Are there any audiophile electronics companies who have a transparent, honest marketing as a priority?

[Juhazi]

And...

AVM amplifiers etc. https://avm.audio/about-avm/
Hypex amplifiers https://www.hypex.nl/
Magico speakers https://www.magico.net/
PSB speakers http://www.psbspeakers.com/
Revel speakers https://revelspeakers.com/

 

[Cortes]

Back in the 1980s, I got tired of Corporate Life and set up my own HiFi shop with the above philosophy.

I went bust a few years later.

S.

It's really sad, but that's the reality of human nature. Honest policians don't get votes, demanding but good professors are not rated by students, etc. The true is something that societies don't look for, and probably don't need either.

 

[Purité Audio]

And...

AVM amplifiers etc. https://avm.audio/about-avm/
Hypex amplifiers https://www.hypex.nl/
Magico speakers https://www.magico.net/
PSB speakers http://www.psbspeakers.com/
Revel speakers https://revelspeakers.com/

Magico!
Really
Keith

 

[GGroch]

Magico!
Really Keith

Is that Magico Really! or Magico Really ?

I have never heard any of their products, but considered them a luxury lifestyle brand rather than audiophile in the normal sense....which does not mean they aren't great, it just means you are paying for something other than performance.

And they make QPods, which I cannot see impacting performance at all.

 

[Juhazi]

^This was about marketing and honesty. Asking high price for an extremely well engineered and done product is ok to me. Only if they added one 0 to price of Q series, I would raise my eyebrows. They have the Ultimate for the wealthy and rich!

 

[andreasmaaan]

JDS Labs

 

[SEKLEM]

Perhaps Vandersteen fits that description.

 

[SIY]

Are they still in business?

 

[SEKLEM]

Are they still in business?

Vandersteen? Yes.

https://www.vandersteen.com/

 

[LTig]

The amps of theirs I've worked with had marginal stability. Oh, sorry, I meant "unusually revealing of cable differences."

Yeah, borrowed once a Naim power amp to try with my MG1.6 I had at that time. After correct wiring I switched on the amp and was greeted with an ear-tearing high frequency scream. Switched off immediately but the fuses which protect the HF driver of the Maggies were already blown. Luckily the Maggies had fuses and came with some spares as well.

When I brought the amp back to the dealer he excused it with the wrong cable they had given me (the Naim having stupid DIN inputs - how I hated these connectors, thery were very difficult to solder ...) and offered a better one. I refused.

 

[SIY]

Vandersteen? Yes.

https://www.vandersteen.com/

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, as I poked around...

"WE DO USE WONDER SOLDER, WONDER WIRE, WONDER CAPS, MIT/REL AND DUELUND CAPS WHEN APPROPRIATE."
Voodoo.

"Vandersteen was the first to offer crossover networks in commercial speaker systems with battery-biased film capacitors. A constant charge on the capacitor dielectrics allows the speakers to sound as good when first turned on as they do after several hours (or days) of playing. This technology has since been applied to cable dielectrics and it works very well. There are batteries all over my audio system and this advance stems from the first Vandersteen Model 5 speakers."
Voodoo.

"The Model 5A crossover uses metal film resistors with copper leads, premium film capacitors from Wima and InfiniCaps® with batteries to keep the dielectrics charged for optimum performance, and solid-core pure silver wire. Caps and hand-wound inductors are encapsulated to minimize microphonic effects."
Voodoo.

 

[LTig]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, as I poked around...

"WE DO USE WONDER SOLDER, WONDER WIRE, WONDER CAPS, MIT/REL AND DUELUND CAPS WHEN APPROPRIATE."
Voodoo.

"Vandersteen was the first to offer crossover networks in commercial speaker systems with battery-biased film capacitors. A constant charge on the capacitor dielectrics allows the speakers to sound as good when first turned on as they do after several hours (or days) of playing. This technology has since been applied to cable dielectrics and it works very well. There are batteries all over my audio system and this advance stems from the first Vandersteen Model 5 speakers."
Voodoo.

