What gear you wouldn't buy because of its name or cult status.

[pseudoid]

or whatever you want them to be...

What is a Goodmans?

Sounds like a hamburger chain.

Here's one of my favourite tuner's FM specs:

Are you protecting the innocent?
Luxman T-2 was a handmade tuner that would cost over $5k in labor alone today!

 

[restorer-john]

What is a Goodmans?
View attachment 199081
Sounds like a hamburger chain.

An old English speaker brand. Famous for their Maxim in the 1960s and had a pretty decent range of high quality speakers in the 70s and 80s. Pretty much invented the high quality true 'bookshelf' speaker category.

1969 Maxim:

 

[JSmith]

Pretty much everything on 6moon

I'm not advocating for 6moons, but there is a varied product "review" listing;

6moons industry features: Hypex Ncore®

6moons audioreviews: Nord Acoustics

Eigentakt demonstrator amplifier

6moons.com

JSmith

 

[flyzipper]

I thought the thread was about audio gear.

I thought they were closely adjacent given their use of embedded DACs & headphone amps (which claim to drive high impedance headphones), and make connected speakers & wireless headphones, and have a music streaming service.

 

[Axo1989]

I'm not advocating for 6moons, but there is a varied product "review" listing;

6moons industry features: Hypex Ncore®

6moons audioreviews: Nord Acoustics

Eigentakt demonstrator amplifier

6moons.com

Damn, I remember reading the Eigentakt piece (but not the earlier Nord review) now. But I'd quite forgotten it. Thanks for digging that up.

The problem with subjective reviewing isn't so much that people can't listen and describe their experiences, but that records of same are hearsay, with the inherent unreliability that follows. When we lack points of reference to correlate, the difficulty of interpretation is magnified. But I have those Codex speakers, can compare likely room characteristics based on the photos, and I don't have the self-esteem issues that lead people to pre-judge based on tribal or in-group affiliations, so the review/description is informative in its own way. Ymmv, as always.

 

[EJ3]

Mola mola, sounds like infectious disease.
Denafrips = virus.
Edifier, do the chinese just open English dictionary randomly and pick whatever?

Apparently the answer is "YES"!

 

[JSmith]

Anything from Machine Dynamica;

... or anything from LessLoss;

JSmith

 

[Blumlein 88]

What makes a tuner a great tuner? An honest question from someone who knows nothing about tuners.

I think others have covered it pretty well. First it is about RF performance. Can it pick up things from far away, or can it zero in on a station in the middle of other nearby powerful stations and then of course does the analog output get done in a quality manner. Beyond that things like how the tuner blends weakening signals to keep them listenable and so forth.

I used a Denon tuner for a long time. It was good not great in the RF side of things. However, it switched from stereo to blended to mono almost exactly as I would choose were I doing it manually (which was an option on this tuner). So I could leave it on Auto and not worry about it.

The McIntosh tuners were both beautiful, well made, and high quality in their appearance and function. Magnum Dynalab tuners are excellent units as well. There were some Nakamichi tuners that were pretty good. Some Carver tuners were good especially on sensitivity.

 

[EJ3]

Notice some of the even most recent AVRs and AVPs still retain an input RCA pair labeled "Tuner".
But if you search for the same brands' product lists, you will find that a majority of them do not offer an AM/FM tuner.
(Denon, NAD, ParaSound, Pro-ject, TEAC possibly excluded)
The problem with AM/FM tuners is the same faith of the typewriter and the calculator.
If FM offered any sort of good/quality musical content worth tuning into; I would seriously consider buying one of these:
View attachment 199000
Magnum-DynaLab MD90T SE specification are (as a reference):
View attachment 199073

I find both available where I am & this unit has been duly noted for a long time by me. But there are other priorities for my money for the foreseeable future, (unfortunately).

 

[EJ3]

I think others have covered it pretty well. First it is about RF performance. Can it pick up things from far away, or can it zero in on a station in the middle of other nearby powerful stations and then of course does the analog output get done in a quality manner. Beyond that things like how the tuner blends weakening signals to keep them listenable and so forth.

I used a Denon tuner for a long time. It was good not great in the RF side of things. However, it switched from stereo to blended to mono almost exactly as I would choose were I doing it manually (which was an option on this tuner). So I could leave it on Auto and not worry about it.

The McIntosh tuners were both beautiful, well made, and high quality in their appearance and function. Magnum Dynalab tuners are excellent units as well. There were some Nakamichi tuners that were pretty good. Some Carver tuners were good especially on sensitivity.

NAD also had a few that were (mine are) quite good. FM alignment & someone who knows how is a critical thing to have done.

 

[kongwee]

Practically, you can list every brand on earth including your beloved Genelec.

 

[jp4573]

About cars and for Spanish speaking people:

 

[theREALdotnet]

What’s wrong with Zica?

 

[Gorgonzola]

There is no product I wouldn't buy simply or only because it has cult status. Cult is fine with me it offers high performance for the money.

Do you really mean it as a double-negative?
I think this way it means, you would buy all products that are cult.
... but then you make an exception. argh!

Au contraire, the grammar is correct. It's not a double negative.

Remove one of the negatives and the meaning would become that there are some products I would buy simply because of cult status, which isn't what I meant.

I allow that there are some products I would by despite cult status. An example would be the McIntosh, which as cult status, but because it is also a fine product albeit it's very expensive.

 

[Midwest Blade]

Turntables and anything related to the category. Yes, I freely admit to falling back into this rabbit hole (buying new lp’s, a second turntable, cleaning accessories, new cartridge, watching turntable set up videos) but dug myself out a few years ago. Thank goodness.

My list of no go cult brands is fairly large and well covered in all the previous posts. I would add there are a few YouTube reviewers that I would put into the “no go” category, simply for just spewing useless repetitive information. Some are entertaining, most not.

 

[killdozzer]

A good outdoor antenna, especially motorized so you can orient it.

Man! You made me laugh and I needed it.

 

[killdozzer]

I think others have covered it pretty well. First it is about RF performance. Can it pick up things from far away, or can it zero in on a station in the middle of other nearby powerful stations and then of course does the analog output get done in a quality manner. Beyond that things like how the tuner blends weakening signals to keep them listenable and so forth.

I used a Denon tuner for a long time. It was good not great in the RF side of things. However, it switched from stereo to blended to mono almost exactly as I would choose were I doing it manually (which was an option on this tuner). So I could leave it on Auto and not worry about it.

The McIntosh tuners were both beautiful, well made, and high quality in their appearance and function. Magnum Dynalab tuners are excellent units as well. There were some Nakamichi tuners that were pretty good. Some Carver tuners were good especially on sensitivity.

Thanks! I never liked radio when I was younger. I wanted to decide what will play next. Now I use Internet streaming from time to time. I really don't know much about tuners.

 

[DHT 845]

I agree about Topping. Van Alstine, Ayre, Balanced Audio Technology. In addition, I was once a customer of, but never again: Spectral, MIT, Avalon.

What was wrong with Spectral, MIT, Avalon famous combination?

 

[Hasse]

I would never by anything from ”Audio Group Denmark”, Ansuz, Aavik, Börresen, having heard their BS sales talk on several audio fairs.

 

[Freddy]

I would never by anything from ”Audio Group Denmark”, Ansuz, Aavik, Börresen, having heard their BS sales talk on several audio fairs.

Really? Did you hear the Borressen speakers though? Great but expensive.