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Misconceptions of Speakers

I went to a number of audio shops recently and auditioned speakers from companies such as Proac, Acoustic Energy, PSB, Paradigm, Magnepan, B&W, Mission and the list goes on.

Anyways, prior to my auditioning of these speakers, I thought that'd I'd see a direct correlation between high price and performance, but that certainly hasn't been the case thus far!

There just seems to be SO many overpriced speakers on the market today. It has become obvious that a speaker manufacturer must spend a lot on advertising to generate reviews in many magazines and thus he has to jack up the price of his speaker to exorbitant price levels.

I’m going to leave out the brands below for fear of offending anybody who got caught up in the hyping of these speakers, and to not risk a lawsuit by the speaker manufacturer.

I had the opportunity today to listen to an overhyped ~$3500 pair of speakers, and I have to say that they sounded decent. However, I didn’t feel they're worth anywhere near their asking price! In fact, that was confirmed when the owner of the store that sold the $3,500 pair accidentally made a comment regarding their sound quality vs. a "Much" cheaper pair of speakers.

I had been auditioning these expensive speakers for about 2 hours and I noticed that in the corner of this store was sitting a small, obscure brand floorstander . I quickly asked that owner if I could audition those speakers and he said yes. I was immediately impressed with the sound coming from the small boxes. Well, after about 10 minutes of listening the store owner abruptly stopped the music and said, "there really is a difference between the $3,500 speakers and the $700 speakers." I instantly got a smile on my face upon hearing him trying to defend the much overrated $3,500 speakers.

The owner, for the next hour or so, tried to defend his $3,500 speakers but he knew that I knew they were grossly overpriced and a perfect example of how overpriced many speakers are. I’m now going to be searching for a speaker that doesn’t advertise at all and who’s relying on the great sound of the speaker to generate interest amongst consumers and NOT skewed media reviews!!
bobjohnston

Showing 1 response by bliptrip

bliptrip
10 posts
 
Bobjohnston drives a great point home perfectly. It doesn't matter HOW much a speaker or component costs or WHO makes it. What matters is how much YOU like the music it makes, not the salesman or HP in the Absolute Sound or whoever.

As an example, I had a friend come over and listen to my modest (about $10k) system for an evening. At the end, he said he prefered the sound of his Cerwin-Vega speakers driven by a Pioneer AV reciever. You know what? More power to him! He gets more enjoyment from the visceral boom and raw power of his system rather than the great imaging and reasonably flat frequency response provided by mine. And I respect him for that. Maybe his ears aren't "trained" to recognize what most high-enders consider the ideal, but so what. He purchased his system on the basis of what HE liked the sound of. Not what some salesman said was superior, not what Stereophile rated an "A" component, but instead what make him happy.

So many people seem to forget what it's all about..
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