cjfrbw
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2018
- Messages
- 410
- Likes
- 472
https://www.google.com/search?q=imm...ome..69i57.11219j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8Do you have a link to the research please?
https://www.google.com/search?q=imm...ome..69i57.11219j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8Do you have a link to the research please?
Weirdly, given that Sonos is almost a generic term for wireless and multi-room speakers I am not sure I know anybody who has bought Sonos.
There's a Sonos flagship store where I live in Berlin so I was able to listen to the best system they could get together in a room they had specifically built to showcase it, and the sound was very disappointing.
And yes, like you I've heard better offerings from other brands including Bose and Samsung. Haven't heard some of the other brands you mention but am interested in hearing how good this tech can be these days so will be trying to listen to more...
Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, but I'm glad to hear that you're keeping an open mind to these types of audio systems.
If I can find some time to do so, I will take some measurements of my system and we can see where the problems may be.
You'll have to excuse me my total disdane for the "soundbar" thing. There were many of us in this industry (including JGH) that saw multich audio as a possible path for some renewed health in the "hobby". The hope was a strong interest in home theater would bring along on it's coat-tails a level of excitement for multich music recordings. Never happened for a number of reasons not the least IMHO was the media outlets willing to say that the new soundbar market was a reasonable alternative to a true discreet 5.1 or better system, it's just not. Sit down in good system and listen to some excellent discreet music recordings, the air and feeling of being transported into the hall with the complete immersive ambiance. I really suck at trying to wax lyrical.I wouldn't trade my amplifier and speakers for Sonos as I'm not in the market (I am still happy with what I've got). However, should the day come when it dies then I probably will replace it with active speakers. And based on the improvement in sound bars and wireless speakers I can honestly see them fitting my needs and being the more attractive solution when the time comes. Like I say, some of the sound bars with sub-woofers are really very good for listening to music now. Some of the Samsung models are actually pretty impressive without sub-woofers, Samsung seem to be leveraging Harman's speaker expertise to make some very impressive pieces of kit.
You'll have to excuse me my total disdane for the "soundbar" thing. There were many of us in this industry (including JGH) that saw multich audio as a possible path for some renewed health in the "hobby". The hope was a strong interest in home theater would bring along on it's coat-tails a level of excitement for multich music recordings. Never happened for a number of reasons not the least IMHO was the media outlets willing to say that the new soundbar market was a reasonable alternative to a true discreet 5.1 or better system, it's just not. Sit down in good system and listen to some excellent discreet music recordings, the air and feeling of being transported into the hall with the complete immersive ambiance. I really suck at trying to wax lyrical.
In any case the multich music market never took off in any big way and the any hope for a revitalized high fidelity market died with it..
JA: "I remember you strongly feeling back in 1992 that multichannel/surround reproduction was the only chance the industry had for getting back on course.
With fidelity in stagnation, spatiality was the only area of improvement left.
As you were so committed to surround, do you feel that the commercial failures of DVD-Audio and SACD could have been avoided?
JGH: I doubt it. No audio product has ever succeeded because it was better, only because it was cheaper, smaller, or easier to use. Your generation of music lovers will probably be the last that even think about fidelity."
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1107awsi/index.html#5zXS04u32MG5Geqw.99
I'll get down off my soapbox of trying to support a "accurate" reproducer of 3D space.
I think audio in cinemas is much better today than yesterday. Maybe mch wasn’t dead after all? Or last convulsion?
The high end market has shrunken for a lot of reasons, not just snake oil. It's not just high end, anything fancier than a sound bar has suffered. Today consumers have other distractions like huge flat panel TV's, smartphones, online gaming and social media. Most find these forms of entertainment more engaging than listening to playback of recorded music at very high quality levels. A lot of other things have changed. In the US people used to buy sedans and now all they want are SUV's and pickups. The mass market cruise industry is a relatively recent phenomenon. How did people live without a Starbucks every morning?
Around here we live in a bright spot where audiophiles have some sense of how to get the most for their money, but there aren't that many of us.
As for "Modern Living", I'm still stuck trying to figure out why everybody just has to have tattoos.
You'll have to excuse me my total disdane for the "soundbar" thing.
This has been an issue for a long time now. "We" inhabit an unusual world compared to the general consumer. The number of people who want to sit down and just listen to music is small in relative terms. I often get asked about the things I do for a living. When I mention one of those things is manufacturing HiFi people more often or not look bemused. No-one knows what a DAC is They get their heads around amplifiers, but the whole separates hifi thing is generally a complete enigma to them, especially the younger ones
The DAC in my 46" $250 TLC 4k HDR monitor sounds pretty good through headphones, even using HDMI from my Mini Mac. May not measure so hot if one were to do so, but it's very OK for listening to music on headphones.If it looks like a DAC and quacks like a DAC, it's a DAC. I suppose they don't realize there's one in their mobile phone and another in their TV.
Just the fact that people are buying a soundbar than just listening to tv speakers is amazing to me.
Me too Ray. And don't forget many have piercings. I think I understand the tattoos more than the piercings. Or maybe the fact I think that means I just really don't understand at all.As for "Modern Living", I'm still stuck trying to figure out why everybody just has to have tattoos.
They have no choice. The speakers in flat screen TVs are SO bad that the entire world got fed up.
I think you've forgotten how good the sound was in many CRT TVs. My 85yo Dad still has the 2nd colour TV we bought in 1982 (26"). He keeps it because it still works perfectly and it sounds like a hifi system- and it's only mono! I've given him a couple of flatscreens (42" and a 32") and although he likes the picture, one has a pair of floor standing speakers and an amplifier to give sound that is good enough to comprehend what mumbling actors say on TV these days.
Around 2000, we sold a Panasonic 29" stereo CRT TV called 'The One'. It had sound so good, I used to demonstrate it with a CD player fed into the line inputs. It was phenomenally good.
Here, I found it on youtube!
I don't think people are listening to any more music than we did. We had quality FM broadcasting in the 70s/80s and 90s. Lots of stations broadcasting CD content for free. Now FM is a wasteland of lossy, compressed garbage.
As for headphones, the quality headphones in the 1980s made for Walkmans were better than much of the garbage being sold now. I listen to my boys overpriced cans and they are putrid compared to even an ancient pair of Sony MDR-70s I bought in ~1983. Way more efficient, comfortable and better sounding. Sure, the high end modern expensive cans are considerably better, but not the mass-market stuff- it's trash and always will be.
It's handy to have actual physical references from the 1980s to compare old to new...:
View attachment 22959
View attachment 22960
I use these old Sonys for the computer. They are so comfortable I often forget I have them on my head- lucky they have about an 8ft cord.