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

[Willem]

I don't know but I don't think there is any point in being cynical about Peter Walker. Anyway, their phono input board for the Quad 33 already had a range of different input sensitivities as well, depending on the way you inserted the board. Peter Walker was not only a brilliant audio engineer but also a very practical man.

 

[Swtoby]

http://www.dcmspeakers.com/

DCM speakers. I had a pair of the TFE 200 for a period. I was clued in to this brand by David Rich from a publication I miss, the "Sensible Sound". I remember window rattling bass. They were big and not domestic friendly, but a good speaker and fairly priced

 

[Swtoby]

http://www.hsuresearch.com/

Another good brand.

 

[jsrtheta]

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.

http://www.dcmspeakers.com/

DCM speakers. I had a pair of the TFE 200 for a period. I was clued in to this brand by David Rich from a publication I miss, the "Sensible Sound". I remember window rattling bass. They were big and not domestic friendly, but a good speaker and fairly priced

David Rich did very good work at the Audio Critic. He was a huge fan of Monitor Audio at the time.

 

[JJB70]

I don't know but I don't thonk thete is any point in being cynical about Peter Walker. Anyway, their phono input board for the Quad 33 already had a range of different input sensitivities as well, depending on the way you inserted the board. Peter Walker was not only a brilliant audio engineer but also a very practical man.

In the old days of the original Quad company and Peter Walker they were an engineering led company and were well known for their down to earth attitude. I don't think Peter Walker ever had any time for the sort of nonsense mumbo jumbo that entered the hi-fi lexicon.

 

[hvbias]

Indeed. The James Moir experiment was a neat one. As for the Naim sound, it has been argued that their signature sound is in fact due to their high input sensitivity: they clip easily. The compression/distortion that follows is viewed as PRAT.

In the turntable realm this "PRAT" is from turntables running too fast, fairly common with Rega and Linn and maybe some other British companies.

 

[Sal1950]

http://www.dcmspeakers.com/

DCM speakers. I had a pair of the TFE 200 for a period. I was clued in to this brand by David Rich from a publication I miss, the "Sensible Sound". I remember window rattling bass. They were big and not domestic friendly, but a good speaker and fairly priced

Whenever DCM is mentioned I think of the media frenzy over the DCM Time Windows back in the (70-80s?)
Never had the chance to actually hear a pair

http://www.hsuresearch.com/

Another good brand.

Agreed. I've owned various Dr Hsu's products for 30 years and spoken with him a number of times on the phone plus via emails. He's always been a very honest straight forward type of person attempting to create products that offer the highest value for the dollar.

 

[Midwest Blade]

Fully agree on the old Quad products. A modern product line I will throw in the mix is Yamaha, now they may have an odd stinker or two but they really are a full range company making instruments, consumer and professional audio and home theater.

 

[jsrtheta]

Fully agree on the old Quad products. A modern product line I will throw in the mix is Yamaha, now they may have an odd stinker or two but they really are a full range company making instruments, consumer and professional audio and home theater.

Second that.

 

[Aprude51]

These brands all provide fairly detailed measurements of their loudspeakers, and are straightforward in their marketing (not a coincidence IMO)

• Buchardt Audio
• Ascend Acoustics
• Arendal Sound
• Axiom Audio (less detailed measurements, but no crazy claims or cables)
• Selah Audio
• SEAS (DIY kits)
• Philharmonic Audio & Gedlee (both defunct)

 

[bigx5murf]

http://www.dcmspeakers.com/

DCM speakers. I had a pair of the TFE 200 for a period. I was clued in to this brand by David Rich from a publication I miss, the "Sensible Sound". I remember window rattling bass. They were big and not domestic friendly, but a good speaker and fairly priced

I just repaired a pair of DCM TF600, been listening to them almost exclusively for a couple weeks. Fairly impressed, so I've been curious about their modern products. Their current line is much more traditional in design though. Part of the charm of the TF600 is how well they use such cheap drivers, with a cabinet design so unorthodox they look like panel speakers at first glance.

