Manufacturers who do not know how good their equipment is
This used to worry me quite a bit. Still does. But I now wonder if it should. [this goes for distributors, and to some extent dealers as well]
A prime example is we go to a show, and go into the manufacturer’s (or distributor’s) room, and their product is shown in a bad light, usually because the associated equipment is a poor, often VERY poor, choice. But the manufacturer acts like everything is fine sounding -that this is the way that their product usually sounds. But… we know better. Their product can sound wonderful.
Another prime example is the systems that a manufacturer uses in their factory to test. Is it another poor system? What about the system the manufacturer has at home? If they have one.
My concern has always been, if the manufacturer doesn’t have a top notch system to test their product on, how will they know how to make it sound its best? They are just designing in the dark, with no clue about just how good their equipment can sound and what their designs are requiring of us to make it sound its best.
[As an aside, Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note usually seems to have a level 5 (or better :-)) system in his office that he can hear things on [we all could hope and pray for such a system in our listening rooms] and Nordost, from what I understand, has everybody there take prototypes home and do a lot of listening – so they can get a real sense of the product on many different systems. I know most Software companies also use one or both of these approaches as well when developing new software.]
But… another perspective on all this is cars. Or musical instruments. You can’t just fly Van Halen in, or an Unser, and have them drive each one of your prototypes. In some sense they build the best thing that they can, and then expect that they will be used in ways, once they get into the field, that will take their products to the limit… and beyond.
So [when I feel like I need to stop worrying quite so much :-)] perhaps there is a nice balance here somewhere, between developing high end audio equipment with more or less a deaf ear – only looking at it from the technological point of view, and getting lots of feedback at each step of the development from people who like to push the boundaries of their product’s performance envelope.
I am surprised that not more manufacturers build marketing and development partnerships. For example, Wilson Audio often shows its equipment being tested with Spectral gear. I can’t attest to these brands’ synergies, but I am sure that Spectral benefits greatly from this association. VTL/Wilson, Acapella/Einstein, Marten/Jorma, B&W/Classe being other examples. Interesting topic…
Hi Florian,
I think quite a few manufacturers do indeed build marketing and development partnerships. The partnerships also change and can be for the good, or the not so good, depending on whether you look at them from the point of view of the quality of the sound, or from the point of view of the successfulness of the marketing.
For example, Avalon used to perform in house demos with Boulder, and now they demo with Ayre [all local here in Boulder]. What this implies for how the tune the sound of their speakers, or market them, is unclear.
In fact, all of this is somewhat unclear and I feel they will all be a little touchy about this subject because some of these are ‘unofficial’ partnerships and ex-partners tend to be emotional, etc.
For another example, The Wilson/Spectral/MIT combo, which might have been more of a dealer monkey-see monkey-do than any real partnership, has diminished in the last few years, in my observation, and been replaced by Wilson/VTL/Transparent… which is arguably…. different. The rumor is that Wilson has Lamm ML3 amps on his speakers at home.
Last I heard Lamm uses Wilson speakers, although they also like the Verity Lohengrin speakers as well.
Marten has traditionally used the Lamm hybrid amps [now they build their own] along with Jorma Design cable on their speakers. Jorma uses Vitus amps on Marten speakers.
It is indeed an interesting subject.
Take care,
-Mike