by Michael

The Important of Appearance

I was reading this paper on how attractive websites do better with users than usable websites:

Visual Appeal vs. Usability

Well, that article refers to an extreme example, but this is something that has been difficult for me to comes to terms with, geek that I am, but it is really hard to overestimate the value of appearance when an average person makes a decision about something.

From presidents to cars to websites and … yes… to high end audio gear.

I would say the list of important criteria looks something like:

price – what is this going to cost me relative to the other choices?
convenience – how much work must I do for one choice versus another?
appearance – how attractive is one versus the others
…
competency – how well does one perform relative to the others.

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With this list I think one can explain why MS Windows beat out Apple, why the ipod and iphone beat out their competitors, why Facebook beat out WAY better designed competitors… and why some products in our industry actually sell a few units, no matter how competent they are vis-a-vis their competition – and why some others don’t do as well.

I don’t really have any specific products in mind. We can all think of wonderful looking amps and racks and speakers that seem to be doing OK in this over-crowded marketplace – and perhaps their very attractiveness is the reason why.

I do think it is something ALL manufacturers here should pay attention to – though I feel few actually do. They feel as I do, of course, that competent products should rise to the top.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Philosophy 0 comments
 by Michael

The Prevalence and/or Lack of Ambient Hall Sound in Certain Kinds Of Music

I was listening to classical music on the car radio – which is pretty much what I listen to, and not just because it is more or less commercial-free, which is nice, and not just because it is more or less news-free, which is also nice.

Anyway, I noticed that much of the individual instruments of the particular piece, I forget which, could be heard echoing in the hall where the recording was made. And, you know, a LOT of recorded classical music has along with it the sound of the hall. I like this. It makes the instruments feel fuller and the decay is more interesting and natural.

Funny how a LOT (all?) of popular music has no ambient hall sound at all, either recorded in a studio, and the sound of the studio is edited out if it exists at all, or, if recorded live, the sound of the hall is again edited out, often along with editing out the sound of the audience.

What cinches this for me, personally, is that many bootlegs, recorded live in concert, have an abundance of hall sound… and I really like this. Again on the car radio, this time the Fort Collins station, they were playing a country rock band playing in what sounded like a largeish stadium. The lead guitar was echoing slightly in the hall there… and I loved it.

But back to classical music… it is hard to think of any that we have here where I can recall it having no concert hall sound effects. Maybe this is like science fiction book covers having certain styles and colors, and mystery novels a similar but different style and color… i.e. this is the way it has always been done and we are used to it and the people who record the music just continue to do it the same was it has always be done, and, well, here we are with posts like this commenting on it. 🙂

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Philosophy 4 comments
 by Michael

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.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Philosophy / Sounding Off 0 comments