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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
bobjohnston OP
2 posts
 
Guys, I want to thank you all for participating in this discussion. I found it to be "Very" helpful!

As to the poster who's wants me to divulge the manufacturer of the speakers, I cannot, as I stated above, do that for fear of offending anyone. I've seen people call speakers overrated in the past and get bombarded with hate messages because they struck a nerve, thank-you!
Bob
pbaillargeon6750
1 posts
 
Misconceptions are the bread and butter of high end audio. Audiophiles suffer from a means vs. ends problem of galactic proportions which the manufacturers are promoting. The one thing that is important is the music, (I feel like adding the now famous "stupid" to that statemement, but will refrain to be polite). I remember that when I bought my first system, I had about six records to play on it and a musician friend asked what was the point of having spent a considerable amount of money if I had no records... Fast forward to today. My Thiel 3.5s have served me well for the past 14 years or so, despite a healthy appetite for drivers and cross-over components (2 tweeters, 3 midrange drivers and 2 x-over failures. Thank God for the 10 year warranty!) I now think the time has come for replacements. Sticker shock is killing me! I went to a shop to audition Celestion A3s and was told that they are no longer distributed in Canada. Asked to audition Kefs priced around $5,000 CDN and found them so polite as to be uninvolving. The owner pointed out the Vandersteen 5s and insisted I give them a listen. They were outstanding, sound wise. The clincher, $18,000.00 CDN the pair! The price of a brand new Honda Civic! And Vandersteen has always prided itself on affordable audiophile quality speakers. My intention is not to single out Vandersteen as they are far from being the worst, but how can the prices of audio equipment be justified on the basis of R&D, manufacturing and marketing costs, even admitting that in some cases we are dealing with small volume products? Without being cynical, remember Barnum & Bailey and the fact that the price is set by what the market will bear. A good speaker will play anything (even human speech, what a test!), never mind slam, imaging, back to front depth, inner detail, congestion, integration and all other related mumbo jumbo. Buy the best full range speakers (and generally all other equipment) for the budgeted dollar, spend your money on recordings, listen to music not equipment and please, Dear Lord, stop reading the lunatic fringe audio press. I know I have stopped buying those mags in 1992 and am only feeling sanity creeping in now...

By the way, I sure hope I'll "find" the money for the Vandersteens.
cegormley8f7e
4 posts
 
what great advice, this from pbaillargeon. spend as much as you can for a good natural sounding speaker/amp combination first, then you can hear the difference in any source upgrades that later interest you and spend the rest of your money on music. i did this about 10 years ago and now have a huge library of music and equipment which allows me to enjoy the music, as opposed to the sound coming from the speakers.
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