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The most criminal practice in the speaker industry revealed!! Keep reading

Today we are going to expose the most criminal practice within the speaker industry bar none. Thats right folks. Keep reading and you will be disgusted just as I am.

Some audiophiles like to think that speakers are like wine. You just buy whatever one you prefer and pay no attention to cost. This is wrong. Speakers are devices that have a job to do and just because nobody has figured out how to measure how well speakers do the job, does not give the speaker industry the right to pull the wool over our eyes.

Now even though nobody on the planet has been able to figure out exactly what set of measurements we need, that is not to say that we have no measurements at all to rely on when it comes to assessing how well a speaker does.

One obvious example of a measurement that matters is frequency response. This tells how loud every tone is that we can hear from the bass up to the highs. It is the same measurement that is used to assess how well our ears work. Clearly this is important.

The shocking truth is that 99% of high end speaker companies DO NOT, publish frequency response charts of their mega expensive supposedly high end ultra high quality speakers!! Thats right folks, we have been duped all along. Now just in case you think I am lying, I implore you to immediately visit your favorite speaker companies website to check whether i am right. The truth will surely leave you disgusted.

This is no different than buying a fridge that provides no data about how cold the fridge gets. Can you imagine the problems that would cause? We all know that food must be kept below a certain temperature, otherwise it goes bad very quickly and if eaten, can lead to serious illnesses.

Audiophiles must understand that speakers are a tool. It either does the job well or not very well. Obviously we expect much more expensive speakers to do a better job than a cheaper speaker. Thats what measurements are there for. But if the measurements are not provided, then theres no way to tell. and if theres no way to tell, then it is horribly easy for the speaker companies to make any claim they like with impunity and get away with it!!! And that means speaker companies can set the price of a speaker as high as they like even if the speaker does not perform far better than a much cheaper speaker!!! In other words, we are being taken for a ride folks.

Audiophiles need to wake up and smell the coffee and understand what it feels like to be short changed. How often are we not getting what we pay for?

Audiophiles are no better at telling if one speaker is better than another purely by listening, than an average person is able to tell how cold a fridge is by putting their hand inside it!!! That’s right folks. VERY few folks are actually able to rely on their own hearing to tell which speaker is better than another. I am among the small minority who can. However that is beside the point...The main point we need to focus on is that despite the supposed importance of cumulative spectral decay, when it comes to assessing sound quality, very few manufacturers are willing or able to provide this data. The fact that reviewers sometimes do measurements does not justify the fact that the manufacturers do not provide it themselves. Who is going to verify whether the reviewers measurements arent biased?

The truth is speaker companies rely on word of mouth and reviews to sell their wares because its far easier to claim that their speaker has won multiple awards, than it is to prove that it has superior measured performance. Audiophiles prefer to read speaker reviews in magazines than go through a bunch of measurements because that requires too much effort.
Do not be duped. I am the master audiophile and you have been warned.
kenjit

Showing 2 responses by cd318

cd318
2,636 posts
 
"Audiophiles are no better at telling if one speaker is better than another purely by listening, than an average person is able to tell how cold a fridge is by putting their hand inside it!!!"

Nice analogy.



"That’s right folks. VERY few folks are actually able to rely on their own hearing to tell which speaker is better than another."

And after years of going around in circles, don't some of us know it? 



"I am among the small minority who can."

That's quite reassuring and also very modest of you to say so.
cd318
2,636 posts
 
It's amazing how there's so much antagonism towards the questions posed by this particular OP.

Is this the audio equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome?

Why should we rush to the defense of designers and manufacturers when it's patently clear that they are knowingly selling substandard products?

Perhaps we would do well to remember that the history of audio is littered with poor sub-standard loudspeakers that would have cost consumers a pretty penny. 

So much garbage that the owners inevitably soon feel compelled to look for something better. We know designers use various tricks, such as deliberately elevated treble or even boosted mid-bass, to enable their speakers to initially stand out and sound impressive in demonstrations.

Not exactly honest is it?

Do we really want them to prosper at the expense of decent designers who offer better quality products which might not appear as impressive at first listen?

So what's wrong with asking them to supply data to show us what they have done?
 
When it comes to loudspeakers, just how many 'keepers' are there?  The ones that provide years of satisfaction and later go on to become collectors items?

BBC LS3/5s, Quad 57s/63s for example.

Let's face it, there's not too many, are there.

Maybe posters like kenjit (albeit not in his idiosyncratic style) can help to break the unpleasant hegemony of the dealers and reviewers all acting as the advertising wing of the manufacturing industry by asking such pertinent questions. 

Manufacturer v consumer is always an uneasy relationship because of the cut throat competition involved. We, the consumers, need to keep them honest otherwise they will take us for a ride the way the auto industry tries to.

They're now getting fully behind electric cars after decades of opposition and suppression (ditto hydrogen tech).

Why now? 

We will only get better loudspeakers if that's what we really want and ask for.

They don't care, they're in the selling business happy to forever sell us any old rubbish.
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