Most Pretentious High-End Audio Component Names

[phoenixdogfan]

or "monitor", for that matter.
... to say nothing of "reference monitor"


Yeah, like Fulla.
Schiit was on the top of my list vis-a-vis this thread, by the way. Their frat-boy humor and approach don't work for me at all.

The adjective "puerile" most nearly comes to mind.

 

[mhardy6647]

The adjective "puerile" most nearly comes to mind.

well put.
Mind you, I am fine with low-class humor per se. [EDIT: and I am OK with irony, too!]
But Schiit's shtick just irritates me.

 

[anmpr1]

Don't know if I find it more pretentious or just stupid when audio companies name their products like famous musicians...

That's one thing I liked about the mid-era Levinson gear. Mark woke up one morning and told John Curl, "Screw it. I'm naming everything after me, and numbering it in order: 1, 2, 3, and so on and so forth. And if you don't like it you can leave." And he left. It was that simple for Mark, the marketing man.

When Madrigal took over they started the 'two and three digits with a point' naming convention, and no one could figure that out. Since he couldn't use his own name, Mark decided to join in with the flowery naming conventions. But it made good ad copy and sounded cool. I mean, Cello Audio Palette does sound a bit more upscale than something like 'the Dick Burwen Equalizer'. And Rose Petal was easier for Americans to say and remember than the Haruo Takeda Miyabi, I guess.

 

[Katji]

The entire Schiit product line with their Norse mythical names.
The entire Nordost product line with their Norse mythical names.

! Exactly. They got off to a bad start with the company/brand name anyway. I would have to override my natural instinct to buy something called Schiit anyway.

 

[Katji]

Not pretentious, but...snake names for cables. [We don't have enough emojis here.]

 

[NTomokawa]

Fulla

Considering the performance of some of their past equipment, they're pretty fulla themselves alright...

 

[fløyen]

Interesting naming scheme for a company based in Sussex.

I once worked at a place which consciously made a product in Parc Brown.

 

[Vini darko]

My favorite

 

[win]

What are the most preposterously pretentious high end audio component or speaker names you have ever heard?

I hate the name Kimber Kable. It is grating to my ears. On that note, I hate when people do alliteration of 'K', what is with that?

 

[Mashcky]

Genelec’s “The Ones”.

I deeply appreciate the naming of the Schiit brand and products particularly in the context of the pretentious audiophile naming schemes they compete with. To me it demonstrates humility and self awareness, or at least the taking of an opportunity to be branded as ‘anti’.

Perhaps ASR should create a benchmark (no pun intended!) for speakers we consider ‘reference’ based on deviation from rating preference. Maybe then it would mean something...

 

[mansr]

Pretentious names are one thing, but another thing I don't understand are names consisting of a mumbo jumbo of letters and numbers that point to no easily recognizable thing in the universe. For instance, pro oriented Westlake loudspeakers, with names such as the BBSM-15vnf Series 2, or their LC3W12vf. I mean, those names sure roll off the tongue.

 

[highpurityusbcable]

Not a component but "Luxury & Precision" brand name.

 

[mhardy6647]

EarMen (They have Donald DAC. Next, it will be Aladdin - the magic amp).

OK -- so this reminds me of the late James "Bongo" Bongiorno and his Great American Sound Company (GAS) of the 1970s.
Their debut was a high-powered power amplifier called (of course): Ampzilla, followed by the Son of Ampzilla and then the Grandson.
The GAS preamps were Thaedra, Thoebe, and... umm... there was another one. Thalia. (I had to look it up )
They had a head amp for LOMC cartridges called Sleeping Beauty...
and...
best of all...
a digital FM tuner called Charlie.

as in...

Charlie the Tuner

Sorry Charlie

GAS's successor company, Sumo, also made and sold the Charlie for a number of years -- s'posed to be/have been pretty good, in fact.
The Bongornio/GAS/Ampzilla legacy lives on in the form of SST (Spread Spectrum Technologies): https://www.sst.audio/

Bongornio, somewhat like Sideshow Bob Carver, built big, powerful complicated amplifiers that tended to break in interesting ways.
He was also a paragon of sartorial elegance and understatement.

 

[anmpr1]

Bongornio, somewhat like Sideshow Bob Carver, built big, powerful complicated amplifiers that tended to break in interesting ways. He was also a paragon of sartorial elegance and understatement.

Like Carver, Jim knew what he was doing. His naming conventions were, as you suggest, tongue in cheek. It was his sense of humor. BTW, according to Jim, Ampzilla was used because Tigersaurus (remember that amp?) was already taken. LOL

His stories could burn off both of your ears. The time at Rectilinear (a long lost speaker company featuring names such as Jon Dalhquist, Marty Gersten, Richard Shahinian. Arnold Schwartz, Peter Aczel) was a scandalous affair. Where he called owner Morris Weiner 'a big criminal'! Bongiorno was never a man to mince words.

Wurlitzer (the electronic organ people), Marantz (working with Sid Smith and Saul), Dynaco, SAE, GAS, Sumo... the man got around for sure. My impression is that he was more of a 'one man band', and whenever you get involved with someone like that it's often a situation of 'my way or the highway', for better or worse.

