Aiwa was one of the best mini's out there. Too bad Sony bought them out and eliminated the company. One way to get rid of the competition but Sony is the worse product. If you ever heard the Aiwa XR-EC12 properly setup you might be impressed for the $140 price tag. It won WhatHiFi's award for best mini in its class.
But that's the problem. The audiophile marketing "game" is to promote certain brands like Rotel as "audiophile" quality. So all the online and print mag's review NAD, Rotel, Cambridge which are pretty much junk (although I haven't heard them all) compared to Monarchy pro-70 ($618 new) or pro audio amps.
Do you really think Stereophile would ever review such equipment and open the eyes of their readers to the REALITY of hi-end? That modest "non-audiophile" stuff can compete with much more expensive "audiophile" branded stuff? NAW, gotta keep that aura of hi-end alive. The audiophile market drops 50% in 2 years so maybe the message is getting through. Sure Pass beats Sampson Servo 170 but it should at 100x the Sampson's price of $169.00.
Purely MHO, but once this audiophile stuff gets into your head, you loose reality about price vs. performance and most non-audiophiles have not been bitten by the bug and therefore have a more rational viewpoint on the situation.
I'm just putting this viewpoint out there as food for thought and don't expect people to agree with it.
I recently put my lowly Denon UD-M31 mini up against Mac 240 power amp (better than the 275) and tube pre. The Mac sounded a little better but the owner said he could happily live with the Denon had he not bought the Mac stuff. Agree with this or not, this is the viewpoint of most people out there.
Onkyo is really bright and annoying BTW.
But that's the problem. The audiophile marketing "game" is to promote certain brands like Rotel as "audiophile" quality. So all the online and print mag's review NAD, Rotel, Cambridge which are pretty much junk (although I haven't heard them all) compared to Monarchy pro-70 ($618 new) or pro audio amps.
Do you really think Stereophile would ever review such equipment and open the eyes of their readers to the REALITY of hi-end? That modest "non-audiophile" stuff can compete with much more expensive "audiophile" branded stuff? NAW, gotta keep that aura of hi-end alive. The audiophile market drops 50% in 2 years so maybe the message is getting through. Sure Pass beats Sampson Servo 170 but it should at 100x the Sampson's price of $169.00.
Purely MHO, but once this audiophile stuff gets into your head, you loose reality about price vs. performance and most non-audiophiles have not been bitten by the bug and therefore have a more rational viewpoint on the situation.
I'm just putting this viewpoint out there as food for thought and don't expect people to agree with it.
I recently put my lowly Denon UD-M31 mini up against Mac 240 power amp (better than the 275) and tube pre. The Mac sounded a little better but the owner said he could happily live with the Denon had he not bought the Mac stuff. Agree with this or not, this is the viewpoint of most people out there.
Onkyo is really bright and annoying BTW.