Also, https://swanspeakers.com/ includes a printed frequency sweep with each of their powered speakers.

 

[DonH56]

Frank van Alstine? Roger Sanders...

 

[restorer-john]

Whenever DCM is mentioned I think of the media frenzy over the DCM Time Windows back in the (70-80s?)
Never had the chance to actually hear a pair

More than 20 years ago, I bought a mint pair of Timewindow 1as to play with, as I too had witnessed the hype back in the day (early 80s) and was curious as to how good (or not) they were. Also grabbed a few pairs of Timewindow 1s in poor cabinet condition to compare (in case I needed "parts" etc)

The 1s used two types of Philips woofers and a very cheap Philips polycarbonate tweeter. The 1as used a different Philips woofer and the Vifa D19 tweeter. They were so cheaply and poorly put together, made of cardboard tube and particle board, both on the first two series and the 1as. The best part was the American Oak tops on the 1as, except the method for securing the top to the bottom was flawed and most of them fell to pieces. (a big threaded rod top to bottom)

My 1as were perfect condition wise and I initially thought they were a very special speaker. That quickly wore off. Mine clearly had a midrange balance issue (shifting image with freq) and it was only when I peered through the brown grille fabric with a torch, I noticed one woofer was different to the others. They were all original, had the DCM chalk marks for matching, same nasty black sealing original glue on them all (they'd never been apart) and yet one appeared to have a smaller dustcap and cone colour. Ran an impedance sweep and found one speaker was different to the other. (S/Nos were matching) Dismantled them only to find one woofer was a 5 ohm and the others were 7 ohm.

They used to describe them as "hybrid transmission line". Not true at all, unless a "transmission line" is just a whole lot of wadding and a couple of ports at the bottom offset on each face.

Wrote to Mitek (they had DCM at that point) and they confirmed that a) they had no woofers left and b) DCM had mixed up towards the end of a woofer type run putting 5 ohm on the inside faces to change the overall balance. They sent me a nice letter and a brochure. Mine were a pair, and yet they left the factory all those years before, not matching. Poor in my opinion.

Anyway, I gutted (smashed up) the Timewindow 1s and sold off the crossovers and tweeters. The woofers are all in a bucket in the storeroom if anyone ever needs Timewindow 1 woofers to rebuild (rubber rolls surrounds have perished last time I looked)

 

[Swtoby]

Frank van Alstine? Roger Sanders...

I always think of a review from the Audio Critic when I see Van Alstine's name. The Omega Dac review on page 27:

http://biline.ca/audio_critic/mags/The_Audio_Critic_26_r.pdf

 

[Bear123]

Mini DSP
Klipsch
March Audio
Nord

"Klipsch" and "honest" don't belong together. Find any review of a Klipsch speaker in which sensitivity was measured and compare it to their marketing spec. Or just subtract 6-7 dB from the advertised sensitivity of every speaker they make. What's sad is that lying works...most people truly believe all Klipsch speakers have extremely high sensitivity. Most of the time, they are actually slightly above average.

 

[IndividualWay7]

Etymotic.

 

[kevinh]

I ha

"Klipsch" and "honest" don't belong together. Find any review of a Klipsch speaker in which sensitivity was measured and compare it to their marketing spec. Or just subtract 6-7 dB from the advertised sensitivity of every speaker they make. What's sad is that lying works...most people truly believe all Klipsch speakers have extremely high sensitivity. Most of the time, they are actually slightly above average.

I've only dealt with the Heritage line. Don't know about their HT stuff.

 

[bequietjk]

Geshelli Labs <3

 

[Koeitje]

Go into a shop which specializes in recording studio equipment.

Those that I know, in alphabetical order:

• Speakers: Genelec, Neumann
• DACs: Benchmark, Motu, RME
• Amplifiers: Bryston, Classé

Are there any measurements available for Classé? I've always been tempted to try a second hand Classé power amplifier.