On Sun, 13 May 2007 20:36:02 +0200, jaap wrote:

Don Pearce schreef:
On Sun, 13 May 2007 19:37:01 +0200, jaap wrote:

It's a public secret there's only a small market for better sounding
equipment. Most people don't bother because they want to hear amplified
sound and do not enjoy the quality, especially when expensive. There
lays the problem manufacturers are facing.
I think that lost something in the translation from Dutch. Could you
elaborate?

d

Alright. Being a public secret is a saying (over here) and means as much
as being common knowledge to most people.
No, I got that bit - it was all the rest that had me puzzled.

d

Look around you, probably within your family or among your friends. Most
people won't be bothered by new disk standards, color of face plates,
brand names, fourfold wiring with precious metals, quantity of
loudspeakers etcetera. It's all about enjoying the music, not how it is
reproduced.
OK, there exist a group of people running to the shop every year for the
last model but I don't think this is because they enjoy the music so
much. See my point?


Yes, but what did you mean when you said that people want to hear
amplified sound and do not enjoy the quality?

I gave you two examples. It is about the music, not how many watts or
how large the stack.


Well, watts do matter. If you want to hear a symphony orchestra at
realistic level, they really matter. Unless you enjoy the sound of
clipping, of course. That, I'm afraid is what the 5 watt valve amp
people have to put up with.


Another example: TV sets. It's only for a couple of years manufacturers
are paying attention to better sound reproduction. Many of us are having
terrible reproduction quality and still enjoy the moving pictures.


I shouldn't think many of us on this group use the sound system
supplied with a TV.

In my circle there's no one who has the tellie linked to his or her
hifi. I did on some occasions watching war movies because of the
impressive explosion sounds. Only got the pets and the wife upset


Manufacturers can produce better sets but what happens if customers
don't want to spend more money on a TV or HiFi?

Jaap

Nobody has produced anything better for many years.

You're missing the point here. Manufacturers can upgrade -lets say- a
midprized set by putting in more expensive capacitors. That set would
sound better because there's less fuzz in the audio. On the other hand
the higher expense has to be payed by the consumer and they don't. One
explanation can be that consumers want better cyphers when they put down
more money. My explanation is massconsumers don't think a small gain in
quality is worth a large amount.


No, you have fallen foul of the "capacitor sound" myth here. There is
no such thing. Mid-priced Hi Fi amplifiers right now are essentially
faultless in their reproduction. You can't reduce fuzz by changing
capacitors because there is no fuzz.

Quality plateaued once the initial reproduction problems with CD had
been understood and addressed.

Personally I never liked the 'digital' sound with its harsh highs and
unnatural dynamics. But OK, tastes differ (we say over here).


Digital doesn't have harsh highs - it has accurate highs. There are
plenty of people around who compared the accurate highs on CDs with
the muted highs from previous technologies and found the comparison
unfavourable, of course. As for unnatural dynamics - they are nothing
to do with CDs. You can't blame the medium for what producers do with
it. And of course the CD is fully capable of vastly better dynamics
than any previously available medium. Vinyl, of course, has always
suffered reduced dynamics because it is mechanically severely limited.


Hi Fi is now a lifestyle business, and quite unrelated to
sound reproduction.

But do remember the nature of the group you are addressing here. We
are mostly not Hi Fi fashion victims, and many of us are well able to
understand in great detail what the true situation is.

d


Hope not to be blunt, but do you mean this NG is more about lifestyle
than audio? In that case the name should be changed...


Why should I mean that? This newsgroup is uk.rec.audio. That means it
concerns itself with the techniques and methods of sound reproduction.
Whether that is high or low fidelity is up to the originator of each
thread. In general of course, it won't concern itself with what colour
the latest offering from Panasonic is.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com