What audio brands are you not attracted to?

[Ajani]

OK, I'll play this game (though I should point out that brand bashing has a tendency to get nasty!!!)...

Cerwin Vega, JBL, Infinity & Klipsch all sound fine for the money... Plus you should keep in mind that most people only hear these brands in best buy and with some ultra cheapo receiver... not on a good quality 2 channel rig...

Anyway, I've generally found the following brands to be boring (not bad, just not interesting enough to make me want to spend money on them):

Dynaudio
Arcam
Totem
NAD
PSB


B&W sounds nice to me, but gives me serious listening fatigue after about half an hour...

And the only truly, absolutely, 100% AWFUL sounding setup I've ever heard was:

Magnepan MG12 with a McIntosh Integrated Amp & CD Player... I honestly, have to just believe that the system was not setup correctly or I wasn't anywhere near the sweet spot... It just sounded BAD... not bass deficient or with rolled off treble or anything like that... just muddy, strange and undefined...

[elapsed]

And the only truly, absolutely, 100% AWFUL sounding setup I've ever heard was:

Magnepan MG12 with a McIntosh Integrated Amp & CD Player... I honestly, have to just believe that the system was not setup correctly or I wasn't anywhere near the sweet spot... It just sounded BAD... not bass deficient or with rolled off treble or anything like that... just muddy, strange and undefined...

Ajani, please please give Maggies another chance, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were given the wrong room and not setup correctly, they have every ability to shine

cheers,
elapsed

[Ajani]

Ajani, please please give Maggies another chance, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were given the wrong room and not setup correctly, they have every ability to shine

cheers,
elapsed

Hopefully, one day I'll get to try out some Maggie 1.6s.... I find it strange that I had such a bad experience with the MG12s, considering how impressed I was some Final Sound 400i electrostats I heard... I always thought that Maggies and Stats should have a fairly similar sound...

[Brick Top]

Well I should only comment on brands I have had experience with...but I was in retail A/V at one time.

For speakers I would have to say Klipsch, Polk, Paridigm, Bose & Jamo.

Receivers, systems & separates....Pioneer, Kenwood, Classe, Bose.

Did I mention Bose?

Cheers,
BT

[IBSTORMIN]

Cerwin Vega, JBL, Infinity & Klipsch all sound fine for the money... Plus you should keep in mind that most people only hear these brands in best buy and with some ultra cheapo receiver... not on a good quality 2 channel rig...

To add to this, it seems what is in the Best Buy stores is a knock-offf of the higher end equipment.....the same tweeter that is in their best with multiple mid-range drivers is now put into a 2-way configuration and it is WAY too bright. The Infinity speakers I have are a good example of this, the Prelude PFR has 4-5.25 midrange with one silk tweeter and sounds really good, smoother than their Overture 3's of the same line in the 90's which in comparison sounds too bright. Their bookshelfs are way too bright and boomy with a back port. The Infinity 2000's replacement of this is the Prelude MTS and is class "A" rated but you put that CMMD tweeter in anything with lesser mid/bass and it is TOO bright and irritating. Infinity, after loosing alot of market, realized this and changed to the MMD driver in their lower end speakers, which is not as bright. Klipsch is the same way, BB speakers are just TOO bright but I haven't heard their high end stuff. JBL is also too bright with their Titanium tweeter in their lesser speakers.The only thing I like in Cerwin Vega is their 15" sub I have, it's not a lot of power but it is musical and clean. I just don't like Polk. Infinity designs a line of drivers and a couple years later when Infinity changes drivers, Polk picks up what Infinity was using. Infinity's 90's silk dome is what I lat saw that Polk is using now, but Polk doesn't do it as well as Infinity. Polk always sounds distorted to me, not smooth and clean. And of course, Bose is a four letter word.
As you can tell, I like Infinity and climbed to the top of their 90's line and am happy with it but.......I wonder what others would sound like it my system....Prelude MTS, Martin Logan, Maggies???

[hermanv]

The big block stores are focused on impulse buyers. As a result speakers they sell will have a lot of flash/bang. Which is to say an exaggerated treble, bass or both. Most serious buyers will spend far more time listening.

A serious buyer will also wonder why people might spend several grand for a speaker pair when all five surround speakers and the sub woofer retail for under $900 at the big box store.

I worked in telephony and know that many studies were done to ascertain the minimum sound quality level people would tolerate when cell phones were first being developed. People are conditioned to accept poor quality sound, listen to any PA system. (ps: I personally suspect that poor sound is why people who can drive fine talking to a passenger can not drive fine while using a cell phone. Subconsciously a lot of brain horsepower is being diverted to making those awful noises from the phone into recognizable speech.)

It takes exposure over hours or even days for your ears to learn what they have been missing. Listening for an extended period of time to a truly good system, will open your ears.

[squeegy200]

[QUOTE=IBSTORMIN]..... And of course, Bose is a four letter word.
............[QUOTE]


Jumping into this conversation late. But I think most here would appreciate never owning this brand in their personal systems.

I sold many pairs of Bose speaker systems when I worked for Pacific Stereo back in my college days. I never could comprehend why they were held in such esteem but I sold them anyways because I needed the paycheck. The demand remained high--even when compared next other systems in A/B tests. A large percentage of consumers still preferred the Bose to other available speaker systems. I had to conclude from my experience with retail--that the consumer public associates volume with quality. Sound quality is subjective but "louder is better" is quantifiable.

I had a recent experience to validate my theory. I found a pair of the old "legendary" Bose 901 Series IIs at a friend's garage sale. She was unable to sell them and was about to toss them in the garbage. I told her to wait on these. I took them and purchased a re-ring kit from a local speaker builder store for $59.95. I refurbished the pair and hooked them up to my system. I was immediately reminded of the atrocious sound presence that I remembered from my days at Pacific Stereo. Back then they sold for near $1000.

I posted them on eBay and had a flurry of bids eventually selling for near $600 + $75 for shipping. Not a bad return for an aging speaker system over 20 years of age.

[manlystanley]

I posted them on eBay and had a flurry of bids eventually selling for near $600 + $75 for shipping. Not a bad return for an aging speaker system over 20 years of age.

Amazing... I have a pair of Bose 201's below my kitchen cabinets.they are only used to push out sound and basically nothing else. Yet, people come in my house and are impressed that I have such high quality speakers......

Best Regards,
Stan

[IBSTORMIN]

Amazing... I have a pair of Bose 201's below my kitchen cabinets.they are only used to push out sound and basically nothing else. Yet, people come in my house and are impressed that I have such high quality speakers......

Best Regards,
Stan

Markerting is the reason. Bose has alot of people convinced they have the best. Alot of people see the name and know you spent alot of money. Those that have heard, compared and can hear the difference, know you spent too much for the sound quality you have. Just my 2 cents.