Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech,rec.audio.opinion (
More info?)
"paul packer" <packer@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message
news:4317fcf4.3840889@news.iprimus.com.au
> On Thu, 1 Sep 2005 10:53:05 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
> <arnyk@hotpop.com> wrote:
>>>>> Surely if you're looking for
>>>>> charlatans in the audio industry this where most of
>>>>> them hang out.
>>>
>>>> I don't know if that is a slam dunk.
>>
>>> Explanation?
>>
>> I don't think that it is necessarily true that people
>> selling $100, $200, $300 mini-systems are charlatans.
>
> Charlatans is probably the wrong word. Let's be kind and
> call them "marketers addicted to hyperbole". Not that
> there's anything strange about that, of course.
I don't know how vigorously mini-systems are marketed in
Australia. In the US they are necessary evils for people
with limited resources for audio.
>>>>> Personally I don't believe that expensive
>>>>> cables make much if any difference,
>>>>
>>>> Notice the hedge, apparently faith springs eternal.
>>
>>> I fear this says something important about you, Arnie.
>>> Most people like to leave room for a doubt. Remember
>>> what I said (or rather, Mr. Ustinov said) about the
>>> inability to have a doubt?
>>
>> Believe it or not Paul, you may not always find the best
>> information about technology in the popular media.
> I claimed otherwise?
You surely act like it.
>> Its not about an inability to have a doubt about
>> *everything*, its about knowing what can and cannot be
>> done.
> Fair enough. However, I still detect too little doubt in
> most of your statements about audio.
A half century of experience with a slow-moving technology
tends to do that to perceptive people. There is a great deal
about audio that isn't changing, isn't rocket science, itn't
in question to knowlegeable, experienced people.
>>>>> What galls me
>>>>> about the marketing of micros, midis & minis is that
>>>>> it effectively syphons off all the potential
>>>>> customers for real hi-fi
>>
>>>> People who buy this stuff are looking for a packaged
>>>> solution. Where they fade out, HTIB systems pick up.
>>
>>> They're looking for a packaged solution because they've
>>> been convinced the package will supply their need. This
>>> is called marketing.
>> It may also be a reasonble offering.
> It may well suit their needs. I had a need for such a
> system in the loungeroom. Doesn't alter the fact that
> their marketing excludes the possibility that there may
> be something better, that sound reproduction can reach
> greater heights.
AFAIK Mini systems aren't even seriously marketed in the US.
They are necesary evils for people with limited resources.
>It's a pity that the audio manufacturing
> world is divided more or less into two camps--the
> mainstream Sony/Panasonic/Sanyo/Teac etc camp churning
> out svelt little mini/micro systems in only slightly
> different price ranges, and the specialist hi-fi
> manufacturers. What I mean is, if say Sony also marketed
> high grade hi-fi, they would be pitching their mini/micro
> systems on a "first step" basis hoping to keep the same
> customer through many upgrades, and higher-end hi-fi
> would probably be flourishing. As it is, mini/micro
> systems are the alpha and omega; buyers go from a
> mini/micro to another mini/micro with more of the latest
> gadgets without ever suspecting the possibility of better
> sound even from something the same size. I guess you
> could call this dead end marketing, but it's only a dead
> end for the hi-fi specialists. Sony/panasonic et al
> continue to flourish.
Australia must be very different than the US in this regard.
>>> HT is swallowing hi-fi whole.
>> Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys, but you're
>> wrong.
>> HT + portable A/V + HTPC are swallowing hi-fi.
> Don't you mean I'm one third right?
Pretty lame.
>>> systems, one for HT and one for audio. Ergo, the HT has
>>> to do for both. And in the minds of most punters, why
>>> should it not?
>> I'm not sure they are punters.
>> You're way behind, Paul. Many people don't have any
>> serious HT at all. Instead, they put their time and
>> money into portable A/V. Some of the most serious HT
>> advocates I know are actually doing HTPC.
> I don't understand this paragraph at all. In OZ there's a
> HT stampede. Has been for years, shows no sign of
> abating. HT rules.
So much for OZ. My kids who are into listening to music (2
out of 3) are into portable audio, big time. Their home
systems are left-overs from their earlier lives. They even
use portable audio gear at home.
>>>>> I wonder how many innocents have
>>>>> listened to their first mini system plastered with the
>>>>> word "Hi-Fi" and thought, "Well if that's hi-fi it's
>>>>> waaaay overrated. I thought it was s'posed to sound
>>>>> like a real band."
>>
>>>> Probably not many at all. Who would be that naive?
>>
>>> Get into the real world, Arnie.
>>
>> I suspect that the US is a little more mainstream than
>> Aussie-land.
> Why? Isn't Oz a province of the good old US of A? Even
> yank tourists can't believe how at home they feel.
Provinces tend to lag the mother land.
>>> As I said before, you've been slaving over that hot test
>>> bench too long.
>>
>> The fact is Paul, you simply don't know me. I don't even
>> have a audio-related test bench right now due to home
>> (re)construction.
> (snip quite interesting personal tid-bits)
> Too literal, Arnie. The term "test bench" is merely a
> metaphor for getting involved in your current interests
> to the exclusion of the wider world. Tunnel vision, in
> other words.
Paul, you're the one with tunnel vision.