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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
mylogic
838 posts
 

Floor standers always sound better and are more useful “off the shelf”

Sorry, l just couldn’t resist 🐕

hartf36's avatar
hartf36
231 posts
 

It was a new proprietary design called Afgani ( Indica) 

Good strain.  It's been in my garden for the past two seasons.  😉

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,693 posts
 

Everybody is a tuner in the modern world….

and it all depends on talent, ears and persistence 

sokogear
1,160 posts
 

I believe KEF makes their own drivers. I think they are underrated because of their ubiquity. If you want speakers that have a very large sweet spot, they should be considered. It keeps their cost below market for comparable quality. Not crazy about all but their highest levels being made in China, but that certainly keeps costs down. Not sure how the tariffs are affecting them, but they seem to keep a large inventory in stock in the US. If you're looking to build a stereo store demo room, I guess ESLs are the way to go.

tomrk
158 posts
 

For electronics, I would prefer "off-the-shelf" because it means that it can be serviced for a long time.   There are so many turntables (Sony ps-8750), receivers (The Marantz 2500 and 2600 with their Toroidal transformer), and other electronics over the years that need these bespoke parts that are now nearly unobtainable

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