Quote Originally Posted by RGA
But John makes the point I always make - the best stuff doesn't need cyclic advertising like a Musical Fidelity or most speaker makers, that change models every 2-5 years like clockwork on the "it is new therefore it must be better" stance. No the A21a has been selling a topology since 1967 and improved a couple of things - heat handling ability mainly, and updated the style a bit - 1992 version of this amp in other words was still sounding better than most everything in its price class even into 2005 and some still argue that it sounds better than their new updated SE version. I can't make that case since I have not heard the new one.

Point is I agree with JM that if you really made a good product that it should hold up quite well 5, 10 and 20 years later. And the changes made will be subtle not completely different tweeters, woofers or cabinet shape in the case of speakers or amplfier design. Musical Fidelity changed so often that there are absolutely no products in their line-up that are viewed as anything special or are prized or remotely sought after. And customer loyalty should be zilch since whatever you bought they will tell you 2 years later is now junk compared to their new model. Thanks I'd rather not buy something that will be viewed as junk in 2 years or some new version of a speaker that fixes the obviously crummy treble of the old model that I bought. Wait so now my speaker is no good because they didn't get the treble right the first time around?
Come on RGA, this is the real world we are talking about... Not every hifi manufacturer is independently wealthy like CC Poon of Monarchy Audio and so doesn't need to make any money from selling his own product... As passionate as many persons are about making HiFi, they also need to earn a living doing so...

While I agree that Musical Fidelity completely overdid the whole hyping up new products and replacing models in as little as 2 years, the fact is that the business world is filled with advertising and "new products" that are really just minor updates of a previous product...

Why does Honda introduce a new Accord every 5 years like clockwork? Some persons will swear by vintage cars, but most persons don't want a "classic" car, they want "new and improved"... Even if new and improved really just means cosmetic changes and a mild improvement in performance...

Consumers generally want "new and shiny" not "30 years and still going"... So HiFi manufacturers attempt to capitalize on that fact, the way just about any other business in any other industry does...

So it's not necessarily a case that they are fixing products that didn't perform well in the first place, as you seem to believe, but more that they throw a few tweaks and cosmetic changes on and old model and advertise the hell out of it as if it was a reinvention of the wheel... The products you like, prefer not to advertise those minor tweaks and don't change the cosmetics...