Form versus function

[slinger]

So you've got a standard-sized amp, and when you open it up there's a 8"x6" PCB, and an unremarkable transformer. Would it sell more units with the block of concrete in the empty space or without?

[Firebug1]

So you've got a standard-sized amp, and when you open it up there's a 8"x6" PCB, and an unremarkable transformer. Would it sell more units with the block of concrete in the empty space or without?

If you put, side by side, one with the block and one without it, I'm pretty sure that the one with the block will sell better.

[Lindsayt]

It's not really snobbery. It's being competitive.

Every home fest (I detest the phrase "bake off") that I have attended, or hosted, has never been in any way, shape, or form, competitive.

I think any competitive element would spoil the occasion.

Even the Audio - Talk Owston event is deliberately non competitive.

*

That's fine.

Every bake-off that I've attended has been mildly competitive, from my point of view. *

Just as every time I've played a round of golf has been mildly competitive.

The thing with hi-fi bake-offs is that even though they are mildly competitive I'm still happy when I lose. Just as I'm happy when I lose at golf.

The competition doesn't spoil these activities for me. They enhance it.

Owston is more of a hi-fi event than a bake-off. It becomes competitive when the same tracks are played at the same volume. Which almost never happens at Owston.


* Apart from an AVI bake-off that was highly competitve because of the amount of shit thrown at me in the lead up to the bake-off.

[NSNO2021]

Do you ever wonder how much hifi manufacturers have to face this problem? Well as a start we shouldn't lump all manufacturers in together. It is obvious that most put more emphasis on aesthetics over performance and this is evident from a simple visit to a dealer. I don't have any recent exposure to this as I haven't visited a dealer since 2006 but Clive has and will back up that view.

People do buy with their eyes - and the emotional connection that makes. As a manufacturer, I think that your finished product should match your brand ethos and values. Even the most minimalist, budget design can still be made to be appealing - assuming the viewer prizes the values that you communicate.

An amplifier case has to sit on a shelf. It should please the eye, but it doesn't need to be a tank. The main attraction of bling, to manufacturers, is what it can do for RRP.

If I think it's fugly I wouldn't buy it and that's that. I like minimalism in most walks of life, so Chords steam punk design's are a non starter, ditto Japanese stuff with lots of lights and gauges, no thanks, ditto huge American amps so big you need a mate just to move them around, that's just willy waving nonsense to my way of thinking. Thankfully we are all different and there appears to plenty of really good kit out there to please all tastes.

For me, less is definitely more (of my thing)

[CN211276]

I used to pass the same Audio T for decades on my walk home from work. Naim equipment would feature prominently in the window along with Rega and Project turn tables. The rest of the geer was mainly Japanese, Rotel, Yamaha and Denon come to mind. I bought a Yamaha CD player and a Denon cassette deck from them in 1986.

Had my hair cut this morning so I had a look. There are two window displays. One is exclusively home cinema with Dali speakers prominent. In the other the 3.5K "paupers" version of the LP12 takes centre stage, surrounded by Innuous equipment. I ventured in the deserted shop to enquire about the availability, or more to the point lack of availability, of the Mojo 2. Faced with a scruff like me the salesman came over a bit high and mighty.

NB. The 3.5K fruit box does not look any different to the 20K full speck one.

[savvypaul]

I used to pass the same Audio T for decades on my walk home from work. Naim equipment would feature prominently in the window along with Rega and Project turn tables. The rest of the geer was mainly Japanese, Rotel, Yamaha and Denon come to mind. I bought a Yamaha CD player and a Denon cassette deck from them in 1986.

Had my hair cut this morning so I had a look. There are two window displays. One is exclusively home cinema with Dali speakers prominent. In the other the 3.5K "paupers" version of the LP12 takes centre stage, surrounded by Innuous equipment. I ventured in the deserted shop to enquire about the availability, or more to the point lack of availability, of the Mojo 2. Faced with a scruff like me the salesman came over a bit high and mighty.

NB. The 3.5K fruit box does not look any different to the 20K full speck one.

Perhaps, they will take a haircut on that price?

[CN211276]

I used to pass the same Audio T for decades on my walk home from work. Naim equipment would feature prominently in the window along with Rega and Project turn tables. The rest of the geer was mainly Japanese, Rotel, Yamaha and Denon come to mind. I bought a Yamaha CD player and a Denon cassette deck from them in 1986.

Had my hair cut this morning so I had a look. There are two window displays. One is exclusively home cinema with Dali speakers prominent. In the other the 3.5K "paupers" version of the LP12 takes centre stage, surrounded by Innuous equipment. I ventured in the deserted shop to enquire about the availability, or more to the point lack of availability, of the Mojo 2. Faced with a scruff like me the salesman came over a bit high and mighty.

NB. The 3.5K fruit box does not look any different to the 20K full speck one.

Perhaps, they will take a haircut on that price?

Could do with a scalping.

I am only in that part of Cardiff to have my hair cut, not very often, and cant recall Linn being on window display before.