The new shape of home theater shops

[MakeMineVinyl]

Given that "good enough" these days can be had from Monoprice or Amazon Basics for $8-12, that is a pretty low bar.

Specifically, in my last job where we manufactured very large touch-enabled monitors, the video cable which we settled upon as best for the price was from Monoprice.

 

[Dentman]

I miss going into BM stores and being able to see and hear top of the line gear. In the late 70's it was easy to go demo the likes of SAE, AR, Klipsch horns, marantz, JBL, and a load of other great names all under the same roof. I use to go into a local mall and gaze at AR 9's and dream of one day owning speakers of that magnitude.

Funny thing is I also distinctly remember the sales people trying to blow smoke up my father's ass and me nut understanding why he wouldn't correct them. He would be amused by them.

 

[Randy]

Shit, I just had an example of this. GF and I were at BB and I overheard a salesman making some stupid claim. I asked my GF if I could go over and tell the customer that the salesman was full of shit and she asked me not to.

For the life of me I cant remember what it was though!

 

[Flint]

One of my favorites was back in the 1990's I was at a computer store (yes, those used to exist) and I overheard a sales guy telling a customer that the new SoundBlaster 32 was better than the nearly half the cost SoundBlaster 16 because it was a 32 bit audio card which offered double the dynamic range and frequency response. Double. She bought it because my ex-wife told me not to get involved. Stupid salesguy was selling 32 bit audio before 24 bit audio was even a reality.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

.....which offered double the dynamic range.....

A good argument could be made about the dynamic range bit. No DACs, especially early ones, actually had dynamic range which is as much as their number of bits would infer. A typical 16 bit DAC might have had actual resolution of something like 14-15 bits due to limitations of the time. Now if the "16 bit" card actually was capable of something like 14 bits of resolution, and the "32 bit" card managed to measure as having 15 bits of resolution, that's 6dB better, i.e. double the dynamic range, 6dB being twice as much.

Now, although I seriously doubt that hapless salesman had the sophistication to know about any of that, and he was no doubt spewing pure bullshit, he perhaps did have a point on at least the dynamic range bit.

The frequency response bit, not so much.....

There will be a test on this on Monday.

 

[Flint]

A good argument could be made about the dynamic range bit. No DACs, especially early ones, actually had dynamic range which is as much as their number of bits would infer. A typical 16 bit DAC might have had actual resolution of something like 14-15 bits due to limitations of the time. Now if the "16 bit" card actually was capable of something like 14 bits of resolution, and the "32 bit" card managed to measure as having 15 bits of resolution, that's 6dB better, i.e. double the dynamic range, 6dB being twice as much.

Now, although I seriously doubt that hapless salesman had the sophistication to know about any of that, and he was no doubt spewing pure bullshit, he perhaps did have a point on at least the dynamic range bit.

The frequency response bit, not so much.....

But it wasn't a 32 bit card. It was a 32 voice card which could produce 32 different MIDI controlled synthesized voices at once, allowing for more complex gaming soundtracks than prior 16 voice cards. The salesman clearly never bothers to read the box.

 

[Randy]

I hate to link this because I hate to give him anymore views than he already has, but this guy could work at BB.

Upgrading cables, upgrading speaker wires, upgrading moving coils and magnets, upgrading nordo symphonic processing, because the system "deserves it" and then set your high dollar Dynaudios right in front of a window.

 

[Flint]

I hate to link this because I hate to give him anymore views than he already has, but this guy could work at BB.

Upgrading cables, upgrading speaker wires, upgrading moving coils and magnets, upgrading nordo symphonic processing, because the system "deserves it" and then set your high dollar Dynaudios right in front of a window.

He says he is in Austin, I wonder if I know his family.

 

[Randy]

He says he is in Austin, I wonder if I know his family.

You know, the intention of my post wasn't to be disrespectful just thought that was a clear cut case of people spending oodles of dollars on widgets and not even considering addressing the room.

Says the guy with absolutely no room treatments. LOL. However I don't profess that people should spend oodles on wires and interconnects and what nots.

 

[Bote]

Here in Manila same thing is happening though a bit slower than out there. Here an online store named Lazada corners most of the business because they do cod payments and they have local service. One time when i was auditioning some gears in an audiophile store, one Lazada guy came and asked the store owner for gears to advertise in their site. The store owner politely brushed him off saying he is not ready yet. When the guy left I asked the store owner why he refused. He said Lazada is good at advertising but demands very low starting prices from product sellers and it makes it unattractive for them. At the prices they demand ,service if anything happens to the items, become a burden as very little profit is realized in the beginning.

That is why in here if we could buy gears from a physical store we would rather do than buy online . That is info from an insider. Makes sense to me.