Modern home appliances and electronics equipment come in so many different forms that it can be incredibly easy to get lost in all the variety.  When it comes to putting together a first rate home theater and stereo system there’s no exception: a million and one different models and brands clutter the market, and buyers are left scratching their heads for a good long while before making what is in most cases a fairly arbitrary and random decision as to what to buy (well, some people surely do their research and make more informed decisions, but they are by no means the majority).  What a lot of such buyers don’t have in mind when they go ahead and buy the various hardware components that will make up their theater and audio systems is that they will need quality furniture to make everything function properly: to house their equipment neatly on the one hand and, more importantly, to ensure that the audio quality emitted by the equipment is no less than optimum.

Considering the fact that the average home stereo system today forms part of a broader home theater system that includes a lot of different gear, such furniture needs to be spacious and have the ability of adding on new extensions to accommodate future purchases.  Hence, keep an eye out for models that have the capacity to expand, with apertures that will serve for adding new shelf space and which can stack up and out.  This will mean being able to accommodate a variety of different items with varying heights inside, so if you change a given audio console out for another after a new purchase you won’t have to go and buy a new furniture item to house it.

For the housing of your main audio consoles, such as the pre amp, the audio sources, radio equipment, tuners, and so on, you will want a modern high performance audio rack (also known as a Hi Fi rack).  This is the item described above, which should ideally be able to be expanded and modified in a variety of ways.  In addition to this particular feature (definitely a priority), you will want to make sure that the rack is nice and sturdy—important not only because the equipment inside can be quite heavy, but furthermore because there should be minimal to zero possibility for the audio vibrations to affect the equipment’s functioning.  This idea is really taken to the extreme in some models of Hi Fi racks where each shelf is rendered completely independent of the rest through ball bearings and the inclusion of some variety of synthetic, high density material such as polyurethane at the contact points that further eliminates vibration interference.  These features collectively deaden and dampen vibrations, and they are absolutely fundamental to the proper functioning of your main audio hardware.

As the TV is the natural and necessary complement to any audio system, you will want to consider furniture for it as well.  Of course, if your TV is mounted on the wall there isn’t much to discuss here, and the audio racks mentioned above can neatly be tucked beneath such a wall-mount arrangement to create a tidy entertainment section of the home.  However, for those that don’t go the wall-mount path may want to look into investing in a TV stand that will furthermore likely be able to house some if not all of your audio equipment (depending on the size of the stand and the amount of equipment you have, of course).  There is a model of stand to meet whatever needs you may have and whatever model TV you may have: there are models that are nice and wide to accommodate big screens yet that don’t protrude far from the wall to match the dimensions of a flat screen set: then there are other models that are more apt for use with a normal tube TV.  The amount of shelves beneath varies greatly, with some offering enough space for all the other audio consoles as mentioned.  If this is the option you choose, you will again want to make sure that the shelves are very strong and resistant; this is especially true if your TV has built in speakers that will be used, as the vibrations emanating from the speakers will have the ability of providing vibration interference as mentioned above.

One of the easier and more affordable ways to improve the audio performance of your home system was discovered back in the ‘80s—simply elevating the speakers off the ground, that is.  This again implies the necessity of appropriate furniture in the form of speaker stands.  Such stands come in a variety of models and prices, and the best (also the more costly) are incredibly sturdy, again to eliminate vibration related problems that detract from audio quality.  The preferred materials for such stands are either steel or thick glass though a few other varieties may be found, some in plastics.  In addition to the strength of the stand shaft itself, the two crucial points to be optimized are at the top and bottom, where contact with the speaker itself and the floor occurs, respectively.  Good stands will come with appropriate rubber pads or similar isolation measures, however there are many accessories to be bought that can help you improve these problem areas on your speakers stands.

For example, there are accessories known as floor spikes that help deaden any vibrations being passed on from the speaker stand, and these floor spikes will differ depending on the kind of flooring you have installed in your home—carpeting will require a different kind than wood or laminate floors, so be sure you get your hands on the right item. 

Another very interesting product is high density filler for your speaker stands.  This is a generally synthetic product which you apply to your stands to load on mass, giving the stand more weight and reducing the chance of vibration issues, available in a variety of colors. 

Before it is really possible to understand how speakers work, it is first necessary to understand how sound works.

How Sound Works

Humans are able to pick up sound due to a very thin piece of tissue in their ear that is commonly known as the eardrum. When the sound waves reach the eardrum, it vibrates and sends signals to the brain, from there the brain can then interpret the vibration as sound.

Although sound vibrations can travel through liquid and solid objects, it most often travels through air, which is how people experience sound from speakers. The way this works is that the sound waves vibrate air particles; at this point the air particles move particle disturbance through the air. The vibrating air particles send a fluctuating wave of pressure through the atmosphere until it reaches your eardrum. As the eardrum vibrates, it sends the sound signals to your brain.

How Speakers Work

When sound is recorded with a microphone or other recording device, is works much like the eardrum; it picks up the sound vibrations and converts them into electrical signals, and then either records it as data, or sends it to the speaker.

When electrical signals are sent to a speaker, what is happening is that the speaker is converting those electrical signals back into physical vibrations that will create sound waves. If the system is working correctly, the sound that comes out of the speakers will be nearly identical to the sound that went into the microphone or recording.

The speaker translates the electrical signal when it rapidly vibrates a flexible cone, and a signal is sent through the voice coil. To amplify the sound, it is constantly fluctuating the electrical current between a positive and negative charge. This moves the voice coil back and forth, which then vibrates the cone to recreate the sound waves that reach your ears.

