Poor man's consolation

Struck by the throat infection, I lost my voice for the past two weeks. When every speech becomes so difficult, food poisoning followed, damn! A string of bad luck.

It seems nothing good going on in the country. Ringgit is plummeting to historical low, it didn't really benefit the country much amidst bleak global economy. Weak demand, raising costs coupled with increasing unemployment, the sign for stagflation is ever clearer. A worrying scenario with high household debt to trigger non-performing loan. Falling foreign reserve and high national debt, well, these does not give much leeway for fiscal policies to wield measures as economic stimulus. The bottom line, we have got less to spend.

Retail business will be first to take a toll. Food and beverage business is close behind. Real estate business good days are over given tightening of loan and weak demand. Audio business is going into a crush time especially low and mid end. Big boys (high end audio) shouldn't be affected because they have the cash and hardly bothered by bills. Pre-owned audio market becomes hot, you will find your stuff if you are patience enough.

I got a question for you folks and I will be specific. Given a budget of 30 grand on a speaker and assuming you love both sounds, which will you opt; a flagship model from mid end audio or an entry model from a high end audio? Question is simple enough but I'm sure to get interesting answers.

As of almost all things in life is cruel, the world recognizes one winner. Winner takes all. And there will always be only one winner but not in audio. Ask audio folks a question, you get many different answers. Meritocracy is the only standard. Merit is the gold standard, value is sour grape. Hypothetically speaking, if a million USD is required to attain a performance worthy of 9, that's a benchmark. If a system costs half a million dollar attains a 9 only, a new ground is established. And once in a blue moon comes an exceptional product, made it to 9.1 with 1.5 million dollar, we called it a paradigm shift. A new equilibrium is created. Will the 9er system a great value than? High end audio is continuously pushing boundaries of engineering, the price for the competitive edge is steep.

Merit alone, Usain Bolt has every right to be cocky because he is the fastest man on earth. Who care about the second fastest man? Who care about the dancers in Michael Jackson concert? Who care about the original song writer? Who care the chef who prepares the food? Who will remember which system has the best bang for the buck? Get what I mean?

Trouble is if you spend that kind of money and didn't get the deserving result, your system is deemed under performed. It hurts! This is like food stuck in the throat and stomach. Hard to hide the fact, the news travels. There are times that words could not contain bad or undesirable meaning no matter how you phrase it like how a doctor telling his patient that he is dying soon? And silence sometimes is the best thing ever. Unless one is in a state of denial, you could not lessen the damage. Two options left either you step up or admit defeat and bite the bullet.

Value is a person's perspective on importance of certain object. Value is actually a poor man's consolation! Because to put a value on a performance subject to undefined parameters, it is not doable. How would a milled enclosure from aviation grade alumium block improve the sound? How much would a crazy resonance free rack improve the sound? Aviation alumium as speaker enclosure material, how would this technology helps? I choose to be different. I am less bother with your cost of your system but examine how little wrong as a whole, how realistic is your replay.

It isn't difficult that most mid end folks tend to put heavy emphasis on tonality whilst the high end folks stress on power and dynamic. Both are not on the same page to begin with. Wouldn't it be good that folks comparing apple with apple? Not stepping on foreign territory, everybody is happy.

So, my answer to my question is return to the basic, how little wrong with the speaker. Things like openness, balance, coherency and dynamic are the parameters that do not changed over the time. The launching of entry models from high end companies is only to capture folks that "sworn by brand". In marketing term, it is called brand leveraging. There is a strong advice that only from the upper middle level from the lineup of a high end brand worth its salt where you get what you pay for.

Mid end audio will go for broke packing a lot of attention to cement its presence in upper echelon audio. It is a do or dies thing. I have my doubts on offerings from non-traditional speaker company, unless some established speaker designers behind the picture. Building speaker is more complex as it involves acoustics, electrical and electronic. Remember the catchword, speakers that measure well do equate to good sound? If computer aid speaker designing tool could do the job, we will not need speaker guru and listening panel. Measurement does tell everything.

So, choosing the right speaker is an important decision in building your system. Commit to your choice and make them work.