CWlondon, do you have any ideas how audio should be marketed? I'm commonly asked by non-audiophiles "Do you REALLY hear the differences?" or "How can you be so sure of what you're hearing?" Most people don't listen that much or that intently to start picking up on sounds.
Just off the top of my head, how do you legitimize:
1) A $5,000 CDP that can't read a CD but a $70 Sanyo boombox can. Deal went nuts trying to find a reason to blame me.
- A $1,500 CDP that failed during demo - on 2 separate occasions.
2) One guy uses "garden hose" size speaker wire then you've got Mapleshade wire that's 1/16" dia. How can both be the best when they are such polar opposites?
3) Companies who put together garbage with no engineering background with serious design flaws that Stereo mags rave about. There are too many companies who ride the high price wave with just fancy packaging because most people don't know the difference. If you want audio jewelry fine but if you're buying for sound, how do you really know?
I remember one salesman saying on line that if he had product he wanted to move, he would set it up real good in his store. He had othere stuff that sounded better but not when he set up the "bad" stuff well. How can you trust a industry like this?
Another example, I had a defective preamp. Fortunately I could compare to a good one soon thereafter. I don't think I could've heard the sonic degradation unless I had a good one to compare to, the differences were so small. Otherwise I'd still be happily listening to my defective preamp and never know it. I'm not saying only specs matter but at least it's a good place to start. You've got to have some kind of solid foundation to build upon. Subjective opinion is fine for one individual with one stereo but not for mass market, IMHO.
4) A 40 year old McIntosh 275 amp being close to state of the art even today. All the while stereo mags are finding big improvements in power amps every month. How can this be?
5) I had a dealer tell me how the speakers he stopped selling last year sounded like crap (very highly regarded, well engineered, strong audiophile following) but his new line is great. Do you think he told people they were crap when he was selling the line a year ago? Should I believe that he won't be calling the new line crap when it doesn't sell and he dumps it for something else next year?
I know people who would love to have a nice stereo but the risks are way too high. And you will lose thousands if you guess wrong. Unless you can solidly define what is out there and the differences between stuff, very few people are going to buy into it.
Just off the top of my head, how do you legitimize:
1) A $5,000 CDP that can't read a CD but a $70 Sanyo boombox can. Deal went nuts trying to find a reason to blame me.
- A $1,500 CDP that failed during demo - on 2 separate occasions.
2) One guy uses "garden hose" size speaker wire then you've got Mapleshade wire that's 1/16" dia. How can both be the best when they are such polar opposites?
3) Companies who put together garbage with no engineering background with serious design flaws that Stereo mags rave about. There are too many companies who ride the high price wave with just fancy packaging because most people don't know the difference. If you want audio jewelry fine but if you're buying for sound, how do you really know?
I remember one salesman saying on line that if he had product he wanted to move, he would set it up real good in his store. He had othere stuff that sounded better but not when he set up the "bad" stuff well. How can you trust a industry like this?
Another example, I had a defective preamp. Fortunately I could compare to a good one soon thereafter. I don't think I could've heard the sonic degradation unless I had a good one to compare to, the differences were so small. Otherwise I'd still be happily listening to my defective preamp and never know it. I'm not saying only specs matter but at least it's a good place to start. You've got to have some kind of solid foundation to build upon. Subjective opinion is fine for one individual with one stereo but not for mass market, IMHO.
4) A 40 year old McIntosh 275 amp being close to state of the art even today. All the while stereo mags are finding big improvements in power amps every month. How can this be?
5) I had a dealer tell me how the speakers he stopped selling last year sounded like crap (very highly regarded, well engineered, strong audiophile following) but his new line is great. Do you think he told people they were crap when he was selling the line a year ago? Should I believe that he won't be calling the new line crap when it doesn't sell and he dumps it for something else next year?
I know people who would love to have a nice stereo but the risks are way too high. And you will lose thousands if you guess wrong. Unless you can solidly define what is out there and the differences between stuff, very few people are going to buy into it.