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The “Off The Shelf” Lie

A lot of manufacturers are marketing their products as better, saying they don’t use “off the shelf” drivers, chips or whatever else they manufacture in house. But are in-house drivers or FPGA digital converters really “better” than the best drivers from Scanspeak or Vifa?  Is an in-house ladder dac automatically superior to the best chips from Analog Devices, Texas Instruments or others?  IMO, the end result may be superb either way, but I think manufacturers are just attempting to get audiophiles to knee jerk into believing off the shelf parts are inferior. In my experience, I haven’t found this to be true. I think it has more to do with the application than the parts. But reasonable minds may disagree. 

chayro
jond's avatar
jond
6,103 posts
 

Obviously you can take great parts and make a terrible design and make a good design with average parts. Obviously design matters most but parts still do matter it's about the best parts for the design not the most flashy or most expensive.

dynamiclinearity
363 posts
 

A few manufacturers make their own drivers(exp ATC). Some have drivers custom made for them(exp Wilson). Most buy from OEM manufacturers such as SEAS, Scanspeak, etc. who make superb drivers but then their crossovers and enclosures are limited by the OEM specs. I know of one manufacturer who used 'special' SEAS drivers where the only mod was stamping their name on the drivers and claiming better than stock specs which surprised me since they did make excellent speakers.

mahler123
3,994 posts
 

Implementation matters.

I once had 2 DACs with identical chips.  One cost 8 times more than the other.  The more expensive DAC clearly had a beefier power supply and doubtless other improvements, and yes it sounded much better than the less expensive DAC.  Now perhaps the more expensive DAC could have developed their own chip but that would have boosted the price significantly.

   I have heard turntables that use a Rega tonearm but sound vastly different from Rega tables.

   Speaker drivers are a category of their own.  My speakers are made by the company but how do I know what an off the shelf version would sound like in the same cabinet?

tcutter's avatar
tcutter
393 posts
 

An FPGA may or may not be superior to a Sabre, Burr-Brown or whatever chip du jour you like, but it can be "upgraded" with new firmware which may mean a constantly improving listening experience.

Regarding drivers, closer acoustical matching can be achieved when parameters can be specified. Whether manufactured in-house or made-to-spec, custom drivers may allow for better integration/coherence than a mix and match approach. 

motown-l
343 posts
 

I have seen various brands of turntables with what appear to be Project and Rega tonearms. Many Music Hall turntables are manufactured by Project. Many ads for vintage speakers will include mentions of being built with SEAS, Scanspeak, or Vifa tweeters. Some JBL electronics of the 2000's were clearly repackaged Arcams, a Harman sister company. 

None of this is bad or good. What matters is what comes out the other end and if the purchaser is happy with the outcome.

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