2. misc-audio
  3. 146960-20253

An encounter and lesson in speaker prices ...

Not to long ago, in a shop I like but will remain nameless I got to observe a customer evaluate a pair of systems side by side. The buyer had an eastern European accent. First they listened to the larger system, $50k speakers, equivalently priced amps and digital.


It sounded _really_ good. Then we moved to another system. Slightly smaller speaker pair, around $20k, completely different DAC and amp. Sounded like crap. The digititis was unbearable and the speakers were clearly out of phase. On top of that, the treble and bass balance were now all wrong.


The buyer was "I like them, what colors do they com in? " and that was that.

After the buyer left I looked behind at the amp. Yep, I was right, the pahse was reversed. The darkness of the room and angle made this an easy and common mistake to make. But the rest was unbearable.


What is my point? The people buying the top end gear are not necessarily the one’s with decent ears, so we really cannot trust price points to be any sort of guide to value. If you develop your taste on your own, independent of prices, you can score some fabulously performing gear at a fraction of what this buyer was going to end up with.


Best,

E
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by audioman58

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,869 posts
 
Having sold audio for a number of years  I realized every persons hearing range can vary to certain sensitivities ,and preferences from razor sharp leading edge 
detail ,to silky smooth , and as ones ears get older you do loose different parts 
of the audio range 16khz is about average for many high frequencies over 50. Especially if playing 
music over 90db over time .  Including myself I get tinnitus sometimes 
which truly sucks from all this 100 + dB Deep purple ,ELP ,Stones Sabbath type concerts ,and 2,000 watt multi amp stereo systems in my cars . As well as all
the weapons I fired in the service without ear protection. My point is there are 
a lot of factors  that dictate how one hears the same music.
More to discover