Originally Posted by: Dr_simon

What do you mix through (Don't for the love of God say headphones !!) ?

That's all I've ever used. I don't even own a pair of speakers anymore. I can't get into music unless it's really loud, right in the middle of my head.
I find I can never get speakers that'll go loud enough. I either end up clipping the fuses or burning out the tweaters or physically blowing the cone right out of the woofers.
I usually find the audiophile stuff that sounds really great isn't built for abuse.
And the punchy speakers sound great in the bass but the high end sucks.
One advantage of working in a stereo shop was blowing the hell out of systems
after work :)

As far as picking a system... like these guys are saying... avoid those stupid all in one things by Technics. You're better off buying a really good, poweful amp. A better than average CD player and a pair of good speakers. And don't skimp on the speaker & rca cables. Forget the radio, turntable and cassette deck..they're useless.
And as far as taking a CD you like... it's a good idea, but it's also a good idea to have the sales guy play some stuff that he knows really well, that shows off what the system can do.
I can't count the number of times somebody would come in with a crappy cassette because some magazine said to listen to something you know... I'd put the cassette on and it'd sound just as bad as it does on their original system.
Any audio guy should know at least 5 amazingly produced CD's that show off the bass, how the bass sounds when the other instruments come in, how much reserve power there is for dynamics... stereo seperation etc...
Man.. there's so much stuff that people believe that just isn't true.
Don't buy based on wattage cause there's a lot more to it, like quality components and well designed electronics. Wattage can be rated in different ways too, which is why you can buy a 1000 watt Pyramid amp for a few hundred bucks.

Then there's the ultimate piss off thing that about 90% of people believe..that too much wattage will blow your speakers. It's actually too little wattage that'll burn up your speakers because of the distortion from the clipping. It burns out the diaphram.
You can physically blow a woofer out of a speaker with way too much wattage but it's pretty rare.

And hey... nifty trick if you wanna see how stable your amp is.
Hook up one pair of speaker wires and put a pencil lead between the positive and negative leads. Turn the amp up full blast. If the amp doesn't crash and blow a fuse, you'll get a kewl burning pencil lead. (don't do this with crappy systems or you'll fry it.)

Man.. I feel like I'm back at work describing all this stuff... this is depressing. :cool: