Good HiFi from South America?

[gnat_leader]

It is then very surprising that the market of the sales of quality devices for the listening of the music is so little developed there for a country of 200 million people ...it is really a paradox

this was exactly my thought too.

 

[Matias]

Well, we have Leo spreading the word of Hi-Fi to the masses through his YouTube channel, more focused on IEMs.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MINDTHEHEADPHONE

 

[gnat_leader]

majority will use the crapy mono speaker of their phone lol.
or cheap chinese bluetooth speakers.

I wonder if this is mostly a perceptions thing. Examples?... lets say (fine wine), artistic paintings, gourmet foods, etc.
These are subjective things and some people don't "get it".
Meaning they don't see/hear/taste/feel the differences that some other people do that really appreciate, value, and come to even crave these differences.
And some other people maybe they do sense the differences but they just don't care - those differences in quality just are not important to them.
I used to think that some people don't appreciate "hifi" because they never heard what high-quality audio reproduction sounds like.
But now I'm not sure. Maybe they know and have heard it, but it's not important to them.

 

[gnat_leader]

The trend in many countries now when it comes to sound is this retro craze for record players.

Sure, but I bet that trend is minuscule compared to, for example, IEM's and bluetooth headphones.
Go onto Youtube and search for the audio equipment channels and videos with the most followers and views.

 

[xaviescacs]

One of the very best, from Brazil.

 

[Puddingbuks]

A lot of music, but where are the hifi brands and products of south america?

Is there a brazilian genelec? Hypex amps from peru?

 

[Doodski]

where are the hifi brands and products of south america?

It appears the market is laid bare at the feet of those that want to venture into it. I suspect the general population can't afford a audio system and so they are not commonly sold at retailers.

How is the PC market in brazil? Maybe peeps there are into PCs?

 

[Matias]

How is the PC market in brazil? Maybe peeps there are into PCs?

In my experience PC market is not much more expensive than elsewhere, I mean the DIY parts. Buying a finished product like a Dell laptop or even worst a MacBook Pro is ridiculously overpriced.

 

[pseudoid]

this was exactly my thought too.

Yeah, very sad state of audio in SoAmerica.
That is why I kept badgering here to understand what had 'sounded' like a sucky situation.
Yet this whole dilemma is proof positive that us humans will enjoy music (and have), no matter how decrepit the available hardware is or how poorly the music comes out.
Yey to psycho-acoustics!

 

[gnat_leader]

One of the very best, from Brazil.

but playing music for Youtube low brow entertainment curiosity/meme videos?
seems on par with the subject of this thread

 

[gnat_leader]

A lot of music, but where are the hifi brands and products of south america?

as discussed there's not a sufficient market desire for it.
If there was you'd see speaker makers like PRV Audio, and electronics mfgs, making loudspeakers, drivers, and amps/DACs for home audio versus just the car-audio and pro-audio products they make now.

 

[DanielT]

Sure, but I bet that trend is minuscule compared to, for example, IEM's and bluetooth headphones.
Go onto Youtube and search for the audio equipment channels and videos with the most followers and views.

Undeniably it is so. Here I did a search on: Bluetooth headphones market trends

It was a unanimous outcome from various market analysis firms, which shows a strong forecasted growth:

 

[gnat_leader]

Undeniably it is so. Here I did a search on: Bluetooth headphones market trends

It was a unanimous outcome from various market analysis firms, which shows a strong forecasted growth:

View attachment 239323

When you can buy good sounding IEM's for $50 or less, eg like the Truthear Crinacle ZERO, that's opens up a huge worldwide market size.
Now combine that with a USB dongle DAC you can connect to low cost Android phones... and even more.
Question: What is the best/decent yet lowest cost dongle DAC?

Granted the market for bluetooth IEM's is much larger than "hi-fi" wired IEMs.
The majority of people will think the BT ones sound sufficiently good and don't want to mess with wires.
Question: does bluetooth 5.0 or 5.1 or some forthcoming new version have potential sound quality to rival wired connectivity?

 

[DanielT]

Question: does bluetooth 5.0 or 5.1 or some forthcoming new version have potential sound quality to rival wired connectivity?

Tip:

Why does Bluetooth audio transmission must use compression?

The CD quality (44.1kHz/16-bit) audio data rate is 1.4Mb/s. The common Bluetooth v2 protocol is specified to be able to carry data at the rate of 2Mb/s. Then why does BT audio is always compressed?

audiosciencereview.com

 

[gnat_leader]

Tip:

do you know of any low-cost but decent sounding USB dongle DACs?

 

[DanielT]

do you know of any low-cost but decent sounding USB dongle DACs?

Tip. If it can be considered low-cost? Available both unbalanced and balanced. $65 , balanced $70:

I think I found the perfect USB C headphone dongle...

The Moondrop Dawn - https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/moondrop-dawn-3-5mm-dual-cs43131-chip-portable-usb-dac-amp-pcm-768khz-dsd256-type-c-headphone-amplifier-1 These specifications sound amazing! ...better than my Activo CT10 DAC. The CT10 DAP also has 2v output. I know the specs are...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[DanielT]

 

[pseudoid]

Has anyone figured out what device made that weird (but loud) jeering sound, every time a France player had possession of the ball against Morocco?

 

[Anderlfs]

To be honest, I have no idea about HiFi from South America.

I can speak for Brazil only. There were very strong brands that no longer exist, but their products are still very sought after by Vintage Audio enthusiasts, such as Gradiente, Polyvox, and Quasar. audiorama.com.br is the most used virtual museum for searching technical information about products from these and other brands.

Currently, I consider Sunrise Lab's Class AB Integrated Amplifiers to be of great quality and the best value for money for us. They have a site here sunriselab.com.br. I myself have an older model of this amplifier that I bought used in good condition in this store: hificlub.com.br/loja.

https://www.sunriselab.com.br/srl_prod_v8ta.html

There is also a national DAC (Lf Audio Dac II) prepared by audio designer Luis Flugge, recognized by many Brazilian audiophiles, who developed a high-end buffer circuit named (HEB-06):

For new products from international brands that are not "well" made here, I have already successfully bought a Rega Planar turntable at htclick.com.br, there are a lot of good things with cheaper than average prices.

Another site I like to read about HiFi is hifiplanet.com.br, the writer is quite honest and criticizes various subjectivist glorifications, something similar to ASR.

The problem is that everything is portuguese only, focused on the internal market. But maybe this information will be useful for, I don't know, some expat settling here.

 

[Anderlfs]

It appears the market is laid bare at the feet of those that want to venture into it. I suspect the general population can't afford a audio system and so they are not commonly sold at retailers.

This is not about the general population can or can't afford an audio system, but what they want these days is streaming & bluetooth speakers, and these things are commonly sold at retailers. There are other non HiFi Brazilian brands that satisfy people in this regard. Also, Chi-Fi has entered the market offering good quality, low cost, free delivery material. Energy speakers from Canada were acquired by Klipsch, a subsidiary of VOXX International. The good old Danish Dynaudio was acquired by a Chinese company. The HiFi market in Brazil is a niche market. I imagine that in the rest of the world this scenario is not so different. Or in your country do most houses have canadian hi-fi passive speakers powered by hi-fi canadian amplifiers, canadian DAC’s..? I suspect not.