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Complete Proprietary Systems

These may exist. My knowledge of high end audio is fairly limited so I don't know. But, if they do, you don't hear people talking about them much.

What I'm talking about is a single manufacturer that makes all the components for a complete system. Amp. Preamp. DAC. Cables. Speakers. Power conditioner etc. All designed to work perfectly together. I know that would be a tall order as the process/tech required to build a speaker is very different from that of an amp.

I'm asking mostly out of curiosity but also because it would seem to make sense. Audiophiles seem to go to great lengths to find out which components from which manufacturers work well together and compliment each other. It seems to me that no one would know what worked best with what than a manufacturer who designed a complete system for the very purpose of optimizing and matching every component in the chain to perform exactly as designed.

I know. Every audiophile wants a certain sound and that no one system could meet all those needs. I also suspect that for many audiophiles half the fun is doing the research and putting that magic system together themselves. But I also suspect that a serious, knowledgeable manufacturer could put together a complete system together that would meet the wants/needs of a lot of people. And nothing would keep them from having different systems to meet specific demands and even at various price points. And nothing would keep them from selling any of the individual components individually.

Just a thought.
n80
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,585 posts
 
@chorus....+1...that's my take on 'sine qua non' systems in some ways.

If you ask about $, you'll (likely) gape mentally at it....and reps at that level can smell fear. ;)

My only wish is that those who Do go that distance really appreciate what and how they're hearing their selected...

...and how Extremely Bad that can sound. *LOL*
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,585 posts
 
(...slightly 'off topic', but relevant...)
;)
mglik
906 posts
 
Never read anything in the industry about Mark Levenson’s current proprietary line, Daniel Hertz. Mark is a controversial figure in Audio but still an undisputed legend. His interesting and rather amazing multi page bio is on DanielHertz dot com. Did you know that Mark’s great uncle was Heinrich Hertz?
In 2014, I helped him with his room at the Vegas T.H.E. Show.
The complete top line Daniel Hertz full system is about $300K but it is about the best sound I have ever heard. Big, musical, real.
The DH front end is a Mac using Master Class soft wear directly to his DAC. First time I heard great digital.
ironlung
65 posts
 
@n80 Linn have been providing complete systems and were also one of the first HiFi companies to start an award-winning record label. So they are also intimately involved in the studio recording process as a means to engineer better sounding domestic audio systems.

So many of the brands others have mentioned are either companies which farm out product design (McIntosh is a great example, they don't build anything original other than their amplifiers - everything digital or source is made by someone else), or they don't have a full set of source, amplification, and speaker components, so they can't be companies which provide complete systems.

The fact that only one poster (a dealer I might add) even bothered to mention Linn is proof of how behind the times most of the people are with where audio technology has been, is currently, and where it is headed, let alone proof of how incapable most audiophiles are at even beginning to answer OP's question.

redwoodaudio
413 posts
 
@ironlung - Linn isn't well-represented in the US, which is why most US audiophiles haven't heard them. My experience on the Lejonklou/Linn forums thus far gives me the impression that Linn fans think Linn the only manufacturer worth considering for any component, which is pretty grandiose.  But if they had better US representation, more of us would have the chance to hear it ourselves.
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