science

High-end audio

High-end audio is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand High-end audio rather than just read about it. In short: High-end audio is a class of consumer home audio equipment marketed to audiophiles on the basis of high price or quality, and esoteric or novel sound reproduction technologies. The term can refer simply to the price, to the build quality of the components, or to the subjective or objective quality of sound reproduction.

Key takeaways

High-end audio belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect High-end audio to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of High-end audio from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

High-end audio is a class of consumer home audio equipment marketed to audiophiles on the basis of high price or quality, and esoteric or novel sound reproduction technologies. The term can refer simply to the price, to the build quality of the components, or to the subjective or objective quality of sound reproduction.

Definition The distinction between the terms high end and high fidelity is not well defined. According to one industry commentator, high-end could be defined as, "Gear below which's price and performance one could not go without compromising the music and the sound." Harry Pearson, founder of The Absolute Sound magazine, is widely acknowledged to have coined the term high-end audio.

Costs High-end audio equipment can be extremely expensive. It is sometimes referred to as cost-no-object equipment. Audiophile equipment can encompass the full range from budget to high-end in terms of price.

Fidelity assessment The fidelity of sound reproduction may be assessed subjectively or using audio system measurements. The human sense of hearing is subjective and difficult to define. Psychoacoustics is a division of acoustics that studies this field. High or low figures of technical measurements do not necessarily offer a good representation of how the equipment sounds to each person. For example, some valve (vacuum tube) amplifiers produce greater amounts of total harmonic distortion, but this type of distortion (2nd harmonic) is not as disturbing to the ear as the higher-order distortions produced by early, poorly designed transistor equipment. The validity of some products is questioned. These include accessories such as speaker wire utilizing exotic materials (including oxygen-free copper) and construction geometries, cable stands for lifting them off the floor (as a way to control mechanically induced vibrations), connectors, sprays and other tweaks.

See also Audio noise measurement Broadcast quality Professional audio Stereophile, The Absolute Sound; high-end home audio magazines

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with High-end audio

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what High-end audio claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to High-end audio before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about High-end audio ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of High-end audio

In research: High-end audio appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses High-end audio in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: High-end audio is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Audio players, Consumer electronics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for High-end audio outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study High-end audio in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what High-end audio means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain High-end audio out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is High-end audio in simple terms?

Why does High-end audio matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study High-end audio?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on High-end audio.