Here is what I have learned. There is no reason to keep up with the Jones. I am gifted and built my own speakers. I always have. Why, because I have never made the kind if money to afford ARC, Bryston, B&W. I did hear B&W at Best Buy being played from an expensive higher end reciever. They were in the $2,000 / pair range and were dual 6" model. I laughed, shook my head and was quite pleased I built my own. I walked in to another room, heard Martin Logan, with a built in sub. Now, that was very nice, better than mine. But, not for the cost difference, and, I still liked mine very much when I got home and cranked on music.. Would I trade mine for logans, of course. Are they worth the money to me? No, but if I had a ton of extra cash, they would certainly be great to own. So I don't blame people with money wanting quality. Some people just want expensive when a cheaper equivalent would be better. This includes speaker wire and cables. Look what I have, one up on Jones. Not all high end speakers or electronics sounds good. I have heard many over the years. I live in MN. I own 2 kayaks. No boat, no 4 wheelers, no jet ski. I am happy with what I have and need to be. I will never have a yacht, or a butler either. I don't need it to be happy. If I come into a lot of cash, then I can have nicer things. Right now, I have a great family full of love. And a great budgeted audio system.
The Snob Appeal Premium
I have learned that speakers are a typical victim of "Designer Label Syndrome". Supposedly an $8 billion a year market (hard to believe) speakers are fairly simple beasts with little substantive improvements over the last 50 years. Ever since Paul Klipsch ( a character in his own right) read the Bell Labs 1934 papers and revolutionized speaker technology there have been few similar revolutionary improvements to the speaker. So- if you are an enterprising manufacturer of speakers (which are relatively cheap to build) how do you extract more and more money from the consumer ? Answer: Synthetic demand driven by cachet' ! Like a pair of Louis Vuitton sneakers @ $650 a pair vs. New Balance runners @ 60/pr. It's snobby bragging rights stuff I'm describing here- perceived vs. actual value in a product.
Here's an anecdotal example:
I recently set out to build a high end mid-fi system (ARC preamp, power amp, Dac 9) for a large room "main house" (not a listening room) system. The goal was big, full, rich sound in a room full of furniture, chow dogs, kids and untreatable other things like 20 foot ceilings, multiple openings such as a balcony to the upstairs bedrooms, etc. Basically an audiophile's nightmare.
I auditioned a number of speakers- Perlistens supported by JL Fathom subs, B&W Signatures, Bryston Model Ts, Vienna Acoustics Mahlers and Bethovens. IMO all of these are somewhat similar towers (except the Perlistens). The price point was not as important as the sound- given the limitations of the application.
In the shopping for new or used I found a number of odd prices. The most unusual finding was a brand new set of Model Ts here in Audiogon advertised for $4K with a 20 year factory warranty. The dealer had one slide around of his hand truck and it put white paint smears on a corner of the Boston Cherry cabinet. Hmmm- 4 grand vs. 12 grand for a small fixable cosmetic flaw? I bought them. They sound fantastic. Some elbow grease and a furniture marker pen made the flaw vanish.
I asked the dealer (Paul Kraft in Easton PA- great guy BTW) why the Audiogon Blue Book for a Model T was so low. His answer was "snob appeal". Apparently there is a big bragging rights premium paid for having the UFO looking B&W Signatures vs what the snobs call the Bryston Model Ts "Axioms in a fancy suit". I later learned that there are some prominent reviewers who refuse to listen to A/B speaker comparisons behind a silk curtain unless they know what brand is being scrutinized. To me that means "payola".
Do the Model Ts sound better to me than the Mahlers, Bethovens, B&Ws? No. But they don't sound worse either (in my application). Do the above sound $8,000-$14,000 better than the Brystons in the listening rooms of the dealers? IMO NO WAY. To be fair price/value does color my perception much like a bottle of $40 Rumbauer Zin tastes better to me than $200 Silver Oak expense account wine.
I'm guessing this post will anger brand snobs and garner snarky comments because their taste in sound is different than mine. Although this missive is really about personal perceptions of value v. sound I found my education on pricing fascinating and I feel great about finding amazing value in the brand new Model T's that needed 30 minutes of TLC to be at home in my family room.
Moral of the story: Try em before you buy em, and look for value. It's fun and rewarding with no buyers remorse.
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This caught my eye as well, and initially I took it as a snobby comment since only snobby people refer to their stuff as high-end (un-snobby people might call someone else's stuff high end) and mid-fi is kind of an insult. However, after some thought, I think the OP simply meant to indicate that he wanted a quality system that is not his main listening room and so wasn't targeting the absolute sound. I can understand why some felt insulted by the theme of the post, but there's no denying that people name-drop their gear so as to sound wealthy or "in the know." It may have been different years ago, but at this point, no one cares about an expensive audio system except those that have them.
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Hate to pop your bubble but there are new speaker designs out there that offer great sound for the money. My Revival Audio Atalante 3 monitors are the first to use basalt in the driver membrane. The designer used to design for other well known brands (Dynaudio, Focal-JM Labs) and he undercuts their prices by about 2/3s all the while making them in country in France. The dome design is unique as well as the coating he uses on them. If you have a decent computer set up, check out this YouTube video and skip to 1:50 (unless you understand the language) and see how they stand up to (if not outshine) a pair of more expensive Dynaudios and Totems. Then factor in the price of the Atalante 3s at $2500/pair. All the best, |
jji666 gets it. This system was designed and acquired in pieces on the cheap as a family room system at the beach house. It's not a listening room system. duh. It's amazing how reflexively people jump to "max offended status" rather than carefully considering the post. One snob even took to insulting my will and capacity to have an absolute sound system. Gee whiz what do you do with such snobby condescending people? Misery loves company I guess.... Other folks were kind and congratulatory. Many thanks! Men of good will toast other's successes. I've learned that the wealthiest people (like the Ferrari club guys at the Cavallino in Palm Beach for example) are the easiest going and warmest. Broke jokers see rich guys acting snobby on TV and think that's the way rich people act. So they are really faux rich guy posing. Or they have puny units and E.D.. With some exceptions (jerks come in all walks of life) the richer the man the warmer he is. Good Hifi gear costs money. Lots of it. I'd guess most audiophiles are affluent and have other expensive hobbies too. I for one have really enjoyed my 44 year Hifi journey. Good years and bad years. Divorces and remarriages. Good kids and bad ones. Audiogon is a fun place to share stories and practice writing skills. It's also really educational. Cheers to you gents! |
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