Friday, January 4, 2013

Hi Fi as rip off?

Attendees at the Bristol Sound and Vision Show got an earful from the keynote speaker about the 'deceit' of many hi-end manufacturers. Reviewers also got it in the eye from AVI head honcho Ashley James. Cheap parts masquerading as expensive design? Check. Huge mark ups for dealers? Check. Reviewers who perpetuate the myth of value from the uber-expensive products? Check. Wish I could have been there. Of course, AVI do have a dog in the fight so pinches of salt are probably in order ("more than $1.5k for those little monitors?"). I'd love to try some of their products to get some perspective here but let's face it, we all suspect that he's speaking at least some truth, no?


3 comments:

Unknown said...

"Those" little monitors have built in 2 power aplifiers EACH ... excellent design (not Class D crap), high speed, linear, analogue bipolar, 75 wpc for the tweeters and 250 wpc for the bass drivers. System distortion typically better than 0.002%.

So for that money you get total of 4 excellent power amps, 2 monitor speakers perfectly matched to the power amps, PLUS as a bonus the BUILT-IN DAC, etc

What's to complain about for total of 1.5K$? It is the biggest bargain in high end audio probably

PatrickD said...

Indeed - I guess my intended humor is not clear in my post. Thanks for reading.

Anonymous said...

I have been reading the audiofile press for 30 years. I tend to like the English Hi-Fi mags much more than the American ones. At least the Brits have a more honest approach. The American mags are always trying to please their advertisers. I have read glowing reviews on cd players only to be underwhelmed at the sound it produced. The with any other audio component that I auditioned. What I come away with is this; go out and listen for yourself. If yo like the sound then it is good for you. Afte rall, you are the one that is going to have to live with the audio you purchase