Is Sound Quality Dead?

[OnYrMrk]

Nope, Smoker is not that old, he and Moses were my students when I taught at Genesis High School

[Ranger SVO]

I'm the one here who is as old as dirt. And Smoker, how long did it take to write that last paragraph.

Everything we sell is mid-line. It is NOT possible to sell a high end speaker because the first thing a customer would ask is "can I really hear the $199.99 difference between speaker A and speaker B?".
And around here the speaker of choice is Planet, Kicker and Fosgate. In 2005, I sold 2 Infinity Perfects. And that was to a gentleman that spent to much time online doing research and not understanding what he read. And no common sense. With a chev 502 big block headers, 3-inch exhaust, and flowmaster mufflers, no amount of dynomat and Infinities was going to help him. He still insists he wants a SQ system and that he only needs more power

Yea right..........but he does spent lots of money

[GlassWolf]

SQ isn't dead, but it costs a lot more to build quality than it costs to build loud, which is the same reason you don't see a lot of people with Martin Logans at home.. kids tend to think louder means better, so they want it loud. Loud is easy to do cheaply, but loud with great SQ isn't cheap.. and kids just don't have the money most times to buy high end. That's just the reality of things.

On a related note though, I'm still all about SQ.
My previous system:
http://www.glasswolf.net/festiva/

my current system:
Alpine CDA-7990
Audiocontrol EQTs (2)
Orion 300PSW pre-amp
Orion 400BDG bridging module
Orion 2250SX
DynAudio System 360 front stage
2 Orion 2250SXs bridged
2 RE XXX 12" subs, aperiodic enclosure
300A alternator
1 redtop, 2 yellowtops
Orion Wired MBR70 multi-battery regulator
0AWG wiring
3Fd capacitance for filtering
entire car interior spray-deadened with lizardskin

still gets loud enough to mke breathing uncomfortable, but it sounds crystal.

[GlassWolf]

and Ranger, my system is in a 66 Charger with an Indy cylinderhead 440, 3.5"-3" exhaust, dual 22" superturbo mufflers, car interior spray deadened. It sounds just fine when the car is sitting still, and still sounds better than any of that planet/power craptastic/BOSS Audio junk I see in circuit city, regardless of the engine noise.

The timbre of the speakers, crossover points and transitions, and things like the time spent figuring out the install and speaker positioning make a lot of difference.
It also helps having a big car with a lot of signal path length and nothing between the speakers and my ears.
These newer cars are so tiny and cramped, you can't get a decent signal path for decent sound stage or imaging.

[smoker]

I'm the one here who is as old as dirt. And Smoker, how long did it take to write that last paragraph.
Everything we sell is mid-line. It is NOT possible to sell a high end speaker because the first thing a customer would ask is "can I really hear the $199.99 difference between speaker A and speaker B?".
And around here the speaker of choice is Planet, Kicker and Fosgate. In 2005, I sold 2 Infinity Perfects. And that was to a gentleman that spent to much time online doing research and not understanding what he read. And no common sense. With a chev 502 big block headers, 3-inch exhaust, and flowmaster mufflers, no amount of dynomat and Infinities was going to help him. He still insists he wants a SQ system and that he only needs more power
Yea right..........but he does spent lots of money

i have that same thing going on...we have elevation concert series on our board, decent speakers, well above average but i have heard better-just not for the under 400 buck mark...........we also have scosche components on the board which cost less than 100 bucks....they lack the mid bass and the power handling of the elevation speakers and definitely dont bring as much to the system but when you have someone standing in front of you who just left best buy and now thinks that 150 buys a great set of speakers what can you do? it takes a certain level of commitment to spend in the 400 range for a set of components....its a commitment we all understand but most people arent willing to make the leap when there is a cheaper alternative that fills the hole where the stock speakers were....

[JeremyC]

And your talking the 400 range for a set of components. To me and many on here 400 is a good price. Its when you start talking 700 to 1200 that components get a tad pricy, but many of us have, or will spend it. Then again, this forum is full of audio lovers, not the average Joe Blow from across the street.

[OnYrMrk]

just listening to the System 360 from Dynaudio, Kiki, you have new respect from me. I love those speakers. Pound for Pound the best for the price. And this is coming for a focal lover! I am sure with the 2250 powering them, they have to sound phenominal. 400 for a set of components is unfortunatly the median price for the public. More people will pay that per capita than a 200 dollar set or a 1000 dollar set.

[Ranger SVO]

and Ranger, my system is in a 66 Charger with an Indy cylinderhead 440, 3.5"-3" exhaust, dual 22" superturbo mufflers, car interior spray deadened. It sounds just fine when the car is sitting still, and still sounds better than any of that planet/power craptastic/BOSS Audio junk I see in circuit city, regardless of the engine noise.
The timbre of the speakers, crossover points and transitions, and things like the time spent figuring out the install and speaker positioning make a lot of difference.
It also helps having a big car with a lot of signal path length and nothing between the speakers and my ears.
These newer cars are so tiny and cramped, you can't get a decent signal path for decent sound stage or imaging.

Non of the people I work with know what "TIMBRE" means, if fact I would be willing to bet that 75% of installers don't know that term. Enough Said

And I agree with the small interior problem. My own truck suffers from that problem. Speakers in doors create an abnornally wide sound stage, my solution was to add a center speaker driven at double the door speakers power, wire the center out of phase and it worked. The next problem was the tweeters in the door. I replaced the 12dB crossovers with 18dB's that I built. The tweeters are now 90-degrees out of phase and MUCH less directional. Tweeter level then became to high. The solution of my co-workers was "just turn down the treble". I could not get across to them that the treble control effects a very narrow range. My solution was an L-attenuation network after the cross over.

While the sould stage in my truck is mostly correct, I have no depth. Horizonally across the stage, eveything is in the right place, but the drums (for example) do not sound like they are behind the singer. No depth is a function of the interior size and I have not come up with a corrective measure (i'm not getting a new car).

But most people ask me "can you turn up the bass", they have no clue

[Never Too Old]

Duplicate?

[Never Too Old]

Who Called me "Dirt"
and another thing what ever happened to Kraco?