Often the products from large companies are designed with priorities other than sonic quality in mind. Are you familiar with the Yamaha "EAR" speaker, the speaker shaped like a human ear? In point of fact I cannot remember a case where the large companies have been in the forefront of sonic advancement. True, they did develop the CD, and have made a mess of it from the word go. There are divisions of companies like Sony which offer very good products from time to time but they have very limited distribution. I was in the past a dealer for Technics, Hitachi, Sansui and some other Japanese brands as well as "audiophile" brands. In general , if you do not want to spend too much brands like Rotel or NAD will give the best sound for the money. While the big companies COULD make good products and have economies of scale this does not , in fact , occur. The marketing division rules , and perhaps they do know the market. There are many like the electrical engineer I once knew who bought his equipment solely on the basis of how many lights it had on it.
Traditional Brands vs. "Audiophile" Brands
I've visited some traditional brands websites and seen items like Yamaha A-S700, Denon DRA-CX3, Onkyo A-5VL, Onkyo A-9555, Sony STR-DA1500ES, etc.
These are all around $500 and up (MSRP).
Then you have more "audiophile" brands like Cambridge Audio, Marantz, NAD, Music Hall, Adcom, with their own integrated amps in a similar price range.
Questions to ponder:
So what is the difference here?
Can one assume that an audiophile brand of more or less the same price is superior to these "traditional" brands?
Are there advantages in scale, such as say, access to latest technologies before smaller manufacturers, that the traditional guys have?
If units from audiophile group aren't always better, what makes them "audiophile," or are they even that (or just my mis-categorization)?
Your cogitations welcome.
These are all around $500 and up (MSRP).
Then you have more "audiophile" brands like Cambridge Audio, Marantz, NAD, Music Hall, Adcom, with their own integrated amps in a similar price range.
Questions to ponder:
So what is the difference here?
Can one assume that an audiophile brand of more or less the same price is superior to these "traditional" brands?
Are there advantages in scale, such as say, access to latest technologies before smaller manufacturers, that the traditional guys have?
If units from audiophile group aren't always better, what makes them "audiophile," or are they even that (or just my mis-categorization)?
Your cogitations welcome.