Some points on Stereo systems: Speaker wire: 14-16 awg is all you need and should not cost more than 10-20 dollars for 50 to 100 feet. Radio Shack speaker wire is fine.
Bi and tri-amping: This can be worthwhile. The concept is that a power amplifier creates the most distortion when it is amplifying the highest and lowest frequencies at the same time. So you insert in the chain between the pre amplifier and the power amplifier an "active crossover" which splits off the lows and sends it to it's own separate power amplifier. This is "Bi-amping" . If you also do it for the mid-range as well, it's called "Tri-amping." Where the low, mid range, and high frequencies each have their own power amplifiers.
Some will argue that seems like overdoing it. You should consider that power amplifiers are now available as an integrated circuit the size of a human hand.
100 watts
This segues into..... Sub-woofers: The wavelengths of sounds that the woofers handle are so long that most people cannot stereophonically "locate" them. This is due to the fact that compared with the distance between your ears the long wavelengths have insufficient timing differences for most to locate the sound image. So the rationale is to have the active crossover "sum" the lows from the left and right sides into one signal, send them into one power amplifier, and rather than have two woofers, have one really big one.
The next two are always good to make people angry. Phonograph records versus CD: I should preface this with the fact I have turntables, tape recorders(open reel and cassette) at home. I consider phonograph records like fine books. Wonderful packages to look at, and it is fun to watch a record player work. It is the same with tapes.
But at no time do I delude myself into saying LPs and Tapes are better than CDs. No matter how you show the mathematics of the analogue to digital process, or the result of lab tests, there are imbeciles (nice imbeciles, but imbeciles nonetheless) who will argue that LPs are superior to CDs.
Vacuum tubes (valves) versus solid state: I can repair tube circuits. In high school shop I built (from scratch, not a kit) an FM stereo system out of vacuum tubes. I have restored old systems.
Solid state is better than tubes.
The best speakers: Klipschorns without question...they must however, to work properly, be put solidly in the corners of a room.
Klipschorns!! I can’t afford them.
