What's more important; sound or brand name?


I have had several people leave comments about my inability to hear things with my system because of quality of one or more of the parts. They seem to think it's not good enough to reproduce whatever sound is being discussed on that particular thread. The issue I have is I think my system is pretty good inspite of the fact that some of the componants might not be a popular enough name.

Many of the comments were based on my choice of speakers. I cannot describe how happy I am with the sound quality of the Sony SS M9 speakers inspite of the name on the grill cloth. Yes I have heard many other 'Hi-end' speakers over the years. Some have sounded better than the Sony's, most have not.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining because someone else doesn't like my gear as much as I do. I just wonder if people care more about the name on the product than the sound of the product.

If Sansui made a great product I would consider it inspite of the fact that I consider their stuff to be mostly junk. Maybe Sansui is a bad example since I prefer to buy American but you get the gist...

Any opinions? Have you noticed this happening?
nrchy

Showing 3 responses by detlof

Zaike, thanks for getting me unto Paulwp's post. I also feel that he is dead right with his final statement. It was Sean who first pointed out in these pages, the difference which exists between audiophiles and musiclovers. Possibly the latter are more immune to advertising hype and can be equally enthralled by a musical performance, when listening to their car radio. I consider myself as a "hybrid" by the way, as probably most of us here are, but I will buy by ear, my own or through the advice of those, whose ears I trust. As for resale value, well, as RCprince has stated so well above, once you've found your gear, you tend to stick with it for good.
I could not care less about brand names, there are in fact well known products with lots of prestige, which I don't consider particularly musical and would never buy. I buy, set up and tweak solely by ear and according to my personal taste, which has been largely educated by live music itself. So I would agree with Nrchy, I think.
Well spoken Psychicanimal and Trelja! Yes often we are tempted to be hypocrits, who wants to admit that he's been sold snake oil by "hype"-crits anyway......