I just wrapped up a review for Positive Feedback Online about Jim Smith's Reference DVD Set of Get Better Sound on setting up high-performance audio & video systems that I mentioned in Today's Fresh Catch awhile back. The review just appeared in the January/February Issue 59 here.
If you've been reading my writing for a while, you know how much I respect Jim Smith and his audio skills. Jim's DVD set is a must buy, and here's a couple of excerpts to get you by until the review appears in the new issue of PFO:
"More than any other person that I am aware of on our Planet Earth, Jim Smith has the ability to listen to a Hi-Fi system, and then by drawing on his enormous experience & knowledge base related to live and reproduced music, Jim knows exactly what to do to optimize that system’s setup, allowing it system to play dramatically better than anyone ever thought possible.
I really and truly believe that Jim’s unique abilities allow him to get more performance out of $10K Hi-Fi system than the vast majority of Hi-Fi enthusiasts, dealers, and audio reviewers can get out of a $100K Hi-Fi system. Really. Think about that for a moment. You could have a relatively modest investment in a Hi-Fi system, have Jim set it up for you, and smoke your buddies with their $100K Hi-Fi rigs. I am not kidding. I suspect most Hi-Fi enthusiasts are getting far less than 50% of what their systems are really capable of performance-wise. So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that a modestly priced ‘David’ system that is getting close to its maximum level of performance could kick ass on expensive ‘Goliath’ systems that are not. For some reason the thought of that scenario gives me a great deal of joy.
I told Jim that I thought that he had a magic touch when it came to getting the most performance out of a Hi-Fi system, but Jim was quick to correct me, saying that his ‘magic touch’ is largely something that can be taught, which of course is the purpose of Jim’s book and DVD reference set, Get Better Sound, the latter which is the topic of this article."
Check out all the different lessons included in this DVD set - first in Disk 1:
Disk 2:
Disk 3:
The amount of knowledge contained within this DVD set is astonishing. In the article I said:
"While watching the three DVDs in Jim’s reference set, what first came to my mind was, “There’s really a lot of densely packed information on these three DVDs, Jim has really put a lot of work into this.” Having been involved in a little bit of video production for my job in years past, I can tell you that it is a lot of work to produce something like Jim’s DVD set. You have to write the scripts for the dialog you want to cover, you have to shoot the video footage to be used, you have to decide if you want to include voiceovers, or add photos or diagrams or animation, or add music, and then combine it so it all works together as an effective whole. That’s not easy to do. I’d say there are many hundreds of hours of effort on Jim’s part to put all of this together, making the price of $39.70 for the set seem very reasonable indeed. For your money you get five and a half hours of carefully chosen content that will allow you to setup & voice your system so it will ‘play the room’ and put you into a state of musical ecstasy. That’s a bargain!"
Jim has really done a super job on these DVDs. Here's part of my conclusion from the article:
"As an individual, I doubt there’s anything you could do for your Hi-Fi system and listening satisfaction that would do more good than to work through the techniques Jim demonstrates on the Get Better Sound Reference DVD 3-Disk set. If you’ll take time to apply Jim’s techniques to your Hi-Fi system, you’ll make the equipment you already own come to living, breathing, and musical life in front of your ears.
"Do Jim’s techniques work? You bet they do. You could spend twenty-thousand dollars on new components for your Hi-Fi rig and not get the kind of improvement working through Jim’s techniques will yield. The price of $39.70 for the set is a ridiculously good buy, and it will very likely change the way you think about audio forever. As the Nike advertisements say, “Just do it!” You’ll be glad you did.
Website: http://www.getbettersound.com/
Contact Jim Smith: [email protected]
