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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
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

kennyc
2,860 posts
 

A lot of manufacturers are marketing their products….

Unfortunately trying to market “audio sounds” with mere words is difficult at best, so all manufacturers can do is use fluff in marketing while being careful not to reveal their technical recipes to their competitors.

Audio marketing fluff will always be with us, best to not let it get under your skin. Hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable.

faustuss's avatar
faustuss
811 posts
 

@bdp24, @chayro 

"Quite a few speaker designers/manufactures specify the performance characteristics of the drivers they buy from the major manufactures, those drivers being made in accordance with the designer’s demands."

@bdp24 You were the first to point his out as in the case of SEAS and Scanspeak and really just about everyone with very few exceptions. I know ATC designs and builds everything in house with exception of some circuit board components and the enclosers on their budget line that are manufactured by a nearby local vendor, possible Spendor who does OEM and also manufactures drivers in house.

FPGAs and FPLAs have up to a million taps and engineers with the chops can write very sophisticated algorithms for them whereas you average "off the shelf" ESS, ADM or TI might have about a hundred taps and is an economy of scale product. Though whether the average audiophile would decern any meaningful sonic differences is debatable. Most people who claim to are merely puffing.

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