Under rated speakers due to price....?


AND the resulting associated equipment?

I have a theory and am interested what others think about it. Is it possible that we underrate some speakers because they sell for a reasonable price and therefor listen to them with similar equipment?

I have a decent system consisting of the Rowland integrated amp, SCD-777ES and normally Aerial Model 6 speakers with a Storm III. I have frequently purchased many "cheap" speakers for second systems and I always try them in the good system just for kicks. Some sound OK, but some sound great. I recently tried a pair of less than $300 (Circuit City price) Polk RT35i speakers in the good system and could not believe how awesome they sounded for 1/10 the price of the Aerials. I could easily see some new high end company selling a similar sounding product for 5 times the price and getting it with happy customers.
I then thought about it - - how often do you hear about 2-500 dollar speakers being paired with a 10k system? Has anyone ever checked the associated equipment in Stereophile's class A speakers against the class B or C's? I didn't have the patience. But I bet as a rule that exotic speakers like Grand Utopias or Pipe Dreams are NOT listened to with low hi-end equipment like the lesser speakers are. If you pair some Vandersteen 2c's or B&W CDM-1's with Boulder amps, (and list the speakers at 10 grand) might people call them "some of the best?"
jimmy2615

Showing 1 response by tireguy

Tweekerman-That's great you like your electrostat's but your not the first person to hear them here, this isn't a new idea. You claim they are expensive, and seeing as you are always bragging about ML I'll use them as an example, you claim they are not cheap, well if my memory serves me correct the most expensive ML's are around 9k, right, which is about 3k less then my speakers and about 16k less then cornfeds speakers(both those dumb box type) so the money ain't an issue. Your refering to the pathos as being "good power" now I'll give you they are good sounding and look cool, but they are not "the end" in audio, in fact not even close. The reason not many of those with the "mega-buck" systems use Electrostats(aside from Albert of course, whom uses the U-1's) is they do have a very unique sound-which some people like(Albert and yourself for example), however it is NOT for everyone. How about imaging? soundstage depth? not something martin logans are notorious for doing very well, but many box speakers are(Rockport, Kharma, Avalon, to name a few). It depends what you want from a system and because you have good luck with your set up that is great but it is not the answer for everyone, I mean if BOSE was "the answer" we would all use bose but it isn't. I hope you catch what I am trying to say, I have seen more then a few posts where you are saying the exact same thing, pathos, accuphase, ML, you need to broden your horizons, there is a great soundoing world out there just waiting to be found.
Happy Listening,
Tim