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what is a high end component ?

the term "high end" is used to connote excellence of construction and sound.

yet there is no clear description or definition of the term.

sometimes the word is used in the context of marketing, advertsing to increase the probability of a sale.

it is hard to establish a benchmark for or an objective standard for quality of construction.

i have a suggestion for evaluating the aspect of sound quality.

i believe that high end is synonymous with minimal distortion. the question is how to define distortion, as it is multi dimensional and how to measure it.

in addition, an algorithm or equation combing the types of distortion would need to be developed to arrive at a quantitative rating.

i suspect however, that listening is the key and that ultimately it would be useful for expert listeners to judge distortion by listening, or failing that to evaluate a component or stereo system and assign the label high end or not high end. yes there will be disagreement. yes this is not scientific. it would be interesting to see if say 75 % of alistening panel could agree.

otherwise what we are left with is the term being heavily influenced by price of component, manufacturer and appearance.

any ideas
mrtennis
markphd
667 posts
 
"The World of High Fidelity" is a book written by Gerard Rejskind, the editor of UHF Magazine. At the start of the book just before the Table of Contents, he writes the following acknowledgement:

"To the countless musicians who have, day by day, stepped from my high fidelity system into my living room to entertain me, enchant me and move me beyond words. Because they cannot hear my applause, I owe them this homage."

The ability, or even just the attempt, to do this is what makes something "high end". "High end" is not a product or a measureable spec. It is a philosophy. It is a philosophy of bringing music and emotion to another through their product, whether the product is $500, $5,000, or $50,000, and the passion in attempting to do so.
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gunbei
2,327 posts
 
Interesting idea Entrope. After all, I have based just about all of my buying decisions in the last 11 years of audio equipment on "other's" opinions, whether they were published reviews, opinions of friends or discussion threads here on Audiogon. Kind of a collective concensus.

LOL @ Elizabeth!
jond's avatar
jond
5,861 posts
 
Um, who cares? I mean if you like a piece of gear then you like it, who cares if some arbitrary expert says it's "high end". I honestly think that it's thinking like that which makes audio so forboding for novices who might appreciate a good stereo.
entrope
482 posts
 
Gunbei-

I am sure 100% of the audio community buys that way. Unhappily it puts many at the mercy of heavily biased (advertising) opinions which are readily available as opposed to the more moderately biased user opinions which can require some effort to ferret out.

Isn't "unbiased opinion" an oxymoron?
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