Love Music? Improve Your Listening Experience By Improving Your Equipment

Without the high overall quality, you can't experience the complete outcome of the intricate production process that went into your favorite tracks. 

In other words, the listening experience defines one's levels of enjoyment and connection with the music they listen to. Because you deserve the best, here are the upgrades you can get to improve your experience.

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High-Quality Headphones

First and foremost, you've got to get yourself a better pair of headphones. No, we're not talking about the most famous name brands, but the brands that studio pros use. There's a reason musicians and producers use specific brands of headphones and that's because they are as true as ever to the music. Bear in mind, most companies advertise their headphones using attractive words, like punchy bass. 

Bass is good, but music isn't just about the low frequencies, you also need smooth, trance-inducing highs and clear mids. More importantly, you want a full sound and as effective noise-canceling as you can get to access that beautiful bubble where it's just you and your music. 

Stereo Vs Surround Sound

A question that has brought many experts to their knees trying to find the ultimate answer. When it comes to sound systems, what's the best option? To make this easier for you, there is no correct answer. It's all subjective. The main factor when it comes to the stereo or a surround sound debate is budget. Surround sounds are composed of five to seven speakers while stereo systems are only composed of two. Meaning, if you don't have the money for five good speakers and a subwoofer, you're much better off with two high-quality speakers. 

For the sake of a fair comparison, let's assume the budget isn't an issue. How do you pick your poison? Surround sound is similar to watching 3D movies. It's only good if you take advantage of it. If you like to listen to music out loud, you'll like surround sound and you'll know why the next time you host a party. You'll also love surround sound if you're a fan of feeling like you're in a movie theater. 

Stereo, on the other hand, is significantly better when it comes to listening to the music of a higher quality. Why? Because music is recorded and mastered on the stereo and not surround. Meaning, surround doesn't add anything to the music, as opposed to two exceptional high-quality stereo speakers.

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Invest in an Amplifier

Amplifiers are what you get when you've already gotten the best speakers you can get, but still want to take things to the next level. All music is composed of audio signals. What an amp does is that it takes those signals and amplifies them, giving them clarity and power. If you'd like your music to sound clearer, an amplifier will do just that. If you're also one of those people to whom loud isn't loud enough, but you often find yourself limited to a certain volume to avoid distortion, an amplifier will increase the output to match the ability of your speakers.

 See, distortion happens when a source is required to deliver a signal output that exceeds its capabilities. What an amp does is that it increases the output signals. That way, your speakers won't be asking too much of your input source as it will be backed up by an amplifier that can bridge the gap.

Regardless of the type of music you like listening to, these device upgrades will change your whole outlook on music. You'll truly understand the difference between a song and an experience because most of your songs will be experiences. This means heightened emotions while listening, deepened admiration for every song and artist, and lots of fun times with friends. The one thing you need to keep in mind is that these upgrades won't do you much good if your input is low-quality .mp3 files. 

Most songs use a 128 kbps bit rate, but it's no good because, while this saves up on storage space, it reduces quality. You have two options if you want to preserve the quality of your music. One, opt for 320 kbps .mp3 files. There's not much data loss in these files. Two, and the more effective solution, is to avoid .mp3 files altogether and use FLAC or ALAC files. The file sizes are larger, but it's because you get the full audio information in each song without any quality loss.

Jessica Tanner

Update 18 April 2021