News flash! BO resurfaces and takes a stand against ugly fat people! His bravery is never less than inspiring…you go BO! |
30K? Baloney, and I've always felt that discovering the hidden bargains in new or used gear is utterly more rewarding, and trusting YOUR ears is all that matters…I've bought things like "previously owned" solid silver cable that sounds great, well regarded and astonishingly coherant speakers for a third of the list price, 2 perfect subs for a couple hundred bucks each, etc., and the results, although sometimes underwhelming, allow vetting the stuff to my taste (the fun part, and unloading gear via the net is easy), and the results can be astonishingly musical and can cost FAR less than 30 grand. |
Do I want to see reviews of a new minivan, or the new McLaren? Answer: The McLaren. High performance car reviews often put the cars through some tough driving you are likely never be able to do unless you live near a track, but audio stuff sits there and Mister Reviewer listens and thinks up ways to describe the sound…which is a personal preference subjective activity. All one can do I suppose, but when I sit in front of MY rig I generally don't wish for different things like "man, I wish I could go 217 miles an hour"…unless something in my rig breaks. |
Does anybody sit in front of their relatively inexpensive but carefully assembled rig in an "active listening" session and think, "Damn, this sounds SO FRIGGIN' GREAT?" I agree with a comment in a recent mag that said something like "nobody really knows what an original recording sounds like as even the engineers heard it through monitors that can't ever be actually neutral." When I (rarely) sit in some high end audio "salon" listening to Magicos hooked directly to an offshore tax shelter, I often think…hmmm…my stuff sounds better…and, interestingly, it actually does. |
Risking redundancy, I’ll say my point (shared by some) is that more money does not necessarily get you into "serious" sound quality, or I what I assume onhwy61 means is "higher" sound quality, just more expensive high quality if set up properly. I, of course, have no idea exactly what other people’s ears are hearing, but often I disagree with what others think is good sound especially in high end stores where somebody is trying to make a case that what they’re selling is great. I recently mixed a Julian Lage concert in a 350 or so seat concert venue (Scott Colley and Kenny Wolleson bass and drums) where I miked Julian’s 2 ancient and dissimilar tube amps and that’s it. Talk back mic…off when they were playing…I did have mikes on everything else (looks more professional and hey…I get slightly overpaid for this stuff) but at the band’s suggestion left ’em off. That’s the kind of sound that influences my home rig taste, and my home rig sounds nothing like that show. Was it high quality? NO CLUE…it was simply great sound. To me…and the stunned crowd. I’ve made a clean high (supposedly) resolution recording of myself playing a great acoustic guitar with a great mic, and played it on my personally tweaked listening (as opposed to my recording) rig, and then played the same thing on the same guitar live as a demonstration for some friends (you can’t really hear what others hear while you’re playing the damn thing yourself)…the results were interesting, and that sort of thing can show you realities of reproduced sound that maybe some people (audiophiles mostly) are possibly better off not knowing. |
I think extreme high end cars are cool, and I drive things that make me think I'm sporty (turbo Mini, older straight 6 BMW 3 series, slightly modded Triumph Bonneville T100), even if my cars aren't McLarens. This clearly is what my hifi gear is about, and I still think a hobbyist who finds fun, high performance but relatively inexpensive things will have MORE fun than "mister insecure moneybags" who has cables costing more than my car. I collect interesting automatic watches (warning…do not get into this…you're welcome) and recently got a new old stock Oris Titanium diver for about a fourth of the cost of my second choice, a Tudor Pelagos (also titanium, into these because I figured I could melt it down for a future hip replacement)…my Oris is more fun…I swear it is... |
I like the vibe of the Brit mags sometimes where they may review something using less than astronomically priced accessories and aren't quite as full of themselves as Stereophile and AS writers…I miss Sam Tellig as he was often funny (met him once at a party years ago…cool dude) and his "cheapskate" thing was often fun. I also notice large dumb mistakes like recently when a reviewer noted the Band using a "jews harp" on Cripple Creek when it was a clarinet with a wah…lame, but makes me feel slightly superior. It simply is entertainment and clearly keeps the sales and add revenue rolling…that's life in mag publishing. |
Correction: The Band used a CLAVINET with a wah. (Swine spell correction!)…a clarinet with a wah would be illegal in most states. |
I know some great high end interior designers, and some people with too much money and amazing homes (I’m not one of those people by the way…but we get along somehow). As with the general public, wealthy people mostly don’t give a damn about great hifi, and stick unobtrusive ceiling speakers all over their McMansions and control the stuff with iPhones…I’ve been an Arcitectural Digest reader off and on for nearly 5 decades and I’ve seen maybe 2 places featured in that mag with dedicated hifi systems that weren’t part of a large screen media room. A relatively tiny number of wealthy hifi freaks somehow keep the high end ball rolling, and that's simply amazing…Naim Statement amps? (just read a review)…gotta get me some! HA! |
I think the business plan of ultra expensive stuff is great…Bugatti already has 100 orders for the not yet available new supercar, 200 grand for audio components with no (or few) moving parts are common, and hey…exclusivity worked for Bernie Madoff, so why not? I feel a self satisfied smirk coming on when I think about my relatively inexpensive hifi rig (lots of used but geekily vetted items), and recently a friend commented on my great sounding Linn turntable (bought used and re-wired) by saying, "Most people would consider 500 bucks a LOT for a turntable"…and he's right. |
