[Eagle_Driver]

With technology once reserved for high-end models becoming cheap enough to be filtered down to bottom-of-the-line full-sized home audio components, we should have gotten better sound quality - 90% that of the high-end, astronomically expensive component audio - even at the ~$100 price point. Instead, the makers of low-to-mid-end component audio piled (or would rather pile) on extra flashy features and gadgets on those components, while neglecting the innards of these F'ing dung huts. As a result, the sound quality of low-to-mid-end component audio, as a group, is as p*ss-poor as the average low-end component audio of the mid-1990s. And some of those components sound even worse - worse than that of some portable players!

Still, there are decent-sounding bargains to be had among that big, steaming pile of cow dung that passes for full-sized audio components. Good examples of this pile of respectable budget components are some of the new universal digital audio/video players that can play DVDs, CDs, MP3s, SACDs and DVD-As. (Well, except for perhaps the Pioneer DV-578As, which I've read resamples DSD-mastered SACDs to 88.2kHz PCM and also downsamples DVD-As to 48kHz.) But other than those, we all will have to pay a lot more money than we did a few years ago just to get even mid-fi sound quality, let alone audiophile sound quality.

I'm sorry for ranting, but this is exactly the way I feel about most audio companies these days.

Eagle_Driver

 

[soundboy]

Eagle_Driver,

I feel your pain. Mass market manufacturers are interested in moving boxes, not necessarily providing the best bang-for-the-buck. Sure, occasionally something will slip by, like the Toshiba DVD players. But I think if you look hard enough, they are still some inexpensive, yet good sounding, components out there.

I have high hopes for those upcoming Sony SACD players. Fingers crossed.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

I agree with you.. The supposed "bargain" Toshiba DVD player sounded terrible to me at the meet, the $20 Chaintech soundcard is far better, not to mention cheaper.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soundboy Eagle_Driver, I feel your pain. Mass market manufacturers are interested in moving boxes, not necessarily providing the best bang-for-the-buck. Sure, occasionally something will slip by, like the Toshiba DVD players. But I think if you look hard enough, they are still some inexpensive, yet good sounding, components out there. I have high hopes for those upcoming Sony SACD players. Fingers crossed.

I knew that I'm not alone in expressing this pain.

However, despite the comeback of Sony in the SACD-player arena, I wouldn't expect their Redbook sound quality to be above mediocre. Sony's SACD-capable players, on the whole, historically have been known to deliver good to great SACD playback quality but only so-so Redbook sound quality (in stock form).

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver we should have gotten better sound quality - 90% that of the high-end

I don't know about this as I think 90% is optimistic. It depends on how they implement things. Maybe it's not the best way nor good selection of parts.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan I don't know about this as I think 90% is optimistic. It depends on how they implement things. Maybe it's not the best way nor good selection of parts.

And yet not all ultra-high-end audio is equally great, either.

Some of the most expensive pieces of audio equipment are actually poor design with expensive parts - and it shows in the incoherent sound from them. And sometimes, even expensive audio components share the same craptacular innards as their entry-level siblings. And I do agree with you, lan, that much of the low-end component audio is good design with crappy parts.

 

[lan]

This is a depressing thread.

Because quality is seemingly so random, you sort of have to just try things out and be able to return it easily if unsatisfied. You can't really expect the next year's model of things to always be better or even the same. There are 'cheap' gems here and there which is nice. It sucks trying to upgrade because you have to really question if it actually IS an upgrade.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I felt that I just had to vent my frustrations with component audio in general out into the forums.

 

[lan]

Don't you use portables mainly though? Thought you'd rant in the crappy portable thread

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Don't you use portables mainly though? Thought you'd rant in the crappy portable thread

I did post over in that thread. Cost-cutting, along with over-extended battery life, had resulted in the portable audio sound quality going into the crapper for the most part.

However, I ranted against the cheapening of the quality of full-sized home component audio based on what I've actually auditioned at stores over the years. "What? $700 for a home receiver that sounds much worse than my $100 computer soundcard? Where's the bass? And the treble? And boy, are those mids heavily coloured!" (Yep, this was in stereo mode, through a pair of the Senn HD555 headphones connected to the headphone jacks of those receivers. Those receivers do deliver bass - but they require a separate subwoofer that's connected to its dedicated output and a full-blown multichannel surround-sound setup just to deliver even mid-bass, let alone low bass.)

 

[lan]

I think the phrase, they don't make them like they used to, rings true there in terms of amplification. We might be partially saved by new digital amps. I love my panasonic one. There might not be hope in sight for sources though.

 

[fewtch]

Instead of ranting about how bad component audio has gotten, come on into the PC source forum and rejoice at how much better PC-based audio has gotten recently...

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Instead of ranting about how bad component audio has gotten, come on into the PC source forum and rejoice at how much better PC-based audio has gotten recently...

Yes, computer-based audio did become better of late, on the whole. But it could still have been even better had someone (Microshaft) not shove the AC '97 "standard" down our throats a few years ago.

 

[tom hankins]

If this has gotten to the point of bothering you so much....Why not just build your own gear? At least if things screw up you can only blame yourself. Take control of the situation.
Most of the time you get what you pay for.

 

[DLP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver However, I ranted against the cheapening of the quality of full-sized home component audio based on what I've actually auditioned at stores over the years. "What? $700 for a home receiver that sounds much worse than my $100 computer soundcard? Where's the bass? And the treble? And boy, are those mids heavily coloured!" (Yep, this was in stereo mode, through a pair of the Senn HD555 headphones connected to the headphone jacks of those receivers. Those receivers do deliver bass - but they require a separate subwoofer that's connected to its dedicated output and a full-blown multichannel surround-sound setup just to deliver even mid-bass, let alone low bass.)

I'm confused, is this about speakers or headphones with receivers? You changed that in the middle of this paragraph like they were the same thing.