How Do Newer Polk Models Stack Up vs Vintage?
Comments
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Quite true. The vintage speakers I own which were bought in the early 80s for the price of 500$ pair were decent speakers then but definitely not high end however, considering the cost they would be priced at today I have to admit I might not be able to afford or even consider today.
The price ratio should be proportional. You should have been making a lot less then, so $500 would seem like a lot. Today, unless you are retired, you should be making more, so the price ratio is the same for the higher cost speaker today. Yet, the odds are today's speaker will be much better than the old speaker.Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
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Three 20 amp circuits. -
Thank you for the explanation Dennis, I didn't realize that.
As for new versus vintage, for me it a lot of factors. 1. is cost. Although my speakers are 21yrs old they are still going strong & sounding great. I can't justify the expense of new ones.
I have no doubt that there are better ones out there, including the LSI's. I always love listening to my brothers LSI 7s because they sound so good, and certainly better than my RTA-8Ts.
But then I come home & put in my Eagles Farewell Tour, & I quickly get over it.:biggrin:
When I started out, all I had was a mostly Rotel gear based 2 channel system and I wanted to get into HT. So that necessitated an electronics upgrade. All gear & RTA-8Ts were bought 2-6-90. All the Rotel gear passed away about 18 years later, (My brother got them) So I would have had to upgrade anyway.
While the electronics have died, the speakers are still pumping out great tunes, that is QUALITY!
In this day and age of planned obsolescence, I doubt the most speakers will last as long as my Polks, which I think is deliberate on the manufacturers side.Dennis Gardner wrote: »Statement/Flagship has never been about bottom line profit. It is about showcasing your design/theory differences from your competition.
R&D costs are a pass down through the line type of expense. Honda/Toyota/BMW/Mercedes/etc. back race divisions to develop engine lines, parts, theories, just like a speaker company does. Polk did the same with the SRT. The drivers were of similar style that you could buy in your every day RT speaker. It has been done for years as a marketing, advertising, display of talents and design. Just not any more at Polk. I'm not faulting them at all, just responding/expanding the OP line of thought. I could care less personally, as I buy what sounds good to me, not what looks good in a magazine or commercial.
I think you Cathy, are a perfect example of whether Polk's speakers today are better than vintage. You have upgraded most of your electronics while standing firm on 10-15 year old speakers. Tell us your thoughts on vintage vs. new.Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2 -
Top of the line models are used as a statement to showcase to the buying public the engineering side of their company. As with car makers, Porsche,Audi and others, they dont build limited editions of almost race ready street cars to sell to John Q public in large numbers, only a few are built, priced not to turn a profit but way way more expensive that the standard model lines cost ( in fact they lose money on these cars) and the few that are bought and seen will catch the attention of the buying puplic, which draws us into their show rooms.Amps- Nakamichi PA 7 & PA 5.
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The "halo effect". Helps to make the ordinary products look "special" due to imagined or real "tinkle-down" from the statement product.victor. askew wrote: »Top of the line models are used as a statement to showcase to the buying public the engineering side of their company. As with car makers, Porsche,Audi and others, they dont build limited editions of almost race ready street cars to sell to John Q public in large numbers, only a few are built, priced not to turn a profit but way way more expensive that the standard model lines cost ( in fact they lose money on these cars) and the few that are bought and seen will catch the attention of the buying puplic, which draws us into their show rooms. -
victor. askew wrote: »Top of the line models are used as a statement to showcase to the buying public the engineering side of their company.
I don't think that's totally true. There are several "high-end" speaker manufacturers out there that don't sell "economy" speakers. I highly-doubt they're just giving them away to make a statement and I doubt that Polk's original strategy was to just give away the SRTs or RT5000s or SDAs with zero profit incentive. Now that's not saying they didn't eventually take a loss on them because they were expensive. The profit margins (which seem to be the only thing companies nowadays care about) might not have been as lucrative as selling the less-expensive mass-produced lower end units due to sheer volume but there definitely is a market for higher-end audio components.