Because the different speakers create difference sound frequencies, to recreate high quality sound it is necessary to have different types of speakers; this is why you will find that most good speakers have a woofer and a tweeter, all within the same compartment.

When looking for high quality speakers, it is important to pay attention to the design of the speaker enclosure. The design of the speaker enclosure will influence the final output; you will want an enclosure that provides good quality sound reproduction.

The most popular is the sealed enclosure, which is completely sealed and forces the sound out from the speakers into the room. The disadvantage of the sealed speaker enclosure is that it is not as efficient as some of the other designs, and requires a boost in the electrical signal to produce good sound, as there is no method of equalizing the air pressure.

Other speaker enclosures, such as the bass reflex enclosure, or the passive radiator enclosure are designed to overcome the air pressure by redirecting it out of a small port that is built into the speaker.

At Atacama, we take the idea of ‘audio geek’ up a notch. For a stack of information on audiovisual technology, home cinema equipment, TV racks & speaker stands, please feel free to visit our website.

Vinyl endures

From vinyl to cassette to CD to digital, music formatting has come a long way.  Each advance has certainly changed the way we use and listen to music, and each has contributed something to the medium, but it doesn’t mean that each advance has necessarily been an improvement, or that older forms have been rendered irrelevant.  Although they seem like ancient relics compared to new technologies, vinyl records have not lost any of their cool.  Just like a 1960 Cadillac is never out of style, vinyl still has a firm claim on cool, even now in the 21^st century.  What is it that makes this dated technology so timeless?

First and foremost among reasons that vinyl has remained so magnificent is the sound quality.  The sound of a vinyl record cannot be matched by any newer technology.  The jumps and crackles lend such a pure authenticity to music, especially as compared to over-produced studio music that sounds listless and lifeless.  A flawless recording has no spirit, but vinyl is raw and real.  It is interesting to note that some digital music players have an option to add those rough vinyl sounds to digital music.  Of course, these digital attempts do not produce the same quality as the real deal, but it does go to show that raw sound quality is something lacking in CDs and mp3s, and that this has not gone unnoticed by music producers.

If you are not convinced on the grounds of sound quality alone, don’t forget about the physical aspect.  A vinyl collection is a tangible treasure hoard.  Each record is lovingly tucked into its sleeve, carefully organized amongst its fellow records.  You know each disc, its grooves, and the weight of it between your finger tips.  There is something visceral about vinyl, a connection that doesn’t exist with a shiny CD or an intangible mp3.  Having a physical attachment to a favorite album is nothing to scoff at.  It is the same as the difference between your beloved, beat up old copy of Charlotte’s Web, and reading the same text on an impersonal, glaring white computer screen.

The physical aspect is not just about emotion, it is also about the appearance and presentation of an album.  Those big, square covers have lots of room for great artwork, which you come to associate with the music itself.  And there are the gimmicks. – do you remember the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers album?  Designed by Andy Warhol, the cover features a picture of a man’s crotch in tight jeans, and had a real, metal zipper that could be pulled down to reveal cotton briefs.  That sort of thing is simply not possible in other forms of music.  The Sticky Fingers CD was released with the same image, but the zipper is reduced to part of the photograph, and the whole physical appeal is absent.

One further aspect related to the physical is the actual act of shopping for records.  When shopping for records you tend to find yourself among like-minded people who also grasp the coolness of vinyl.  You might head out to used stores, flea markets, or garage sales, and there you browse through piles of records, looking for the one that will brighten your day.  Sometimes you find unexpected gems forgotten in these dusty bins, other times you buy something on a whim and end up discovering a great band or album that you didn’t know before.  When you buy music online, you go straight to what you were searching for, pay money for something you can’t see, and don’t have the opportunity to make those leisurely meanderings that result in so many great finds in record stores.  There is something deeply satisfying about the search and discovery process of shopping for vinyl.

There is another subtle feature of vinyl that makes it so classic and cool in the face of digital music.  It is the fact that a vinyl record is a complete album, recorded just as a band planned.  The tracks are presented in an intentional order, and the album as a whole represents a significant period in that band’s career.  Much of this is lost with modern music formatting.  People tend to know hit singles and download just these individual songs.  Listeners are less familiar with entire albums, and thus their understanding of the evolution and growth of any band is limited.  The shuffle feature on iPod is the epitome of this loss – one song follows another with absolutely no relation, no plan.  Artists, eras, genres are a chaotic mess of random play.  In contrast, an album is premeditated; there is harmony and purpose in the flow, and vinyl records perfectly capture this intention.

We are not here to say that vinyl doesn’t have its drawbacks.  The players are not portable, so you can’t listen just anywhere.  The discs are fragile, prone to scratches and easy to break.  They take up way more space than cassettes or CDs, and obviously more than non-physical digital music.  Yet it is these qualities that add to the timeless charm and appeal of records.  The fact that they aren’t portable means that listening to records is more of an event, a personal moment in your home.  The fragility is also what gives vinyl its powerful, raw sound.  And the fact that they are physical and take up space is what allows us to become attached to them, to know and love each one like a dear friend.

Music is too important to take for granted.  When you sit down and listen to vinyl, you are experiencing the music, rather than being an accidental eavesdropper.  You have a connection to the music, both emotional and corporeal, and you listen to an album from start to finish.  Technology marches on and we will never go back to just vinyl records, but the march of progress will has not stamped out the enduring popularity of vinyl.  In fact, the contrasts just go to show why vinyl is and always will be so cool.

Please visit our speaker stands page to find all of our products that compliment vinyl.