On Getting Good Sound and Good Value
A short time ago, a couple I know phoned to ask my opinion
of a speaker system they were considering buying -- something from a well-known,
well-advertised brand. Not one to mince words, I told them that it was "decent, but
probably not worth half what the company sells it for at retail. It’s not a very good
value."
Taken aback, they didn’t know what to think. That
didn’t surprise me. I knew they’d likely seen and read so many of this
company’s ads in various magazines that they felt it must be the best thing
around -- not only in terms of sound quality offered, but in value for money as well.
Hearing me say it wasn’t that at all put me at odds with the hype. Whom should they
trust?
To simultaneously prove my point and let them judge for
themselves, I invited them over to my house to listen to a whole range of speakers I had
on hand. They happily agreed, and that afternoon listened to many sets of speakers,
ranging in price per pair from about $50 -- Pioneer’s S-HF21-LR, which Greg Smith reviewed
in December and which won our Great Buy! award -- all the way up to a grand. I felt that
auditioning all these speakers was crucial -- it gave my friends not only an idea of what
they could get for very little money, but also what they could get for an amount somewhat
higher than what they’d budgeted for.
Though my friends weren’t experienced listeners,
during that afternoon I taught them a bit about what to listen for, and after a short
while they easily heard great differences among these speakers. They liked many of them,
and a couple of models jumped out as their favorites. One that didn’t impress
them as much as the rest was the Pioneer S-HF21-LR. Not that they thought it sounded bad
-- it just wasn’t nearly as good as many of the others. However, they did think that
the Pioneer sounded almost as good as the speaker system they’d asked me about
in the first place, and at a fraction of the price. That’s when they realized that if
they’d kept on listening to the ads and not their ears, they would have been had.
They’d learned two things I’ve known for some time: price doesn’t always
correlate with performance; and, in the end, you’ve got to let your own ears decide
what’s best.
However, at the end of that afternoon of listening I didn’t
tell them to throw their previous shopping experiences out the window and make a decision
based solely on what they’d heard at my house. Rather, I told them that what they now
had was a primer in what to listen for, and that they now understood what kind of sound
quality they should expect for what they wanted to pay. I also told them that if they
really wanted to find out which speaker was best for them, they’d have to shop
around themselves and judge things with their own ears, not make up their minds
based solely on what something costs or what some salesman says -- or even what I
have to say. As well, since I didn’t have in-house a pair of the speakers they’d
originally phoned me about, I told them that they should go back and listen to those
speakers at the store, insist on an A/B comparison against some other brands, and do the
same for other speaker candidates. After all, you need to directly compare two products to
know which is better -- which is precisely what they’d just spent the afternoon doing
at my house.
A few days later, they phoned to tell me they’d
purchased a speaker system that they were thrilled with, and had enough money left over to
buy some new electronics and cables. Furthermore, they felt that they’d gotten good
sound and good value. That’s what a good shopping experience should be and
often is not.
The lessons learned
Getting good value for your audio dollar isn’t about
reading ads and believing what the marketing department or some salesman says. Nor is it
about judging components by their price tags. After all, in any product category, some
products just aren’t worth the asking price. A high price might at first seem to
imply that the product is of a correspondingly high quality -- but it’s no guarantee
that that will be true.
However, it’s important to also know that not all
companies are unscrupulous, even those who advertise heavily; neither are all salespeople.
Furthermore, many products out there do offer good sound and good value. The key is
to find out which products these are, and to learn whom you can trust.
In my opinion, this requires starting from the bottom up:
Find out what you can get for the least amount of money. That’s why I showed my
friends those Pioneer speakers -- not because I thought they’d buy them (unless they
were really tight for cash), but because I wanted them to hear what a $50/pair of speakers
could sound like. Then work your way up the price ladder and see if performance follows
price. For example, my friends heard a big improvement between the $50 and $300 speakers I
showed them, but fewer clear winners between $300 and $1000. What was "best" in
the latter range came down to preference more than anything else. In other words, price no
longer correlated with performance -- which is why you can’t shop by comparing prices
alone.
That low-price threshold, as I like to call it, is
important because it establishes what I call a baseline of performance against
which the pricier stuff can be evaluated -- which is exactly what our GoodSound!
writers do. In fact, in our "Features" section this month you’ll find
"What We'd Buy: Speakers Under $300," in which Jeff Van Dyne, Eric Hetherington,
and I give our opinions, based on our reviewing experience, on which are the best
under-$300 speakers. This month you’ll also find my own review of Paradigm’s
Atom Monitor and Philip Beaudette’s review of the PSB Alpha B1. Both of these
speakers, while differing from each other, are tremendous bargains that help establish
that baseline of performance I’m talking about.
Getting good value for your stereo dollar isn’t all
that hard, but if, like my friends at the start of their shopping journey, you don’t
know what to do, I admit that it can be a little tricky. However, if you understand that
price doesn’t always correlate with performance, and if you know what sort of
performance is possible at a low price these days, then you’ve got a good place to
start. But still the most important thing is to let your ears be your guides -- after all,
they’re what any component must ultimately satisfy. Do all of that, and you can
virtually guarantee that you’ll end up with good sound, good value, and something
that will satisfy your music-listening needs for years to come.
…Doug Schneider
E-mail comments to the editor@goodsound.com.
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