I have Officially turned into an audio snob! (1 Viewer)

[David Proud]

My Buddy invited me over the other night to show me off his new pc speakers. He got a set of 4 THX logitech speakers with 8" subwoofer. I listened to it as he blasted the volumn up from a CD and low and behold it was terrible to my ears!! I lied and told him that it sounded great! "Not to hurt his feelings or anything". The Bass from the sub was hitting but it was only hitting 1 NOTE, and didn't seem to bounce around the low end Like I have gotten used to when listening to my mid priced definitive technolgy pro 400 towers. The highs where screaming with little to no mid range at all! It seems like yesterday I couldn't tell the difference between cheap speakers and better quality ones. Granted I think these speakers he has are a deal for what he got them for. I have just become to spoiled to settle for lower quality speakers anymore.

Now I understand all the freaks out there who pay so much attention to speaker placement, room treatments and quality speakers.

 

[Bob_A]

I hear you David...so when are you getting those bp2000TL's?

 

[felix_suwarno]

logitech z560, is it?

and people keep telling me that the speaker is the best 4.1 speaker under 200 bucks.

my boston ba4800 stopped sounding great after i bought paradigm cinemas...

 

[KeithH]

Me too, David. A friend of mine told me that his brother bought him a Bose DVD/surround-sound system this past weekend. He didn't say which system it was, but he said it was incredible. He couldn't believe the sound quality. Of course, he had no DVD player or surround-sound set-up before, so he is comparing the Bose system to nothing. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Bose makes crap. After all, it was a gift from his brother. I just let it go, though I was thinking as he said how good the system sounded.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Many newbies confues audio quality with audio novelty. The novelty of hearing sound coming at you from a surround sound setup almost always leads a newbie to conclude that the audio now sounds spectacular. It's just human nature. Once the novelty wears off, then it's time to critically listen to the quality of the audio setup.

 

[David Proud]

Hi Bob! I am gonna upgrade to the BPs speakers once I get into my dedicated theater room, prob be another 2 years as I am commited to many other real estate endevours at this moment.

 

[Bob_A]

Sounds good David...make sure to take a look at my setup guide! As for the future dedicated HT...maybe you could stick those ProTowers in the rear...?

 

[Miles_W]

David, what you actually need to do is hurt his feelings education is how we all can improve our lot in life!!! let him hear you system so he can identify the short comings in his system.
Miles

 

[John Royster]

Yeah, I hear ya.
Be polite and smile. I'm known at work and have the reputation of being a audio/video nut (15+ years). Naturally everybody comes to me for advice. "Man, I really love that bose 1-2-3 system. It sounded GREAT!!!!!" "Gosh BOSE really is the king, right? I should get that right?"
me - "Well, there are many other opions I think you would enjoy for much less money."
them - "OK, thanks for the non-advice. I'll get the bose, they're the best right?"
me - "Please come over for a cocktail and a movie or even a single track. There are many other options I think you would enjoy more for much less money"
them - "OK, I'll get the BOSE 'cause they're the best. You really don't know audio do you, cause I've heard BOSE is the best. I'll have the best system there is. Maybe you can check it out sometime."
me - "Right....can I get back to work now?"
them - "sure, thanks for the advice"
Heck, I must be an audio snob. I think my own system sounds like crap. Damn upgraditis

 

[Ray Gutnick]

If they don't already own Bose, I would strongly point them in another direction. They will thank you later!

 

[Salvador]

i think it would be more fulfilling for themselves to discover that there IS something bigger and better out there. When i first bought my Yamaha YST30 2.1 cube screamer, i thought it was lightyears ahead of the crap speakers my computer came with. Then i moved on to the Klipsch promedia line. Needless to say i was impressed but after a while (and many returns) i ended up longing for something better. It was just in the back of my head i thought i could do better. Now i have Paradigm Reference 20's and yet again i have upgraded my speakers from a different class to the next. It's really fulfilling to do the research and hard work yourself, then enjoy the fruits later.

 

[AbelM]

Well, I hope he isn't reading this topic...

 

[KeithH]

Patrick said:

Many newbies confues audio quality with audio novelty. The novelty of hearing sound coming at you from a surround sound setup almost always leads a newbie to conclude that the audio now sounds spectacular.

Absolutely! I said something to this effect a couple of weeks ago on the music board. We see this with people who think that Dolby Digital tracks on DVD-Audio discs are the cat's pajamas. I have read comments from people who feel the Dolby Digital tracks on these discs sound better than the corresponding CDs. I always tell them that if they think the Dolby Digital tracks are good (which certainly are not better than CDs ), then they need to listen to DVD-Audio. My feeling is that this enthusiasm for Dolby Digital can be attributed to people hearing their favorite music in surround sound for the first time, not because Dolby Digital inherently sounds that good.
Audio novelty also applies to stereo systems too. Just because a stereo system sounds different than one is used to doesn't mean that it sounds good.

 

[Scott_MacD]

I guess I must be anything but an audio snob. I'm completely bowled over by my system every single time I listen to it. It wasn't long ago that I was enjoying movies in mono. I'm a movie person, and blithe ignorance was cool at the time.



Brief history..[*]Bought a cheap DVD player, hooked it up to a small hifi and amassed a 100+ disc library. Bowled over by video and sound quality.[*]bought a Dolby Pro-Logic decoder and a bunch of cheap speakers. Bowled away again.[*]visited local hifi store and walked out with replacements for all the speakers and fresh cabling. (and a sore CC). Serious improvement.[*]bought a (really quite cheap)subwoofer. Again loved the improvement.[*]Bought a Dolby Digital/DTS reciever. Best thing I ever bought for the house! period! [*]Replaced center with a Paradigm CC-370, thanks to people's recommendations on this forum.[*]Bought a Paradigm PS1000 when The Phantom Menace came out and destroyed my subwoofer. [/list]I guess I'm easy to please.