Correct. The first time I heard this (battery biased elcaps in crossovers) was from the developer of Avantgarde Acoustic (they make horn speakers). Douglas Self measured distortion of elcaps and found no difference whether a DC bias was applied or not.

 

[SIY]

I looked at some battery bias cables being sold commercially. I did ten recordings with them, randomized for power on and off, then sent them to the peddler to sort by ear (he had previously agreed, telling me the usual night-and-day difference story). Unsurprisingly, after I sent them to him, he became enraged and accused me of manipulating the files to obscure the differences.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Have a look at the video on Vandersteen’s website entitled See Why Pistonic Driver Cones Matter and then think again about whether the words “transparent, honest marketing” come to mind.

A couple of choice quotes from that video:

• “The only way to describe [cone breakup] would be chaos. This is why in most speakers, every other driver needs to be out of phase, because as you go to the higher frequencies a very high percentage of the cone is actually out of phase with the rest of the width of the voice coil, so to get it to blend with a tweeter... it would have to be out of phase to be in phase, if you know what I’m saying.”
• “Soft domes go into this kind of breakup somewhere between 4 to 6 thousand cycles. That’s why they’re called soft domes and they sound softer. However, they are very lossy and they do lose information...” etc etc

 

[Ron Texas]

There is a lot of BS out there. I used to think if many professional reviewers liked something it was a safe bet. That was until the Shiit Yaggi came along.

 

[solderdude]

This amp looks pretty transparent

 

[LTig]

Have a look at the video on Vandersteen’s website entitled See Why Pistonic Driver Cones Matter and then think again about whether the words “transparent, honest marketing” come to mind.

A couple of choice quotes from that video:

• “The only way to describe [cone breakup] would be chaos. This is why in most speakers, every other driver needs to be out of phase, because as you go to the higher frequencies a very high percentage of the cone is actually out of phase with the rest of the width of the voice coil, so to get it to blend with a tweeter... it would have to be out of phase to be in phase, if you know what I’m saying.”

 

[k3nb5t]

I have always considered Emotiva as unusually transparent and honest in their marketing.

Their website provides complete specifications and accurate descriptions of benefits.

They decided a few years back to no longer run "limited time" sales events. They do lower pricing on clearance and B-stock items, but felt that limited time promos just forced them to raise prices the rest of the year to maintain needed margins.

I have never owned one of their products, so have never dealt with there customer service....but this thread is on marketing.

I would second this assessment. I recall seeing a thread upon their S12/S15 subwoofer release about their published measurements. Many users were reporting better results in-home than the published numbers. Folks on the boards were asking why when one of the representatives for the company chimed into the thread and reported that the engineers measure the "worst-case" numbers and that is what they publish. I tried to find the thread to post a reference, but I failed

In any case... I think any company setting up their products to exceed expectations like this, rather than chasing numbers that look good on a marketing sheet, gets a big plus in my book. Pricing is... a different debate

 

[SEKLEM]

Have a look at the video on Vandersteen’s website entitled See Why Pistonic Driver Cones Matter and then think again about whether the words “transparent, honest marketing” come to mind.

A couple of choice quotes from that video:

• “The only way to describe [cone breakup] would be chaos. This is why in most speakers, every other driver needs to be out of phase, because as you go to the higher frequencies a very high percentage of the cone is actually out of phase with the rest of the width of the voice coil, so to get it to blend with a tweeter... it would have to be out of phase to be in phase, if you know what I’m saying.”
• “Soft domes go into this kind of breakup somewhere between 4 to 6 thousand cycles. That’s why they’re called soft domes and they sound softer. However, they are very lossy and they do lose information...” etc etc

I guess not.

 

[LTig]

I would second this assessment. I recall seeing a thread upon their S12/S15 subwoofer release about their published measurements. Many users were reporting better results in-home than the published numbers. Folks on the boards were asking why when one of the representatives for the company chimed into the thread and reported that the engineers measure the "worst-case" numbers and that is what they publish.

This is the only way for companies to stay out of trouble. Specs are guaranteed which means each single unit must fulfill them under the given circumstances. The higher the specs the more demanding is the production process.