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Four years ago I heard Peter Qvortrop's best Audio Note speakers, a pair of $150,000 8" two way bookshelf speakers driven by a pair of $130,000 low power amplifiers, at the VTV consumer audio trade show in Piscataway NJ and I was completely underwhelmed. Interesting that in the review Dudley said he got deeper better bass out of the Sophia3 than out of the Audo Note speakers. But then what do you want for a mere $150,000, perfection?
I know what you mean about being "underwhelmed." But you'd certainly hope, that a two way loudspeaker like the AudioNote would sound better than the BOSE.
I'm sure he would love to hear them. Seriously. So would I.
Ultimately our listening experience is personal and subjective. That means essentially that it is only an opinion and, as such, carries no weight whatsoever. It can, however, derive credibility from the corroboration of others. So consensus is sought. Validation is prized and fads ensue. So called expert reviewers are granted immense power due to their endowed status and conferred expertise. They often are responsible for making or breaking a product and, too often, they confer dynasty upon favored brands.The experience, however, is yours - it's personal. You get to decide whether or not you like your sound. You can make it easy on yourself by hearing a glass half full or you can condemn yourself to a lifelong quest to fill your half empty sound to the satisfaction you see advertised. The whole matter is in your head. What tweak could be easier and less expensive than simply changing how you see things?Harry Pearson engendered this disease by creating and perpetuating the myth of The Absolute Sound. I'm offering the cure. Help yourself.
I've always wondered how a $30,000 speaker can be placed beside a $30,000 car and called a good value. The complexity, materials, engineering, tolerances, durability, etc., etc., etc...... in the car are orders of magnitude greater than what is required by, and provided in, the speaker. Personally, I think the ultra high end audio products are a shameless fraud perpetuated on a witless hobbyist elite. If you go far enough into the land of diminishing returns, you come up empty.Maybe manufacturers have found that the paucity of new customers can be overcome by scoring deeper on the few willing remnants of their past customer base.
Interesting.The first time I heard a pair of Audio Note speakers I was also "underwhelmed". But after returning to the store many more times just to hang out with the guys (and not to analyze speakers or spend any more money ), I realized that I was having a hard time getting up to leave. The record kept ending and I kept getting up to put another one on. "Hey, I'm only an hour late, I can stay a little bit longer." During this time in my life I was also aware that my tastes were changing and I was comfortable letting go of what I had embraced before. Not that any of this matters to anyone, but I didn't really care who made the speaker that I was enjoying, or why it worked the way it did. Ok,Ok,,, I cared who made it and I was curious to figure out why it worked, but I didn't really care in the academic sense since it made me feel so happy when I was listening to it. What is the true value of something that makes your life so much nicer? Do you skip out on a good thing just because it doesn't fit into the neat little box that defines your audiophile life? Do you know what I mean?If you do know what I mean then I don't see the point in getting all uptight over what something costs, how or where it is made, and what it is made out of. And why would you trash someone for buying it because they can, or because they actually like it? Does that make your own system sound any better?Hope to hear those 901s again someday HiFiSoundGuy. Glad you are enjoying yours.
I've re-engineered my original Bose 901s. They are now a two way bi-amplified speaker using 4 equalizers. I'll put them up against Peter Qvortrup's best effort. Not particularly efficient power wise but who cares. Where's the virtue in being able to be powered by pee-wee amplifiers in an era when several hundred watts only costs several hundred dollars? Dollar wise they are far more efficient. They cost only about one three hundredth of what his does.
Jeff,Just to keep it real....If the Sophia is $15k retail then they are buying it 40-50 points off probably. Lets just say that they are $8k to the dealer. The cost of the actual speaker is probably in the $2500 range. Of course, throw in the overhead and it adds up very quickly. I will add that I've listened to many Wilson systems and have NEVER been impressed. I always walk away extremely confused as to why people think they sound great. I went to a demo where the sysstem was nearly $500k and setup by Wilson and went home and hugged my system.
There are accessories such as the Smith cell, by Nuforce, Bybee filters, Synergistic Speaker Cells, and MIT products, that would be fun to experiment with on the 901s.
But again, having been to the factory and watching their product designed, tested and assembled, they aren't making junk, they aren't cutting corners and they don't make a product that you can build in your garage.
How do you get 4 equalizers in the setup? Are you dual-mono all the way from the source?
Believe you me, you could do way better than Peter if you had a $150K budget to work with.
Soundminded - You wouldn't need all those EQs if you had just removed your grills. I read somewhere that that's the ultimate tweak.
