TroyD or anyone who wants to read this.

burdette

Originally posted by mantis
....sometimes it's nessary to loose some sound quality to gain features.

Back in my younger audio days, we characterized this sentiment as "would you rather have a stripped down Mercedes, or a fully-decked out Chrysler K-car?" At any particular price point, I believe I'd opt for the more solid build, better electronics, better amp.

Originally posted by mantis
The Japanese are king at this.Take a deep look into the Denon avr5803 and see if you can find any preamp or receiver with MORE features.You will be extremely hard pressed.

Possible, I don't know. That is a poor example to me. I doubt I'll ever be in the mental (or financial) state that would label a receiver of that caliber as a sacrifice in sound quality. But the fact that you DO use that receiver as your example of sacrificed sound quality certainly puts your paradigm on this into perspective.

You can say "it's all good, man", and I think it is, too... but from my observations, the customers you work with are waaaay on a different part of the audio continuum than most of us around here. Perhaps the meaning behind your assertion about sacrificing sound quality makes more sense with an example...

OK, ma'am, you have your choice..... For $40,000 installed, you can have multiple this and zones and access and all room and that and the other thing and twelve of those...... and your high end extends to 25,000Hz, -3dB. OR.. for the same price, you can have multiple this and zones and access and all room and that and the other thing and twelve of those.... PLUS your remote will BEEP when you press this button, to help you find it should you misplace it... but your high end extends only to 24,000Hz, -3dB."

"Oh.. well.. I'm always losing those damn remotes.. lets go with the second option." Sound quality sacrificed for features, sure enough. (Note: no Bose speakers were referenced nor harmed in the stating of those high frequency response limits.)

But for most of us here, in my opinion, the real test is when the lights go down and the **** hits the chair and whether this movie or this song sounds GOOD.. not whether I can adjust the volume in the kitchen from the same chair. And when I financially have to choose between them, at least MY choice is pretty clear.

What I'd be curious to know is... as the price starts ramping up for a fully installed fully automatic whole house audio video and control system... at what price point does the sound quality plateau, as the system price keeps climbing?? You have to start paying for the features at some point, which means you are no longer gaining in solid, sonic improvements - and, as you said, some of your choices will actually back you OFF the quality.

wallstreet

Originally posted by burdette


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What I'd be curious to know is... as the price starts ramping up for a fully installed fully automatic whole house audio video and control system... at what price point does the sound quality plateau, as the system price keeps climbing?? You have to start paying for the features at some point, which means you are no longer gaining in solid, sonic improvements - and, as you said, some of your choices will actually back you OFF the quality.

$15,000:eek:

mantis

burdette,
Lets start with this.Today it seems the lack of high fidelity,better sound quality or however you want to put it.Most general people just want IT to work.
Just think about how popular Mp3 is getting.I have heard alot of Mp3 tracks now and feel the sound quality is lacking for the most part.But people don't seem to care......

What I'd be curious to know is... as the price starts ramping up for a fully installed fully automatic whole house audio video and control system... at what price point does the sound quality plateau, as the system price keeps climbing?? You have to start paying for the features at some point, which means you are no longer gaining in solid, sonic improvements - and, as you said, some of your choices will actually back you OFF the quality.

Yo answer this well it's to broad of a question to answer correctly.
Multiroom audio can be any quality you want it to be.If you want a stack of B&K reference amps driving Sonus Faber speakers all over your house,then you will have very good sound quality from a loacl source.
Control has nothing to do with sound quality.Elan is our high end control system.I think there Z amps are fantastic sounding.They drive very had,they are 60 watts per channel and can be put into a 4 ohm load and hold it allday long.Sound quality is only limited by the dynamic range of the amp.It has reserves ,but nothing like a 2 channel 60 watt amp like My Rotel has.
Multiroom audio systems can be anything you want them to be.You can use Krell amps and Dynaudio speakers all over your house for "murder it dead" if you please.So your question I cannot answer as clear or cut and dry........to wide open man...

dcarlson

Lets start with this.Today it seems the lack of high fidelity,better sound quality or however you want to put it.Most general people just want IT to work.

That's right on the button. Most people don't know how good music can sound. MP3s? You can fix a million songs on a CD and they sound the same as CDs when listening to them on a crap system. The general public has systems that probably won't reveal the limitations of MP3s. They're convienient.

I've recently had the oportunity to hear Vinyl on some decent systems and I'm hooked. I'm willing to sacrifice the functionality of CDs for the sound quality of Vinyl. I had no idea. Even a 1975 Dual turntable worth $150 back then kicked ****.

My 2 cents, it's all about personal taste. If you want sound quality and sacrifice on features, give her ****. If you can afford high quality sound with a wack of features, all the better.

Derick.

mantis

Nice read Derick,
someone understands............

TroyD

Understand what?

That if you aren't interested in hifi sound that just about anything will do? Sure, however, I didn't realize we were talking about people who had little to no concern for decent sound.

BDT

rs159

I thought we were talking about people ready to graduate from their **** sony boomboxes but who still think bose and infinity + 1 zones is all the better?

dcarlson

A buddy of mine came over from out of town a couple of weeks and was raving about his $800CAN Sony HT in a box. I played Pink Floyd Money for him and he was shocked. His exact words were "I've never heard that before". Sony was his reference, he's a Sony freak.

Until people experience what good sound is, they usually have no idea. That's where Bose fits in. Chances are, people who buy Bose have Bose as a reference point. Because of the marketing they may not even listen to other speakers.

gidrah

Some people consider the Japanese to be the kings of the minimalistic approach as well.