 

[mhardy6647]

Like Carver, Jim knew what he was doing. His naming conventions were, as you suggest, tongue in cheek. It was his sense of humor. BTW, according to Jim, Ampzilla was used because Tigersaurus (remember that amp?) was already taken. LOL

Heh. The SWTPCo Tigersaurus -- yup, had a friend in grad school who used a pair of them to drive a pair of home-made Bose 901 clones.
The SWTPCo amps tended to break in interesting ways, too.

http://www.wass.net/othermanuals/SWTPC.pdf

His stories could burn off both of your ears. The time at Rectilinear (a long lost speaker company featuring names such as Jon Dalhquist, Marty Gersten, Richard Shahinian. Arnold Schwartz, Peter Aczel) was a scandalous affair. Where he called owner Morris Weiner 'a big criminal'! Bongiorno was never a man to mince words.

Wurlitzer (the electronic organ people), Marantz (working with Sid Smith and Saul), Dynaco, SAE, GAS, Sumo... the man got around for sure. My impression is that he was more of a 'one man band', and whenever you get involved with someone like that it's often a situation of 'my way or the highway', for better or worse.

I only traded a few emails & web posts with him when he was active on FMtunerinfo. The morons drove him off of that site, which was a darned shame. He was clearly a character, but my (limited) exposure to him was actually quite positive.

I was gonna mention that I have a GAS Thoebe here, too. It has some (minor) issues but works pretty well.
thoebe by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Here's that dysfunctional Ampzilla -- which is not, in fact, mine. One channel is kaput. One of the local gurus (who did this stuff for a living in his workaday days) worked on it for a while and gave up in frustration.

DSC_9753 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[anmpr1]

I only traded a few emails & web posts with him when he was active on FMtunerinfo. The morons drove him off of that site, which was a darned shame. He was clearly a character, but my (limited) exposure to him was actually quite positive.

At Marantz he worked with Sid Smith and Dick Sequerra. Jim said he learned from them and was thankful for that. Along with Richard Modafferi (McIntosh), three well known RF gurus of the day. The Marantz 10 and 10B were said to be responsible for 'bankrupting' the company, resulting in its subsequent acquisition by Superscope. The Model 10 was evidently too expensive to manufacture at a profit, even though it sold as fast as they could make them at a then exorbitant price.

Anecdote: when Peter Aczel's Thaedre (or was it a Theobe?) blew up, and he sent it back to the factory for repair, and they lost it for a while, and then wanted Peter to pay for return shipping with a certified check once they found it and fixed it, Peter told Jim to his face that that was too much, and that his company would lose 'good will' with loyal customers that way.

Bongiorno shot back that he'd just as soon lose the 'good will' because he had to run his company at a profit, and that meant a no personal checks policy but only cash or money orders. He then told Peter it was his own fault, reminded him to go through his dealer next time, and not to waste his time sending it direct to the factory. That was the dealer's responsibility! Two curmudgeons facing off with each other. Great stuff.

 

[mhardy6647]

Anecdote: when Peter Aczel's Thaedre (or was it a Theobe?) blew up, and he sent it back to the factory for repair, and they lost it for a while, and then wanted Peter to pay for return shipping with a certified check once they found it and fixed it, Peter told Jim to his face that that was too much, and that his company would lose 'good will' with loyal customers that way.

I'd assume he would've had a Thaedra -- that was the big dog preamp of the GAS lineup.

One last emission of GAS from me -- here's the front view of that poor Ampzilla whose upskirt image I posted earlier.
(sorry the lights aren't on for those big ol' meters to shine)


DSC_9702 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[FrantzM]

I think Master Chronosonic takes the prize... What the heck is that, even supposed to mean? .. Notice that even at its lofty $650,000 or so, it may require a pair of subwoofers, named ... "Thor Hammer" , they cost upward of $21,000 each and are passive ... no mention of DSP in this system... In "Real" High End Audio, they don't do DSP !! ..
Live and let Live, I guess

 

[anmpr1]

I'd assume he would've had a Thaedra -- that was the big dog preamp of the GAS lineup.

Yes. That was the model. Adjusted for inflation, an almost four thousand dollar preamplifier. Still less than the JC-2, which took top dollar to own.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

OK -- so this reminds me of the late James "Bongo" Bongiorno and his Great American Sound Company (GAS) of the 1970s.
Their debut was a high-powered power amplifier called (of course): Ampzilla, followed by the Son of Ampzilla and then the Grandson.
The GAS preamps were Thaedra, Thoebe, and... umm... there was another one. Thalia. (I had to look it up )
They had a head amp for LOMC cartridges called Sleeping Beauty...
and...
best of all...
a digital FM tuner called Charlie.

as in...

Charlie the Tuner

Sorry Charlie

GAS's successor company, Sumo, also made and sold the Charlie for a number of years -- s'posed to be/have been pretty good, in fact.
The Bongornio/GAS/Ampzilla legacy lives on in the form of SST (Spread Spectrum Technologies): https://www.sst.audio/

Bongornio, somewhat like Sideshow Bob Carver, built big, powerful complicated amplifiers that tended to break in interesting ways.
He was also a paragon of sartorial elegance and understatement.

View attachment 95016

He also put out a moving coil phono cartridge in the 1970s which I had the misfortune to purchase. Literally every time I put it on and played music I ran to answer my telephone b/c I mistakenly thought it and not Mr. Bongornio's cartridge was ringing. I was wrong every time.