'Now you Can Afford Hi Fidelity Audio'

There are many opinions to what the terms Hi-Fi, Hi Fidelity and Audiophile mean. At Grant Fidelity, we simply state that our idea of these terms is 'reproduced music that you feel with your senses'. Regardless of what type of music you enjoy your Hi Fidelity system should capture your attention enough that you start to hear the finer details of the music you are listening to. You should become absorbed in the experience of listening to your favourite music and enjoy the beauty of music you may not have explored yet.

Hi Fidelity can be very expensive, but does not need to be. We offer here some facts, clarify some myths and give suggestions to get you started in your journey into the Hi Fidely and/or Audiophile world and hope your journey will begin with the Grant Fidelity concept of great reproduced music.

First a little background about Ian Grant, our founder has been in music production and music reproduction since childhood. In his own words

'I was a listener and lover of music until the age of 28 at which point I got involved professionally with recording music. I will always feel that this delay in getting into the music business gave me better ears than most who have typically been involved since teenagehood. I can switch between perfectionist recording engineer, live sound engineer, audiophile producer and music lover at any moment I wish. I believe I am lucky to have this ability'.

It is Ian Grant who ignores the equipment specs as meaningless jokes and insists that if you can't feel the music via your audio system, then it isn't Hi Fidelity or Audiophile quality. Ian has designed, built and equipped recording studios, owned and operated live and studio recording production companies, composed and arranged music. His favourite activity is mixing live sound, which when done right is about as Hi-Fi as you can get.

Lets start with some Grant Fidelity idea of the facts:

• Cost - It is relatively easy and inexpensive to get to 90% of perfection in any portion of the music production and reproduction chain. To get to 91% requires a doubling of expense, 92% another doubling of expense and so on up to the theoretical 100% perfection, which to date, has never been acheived and it actually impossible to achieve. The closest you can get to perfection is the best musicians in the best theatres with no mistakes or noise from the audience and be lucky enough to be there when it happened. Lets say a good $2000 system can get you 90% of perfect, 91% is much better, but costs you $4,000, 92% costs you $8,000, 93% costs you $16,000 and so on. This scale is also true for concert musicians, recording studios and any other part of the the audio chain.
• Acoustics - As you can see it gets quite expensive as we go up the scale and a lot of that is due to what many others don't seem to like to mention; acoustics. There is no point purchasing exotic gear to put in an unappropriate room or even house when you start trying for 92% and above without acoustic treatment. To go above 94% perfect requires acoustic design skills to create your listening room or you are spending your money on expensive toys that you aren't hearing. Very similar to owning a Ferrari and never driving out of downtown, looks nice, sounds nice, but are you really driving it.
• Sources - There is plenty of debate over whats the most important part of the chain of Hi-Fidelity reproduction. At Grant Fidelity we believe the most important part of the chain is the recordings you play back. To truly enjoy Hi-Fidelity at an audiophile level you need to invest some money in getting the best recordings of your favourite musicians in CD, DVD and/or Vinyl. The better your gear gets the more it will show the quality of the recordings and production. The old saying 'garbage in, garbage out' truly applies in real Hi-Fidelity.

Lets carry on with some Myths about Hi-Fidelity:

• Specifications - most manufactures use specifications as a marketing tool. The relationship of specifications and Hi-Fidelity is basically meaningless. For a specifications to have any meaning requires it to be stated with at least 2 qualified conditions attached. For example a 10 watt amp, at 1.0% Total Harmonic Distortion, at full frequency of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz within plus/minus 1 decibel difference in volume (10w @ 1.0%THD @ 20-20kHz +/- 1dB) is many times more powerful and better sounding than an amp rated at 100w @ 0.05 THD, or an amp rated at 100w @ 1khz. By dropping qualified conditions from specifications, many manufacturers are basically hiding the deficiencies of their products.
• Specifications 2 - Even the best specified products with proper and verifiable specifications do not necessarily mean they will sound musical. An example is many Japanese audio products, which rarely have meaningfull specifications. They are technically close to perfect, but you will rarely find any of them in a true Hi-Fidelity system. They sound too clean and lifeless. The only Japanese speaker that is used in music studios is there just because it sounds so lifeless, which makes the engineer work harder to create an exciting mix. Most engineeers dislike the sound of them, putting it mildly.

to be continued