PQS 302

Frequently Asked Questions

First and foremost, sound reproduction systems offer a home musical experience. Good systems offer enjoyment, good sound; world-league systems play “music”. 

By “Music” we refer to the not subtle characteristics of musicians’ urgency, their immediacy in playing, the energy they impart… the impact and the attack on an instrument, the vitality and the sense of being alive, powerful, the relentless hammering of the tympani; the emotional impact and the sense of drama… all those elements that make a performance acquire total and complete sense for the listener. And this must be enjoyed at realistic levels for the room and the music being played, at imperceptible distortion levels; tall order, indeed.

The differences between good systems and world-class systems are not subtle, as we have learned throughout a +30 year audiophile journey and the small fortunes spent on pursuing the evanescent and evasive audio nirvana.

Finally, please be disabused: a home system does not sound like the actual live event; it is absurd, indeed, to expect a full classical orchestra to play in our living room. However, the home musical experience mimics a live event and the correctness of the instruments is perceptible through the quality of the sound reproduction, and the musicians prowess is easily discernible as are the dynamics of the playing but, please, let's distinguish between the Opera House and our home!

Having said that, the following represents a list of questions that arise during discussions with various people that listen to our systems.

How did you learn about FM Acoustics?

In the late 70s I was introduced to FM Acoustics in New York City. My music listening expectations were changed forever.  I was astonished by the live music experience I was witnessing and the ease of driving one of the most difficult pair of speakers of that time. Unfortunately, FM Acoustics was always expensive and for all of us difficult to come up with the cash required to obtain an FM Acoustics system. Over the time, I discovered that FM Acoustics were not expensive but other manufacturers were over-promising and under delivering. Twenty years later, I did buy an FMA system but I had spent a lot more in the process than if I had bought an FM Acoustics system in the first place. As they say, better late than never.

I own well known and expensive components. How do I upgrade? Where do I start?

There is no right way going about it as many factors play significant role. However, assuming that you have a fairly well balanced system today, our experience shows that the preamplifier would be the first. This is the heart of the system, and a great preamp allows you to experience the sonic signature of the rest of your components and allows you to identify which component is next. Trials of various brands and models will show the differences and help you decide. The selected preamplifier should make enough positive impact on your system that you can live with it with no further change. At this point, a soul search and market research is mandatory to decide which speakers you want to drive and what capability in amplification is required. Once the speakers are selected, the amplification is next. However, the two are viewed as one.
Many people ask about cables, which is indeed an important part of the system. However, correctly built electronics have little dependencies in cabling without having a make or break impact on the system.  In other words, a good system will play well with entry level cables and will play better with cables that have high purity, insulation, etc. In any case, purchasing cables that cost one or more times over the component, need to be reconsidered as the issue may reside in the component, loudspeaker placement, equipment matching, problematic source (turntable set-up) or media, etc.

What records do you use to evaluate equipment?

The following outline the albums we used recently for our system evaluation and set up. They are listened to a volume level that is appropriate for the event. The preamp volume level should be at 12 o'clock, 5 past 12 approximately. If it is at quarter to and it is loud, then the gain of the system is high and needs to be adjusted, possibly internally.

What are your criteria for selecting loudspeakers?

The most vital is to know what your real needs are. Listening to Rock 99% of the time is a different need than if you listen to large classical orchestral compositions 99% of the time. Music produced by a small number of instruments can be more easily reproduced by a large number of systems and you should not invest more than you have to in order to enjoy the music material you prefer.  In our experience, the quality of reproduction and cost increase as the compexity of the musical material being reproduced increases (large orchestras, variability in dynamics, etc.), low frequencies become accurate (below 50Hz) and high frequencies have transparency and energy. Most manufacturers today have very good midrange frequency reproduction, thus excellent midrange is already assumed.

We go for the faithfulness to the live event and ability for natural reproduction of the musical event, instrument sounds and human voices. Thus, excellent recordings should give you the impression of being there. However, the trial should be made with excellent and demanding recordings, played at the right volume level. If the audio representatives do not allow you to play the material loud enough, please reconsider your choice.

The next steps are the characteristics of the speaker itself. Crossover complexity and number of drivers are on the top of the list as the demands on amplification can be great (and expensive) and you may have phase problems. Distortion is fairly high on the list as you need the dynamics of a musical event to be heard naturally and without strain. The perception of space and instrument location within that space is very critical as well. If a speaker model provides all the above, has earned to go to the next level of evaluation, which is to listen more critically.

Do I need a dedicated listening room?

Not really. This is a personal matter. However, the proposed systems are living room friendly and do not take excessive dedicated space. Further, the proposed amplifiers can be near the speakers, away from the preamps and sources and utilize long interconnects with no signal loss. In our demos, we usually use 10 meter long FM Acoustics PIT interconnects, and can be several hundred meters long, if need arises.

Therefore, a dedicated listening room is nice to have, provided you have the space and money. Otherwise, a single good system is the preferred solution.

Your proposed systems are very expensive.

Unfortunately, all finer things in life are more expensive than their average peers but their overall value is at significant premium. The proposed systems are well matched and should perform significantly better than most equal value competitive systems using complex musical material. We rank them at "Best of Breed" or world class level, well beyond what is termed "reference." Actually, they should beat a lot more expensive systems/components in the reproduction of musical material and in engineering, using real loads.

All our components are hand-built, use select components, limited production and provide reference sound reproduction, used foremost by music aficionados. They retain their resale value and are readily recognizable for their long lasting built quality. It is very rare that one can find them used and if found, they are sold immediately, provided they are in good condition.

Therefore, they are more expensive than average. However, our equipment should be the end-game for most of the people that buy them. They realize that they cannot get better than what they have easily or need to spend a lot more. If there is something better, most likely, is not available to hear it to verify the difference. In most systems, replacing a component with those we propose, the improvement should be apparent immediately.

In summary, most customers wished they had bought the proposed brands/solutions a lot earlier as they would have saved significant sums in their quest for better sounding systems.

How do I finance my purchases?

Most of those systems are expensive and a complete system costs as much as a very good BMW. Therefore, the financing methods are similar to those of similar price tag:

  1. Bank loans. We work with several banks that can provide consumer loans at preferential rates of up to 5 years. This assumes that the potential customer passes the Bank credit criteria.
  2. Exchanges. Part of the purchase can be covered by trade-ins. However, the pricing of these units will be done according to European and US pricing conditions, as they are developed in markets such as Audiogon, E-Bay, etc. In any case, the trade-in cannot exceed more than 25% of the value of the purchased item(s).

For the specific approach we will discuss with our customers and find ways to address their needs.