BTW Jason, after living in New York City for a year I can say that for the price of Ferrari’s 360 Modena, you can’t do the above in that city. If its for the price of Enzo Ferrari (around $650K), may be…

This is the crux of what I hate so in this industry - that manufactuers will knowingly mislead the consumer in order to extract as much money as possible. This much blantant deception in other industries (like cars) would have the Federal Government decending like a ton of bricks.

I too live in the city and know exactly what you're talking about. For all the rent I pay for my lovely room of a 3 bedroom apt, I could have some really nice cars parked outside.

Location, location, location...

Soundhound,

I think you give your Federal Government (and governments everywhere) far too much credit.

Imagine an industry where EVERY product sold is defective in some way. Where despite advertising claims, and the printed material that comes with it, and glowing reviews in trade journals, it NEVER works as advertised for the poor schlepp who buys it. Imagine an industry where EVERY product sold needs to be repaired somehow by the consumer. Where EVERY repair leads to the need for yet more repairs. And where eventually the manufacturer releases a new and improved (but still broken) version of the product - and it's snapped up by the same gullible consumer who bought the original product. Think computer software. Don't see "government" tackling that one anytime soon!

P.T. Barnum would be making out like a bandit today if he were still alive.

ps. I think that we're lucky that in the vast majority of cases, consumer A/V products work more or less as advertised. I have trouble feeling sorry for someone who, after price shopping for days to get the lowest price on a bigscreen RPTV, then proceeds to drop $800 on a six foot length of component video cables - as did a friend of mine!

Jeff Mackwood

Jeff:

I was referring specifically to the snake oil type BS claims in the sound industry, not reliablilty or function of products beyond the false claims.

I'm also astonished at the amount of uncontested and grotesquely expensive snake oil that so-called audiophile companies are allowed to sell on the open market.

It's as if General Motors claimed a new car could get 500 miles to the gallon.

[This message has been edited by boblinds (edited December 21, 2003).]

Part of the problem is that the snake oil salesmen are helped along by those who we would normally expect to trust. In most defined vertical market segments there are "journalists" who seek out the truth and then print it - in reputable publications. We've had this discussion a few months back in another thread on magazines / publications.

The problem is that with but a few notable exceptions (and I'm thinking specifically about Sound & Vision's David Ranada, Ken Pohlmann, and Ian Masters) the trade pub editors / writers do nothing to dispel the myths. In fact, it's often the opposite.

I need cite nothing other than Jerry Kindela's article "Fourteen El Cheapo Tweaks That Really Work" in the current (January 2004) issue of Home Theatre magazine to prove my point.

To take boblinds' example of the 500 mpg GM car, I doubt that either Road & Track or Car & Driver would let a claim like that go untested and unchallenged!

Jeff Mackwood

Sort of, although the snake-oil purveyors tend to stay away from easily falsifiable claims, and instead claim things that don't matter and/or are not easily falsifiable. Then no one makes them prove their claims.

In audio, magic still sells, sadly.

I just stumbled on this site. Now this is overkill

http://www.royaldevice.com/custom3.htm

Lasher

It certainly is. Assuming the rest of the system is also horn loaded, just how much SPLs can a human take without going deaf? A setup like this would make sense in a gigantic room however - like a movie theater sized room. I don't think this is the case here though.