, tape cassette, MiniDisc, record deck or radio, you need a unit to amplify the sound. A receiver is an amplifier with an inbuilt radio unit. Most midi, mini and micro systems come with a receiver. The power of an amplifier’s output is measured in watts, amplifying the sound to the speakers. Many factors have an effect on the sound and although high wattage per channel provides more volume, this is not necessarily a guarantee of better sound quality. Spend some time thinking about what your needs are and what functions you want your amplifier to perform. It is now possible to have cinema sound at home. To get this you need an amplifier with a special inbuilt sound decoder. On these amplifiers you find specifications such as Dolby Digital, Dolby Prologic, Virtual Surround, Surround, etc. Using several speakers, this amplifier/receiver can reproduce surround sound as in a cinema.
A tuner is a radio unit without a built-in amplifier. Many tuners today have RDS (Radio Data System) – a data transference system enabling a radio station to send information to the listener such as information about an artist, traffic messages, weather reports and so on. Many tuners have an autotune facility. This means that you can programme in your favourite radio stations and access them at the press of a button.
CD-players exist in many different varieties and models. There are players for single discs as well as multiplayer models capable of playing back a number of discs with the tracks in any order you choose. The players exist with a range of options for a better sound performance and ease of use. A CD-player plays discs than contains up to 80 minutes of playtime. The CD-players have an excellent quality of sound because of the digital handle with a laser pickup that transform the information of the disc to an analogue signal that in the end is being amplified by the amplifier.
MiniDisc players are becoming an increasingly popular component in Hi-Fi stereo systems - particularly with the smaller midi, mini and microsystems. The MiniDisc is like a scaled-down computer floppy disc, providing 74 minutes of playing time and with the digital sound quality of a CD. It is reusable like tape cassettes so you can record over unwanted music over and over again without any deterioration of sound quality. MiniDiscs share their versatility with cassette tapes with vastly improved sound quality, durability and better format – home recordings can be made for both portable and in-car MiniDisc players. A portable MiniDisc recorder not much bigger than the disc itself will, when plugged into Hi-Fi separates with a special adaptor, make perfect digital recordings. It is certain that MiniDiscs will eventually replace traditional cassette tapes.
The market for cassette decks has shrunk considerably recently with the introduction of CD players and recordable MiniDiscs. As a result good quality cassette decks are now cheaper. Some are twin decks, making it possible to copy between two cassettes. You get what you pay for with cassette decks, but for quality recordings a three-head machine will give improved recording quality due to the separated recording and playing. When you have separated heads for recording and playing you can also adjust the recording while it goes on. The cassette deck is versatile – recordings made on your home machine can be played back on your personal stereo, in the car and on a ghetto-blaster virtually anywhere.
The speakers are a vital part of your equipment. Sound quality in the rest of your system will be wasted without a good pair of the speakers. The speakers transform the electrical signals into sound waves. The human ear is able to catch frequencies between 20-20.000 Hz and theoretically one might wish for a speaker to reproduce the same frequency spectra, although no speaker in the world could do that. Today the speakers’ frequency spectra are getting closer to that of the human ear so that reproduction is impressive in most cases. The different designs and types of speakers are, amongst others: a closed box, reflected bass and slave bass systems. The most common is the closed box (fig a) and reflected bass (fig b). The design of the reflected bass box gives a powerful bass sound. The actual bass reflection is from a tube that discharges through exit ports back or front of the speaker box.
fig a 
fig b
fig 1
