New think piece from Roy Gregory- Thoughts?
- Thread starter Elliot G.
- Start date
I first heard the term nomograph from David Wilson when I did the first factory tour and was listening to the WAMMs for the first time. However, I did some deeper digging and the newer models refer to it as Time Alignment Charts.
The charts tell you how to set the forward position and tilt (via stair step) of the Alexia mid and tweeter modules based on the owner’s ear height and distance from the speaker. This is how Wilson does more precise time and phase alignment.
I am sorry Lee, but you are THE hi end fanboy
I am indeed guilty of being very enthusiastic about hifi. I get excited about anything cool in terms of sound or technology from any brand.
I agree the phrase innovator should be used sparingly. True innovation is not easy to achieve or even identify. Here are some examples I have immediate experience with. My list is not meant to be all-inclusive, merely to highlight past and present innovators who, in my view, changed the game I am familiar with after five decades of immersion in high-end.
Earlier Innovators:
1. Bill Johnson ARC (various amplifiers)
2. Dan D'aGostino, Krell (KSA amplification)
3. Nelson Pass (First Watt and other designs)
4. Dick Sequerra, (Marantz 10 B and Sequerra One)
5. Stu Hegeman, HK Citation 1 & II and Hapi preamplifier
6. Peter Walker Quad
7. Tom Colangelo and Paul Jayson Cello (especially the Audio Pallette)
8. Jim Winey, Magnapan Tympani IVs, and other designs
9. Jason Bloom, Apogee loudspeakers
10. AJ Conti, Basis Transcendence table and Superarm
11. Albert Von Schweikert, VSA various designs
Modern-day Innovators:
1. Emile Bok, Taiko and team for XDMI
2. Angus Leung, WestminsterLab for the Rei amplifiers (note I represent them in North America)
3. Aki San for his optical phono cartridges
4. Sven Boenicke for his exceptionally different approach to loudspeaker design
5. Luca Chiomenti, Riviera amplification
6. Fulvio Chiappetta, Alieno Audio hybrid OTL amplification
7. David Berrning (always)
8. Ivo Sparideans, AEquo Audio, for his meta metal cast loudspeaker enclosure used in the forthcoming Adamantis loudspeaker
9. Peter Lederman, Soundsmith for his strain gauge cartridge
10. Mark Dohman, various original turntable designs, including the CONTINUUM and Helix One
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So the nomograph is the graphic representation of the Time Alignment Charts. Here is an example from the Alexandria X-2 manual.
You forgot one of the great early speaker innovators-
** John Dunlavy (Duntech, Dunlavy)
If you look at audio generally as a consumer product, the high-end market it a bit of fluff on the top that is irrelevant and largely unknown to probably 99% of consumers.
I don’t know many in the list above, but I suspect you have to be well into the top 1% or earners to be able to afford a lot of this stuff without serious financial hardship. The exception is Quad, because Peter Walker’s objective was to make high quality audio that was generally affordable. He was also very much driven by measured performance.
My most expensive purchase was a pair of Wilson Sabrina speakers. They were primarily my wife’s choice for the looks, but I got to listen them for 45 minutes before buying them. She drew the listening session to a close and paid for them else we would have been late for lunch reservation.
My most recent significant purchase was a Gryphon 300 + DAC. Sold new for £24,500 12 months earlier, it cost me £9,500. At that price, it becomes a sensible value proposition compared to mainstream products like the Luxman L-509z.
I am a big fan of Roy's and I like this think-piece.
Roy expresses the view that price is not necessarily correlated with sound quality. I agree with this point.
But maybe his actual words go a bit too far?
The sad truth is that price and performance were never really equivalent and that any relationship they once enjoyed is long gone. . .
Perhaps I am quibbling unfairly, but even I think there is a positive, if weak, correlation between price and performance. I don't think the correlation between price and performance is zero, as Roy suggests.
I think the more valuable part of the article is to explain to consumers and hobbyists the reality of and the practicalities of pricing and mark-ups in the high-end audio industry. Explaining the underbelly of the high-end distribution and dealer model is very valuable.
On the dichotomy between the biggest and most established companies versus smaller innovators I don't even understand what you guys are arguing about. Both types of firms exist, and the industry is better for it!
New inventions by innovators at all sizes of companies and small companies pressuring large companies not to become complacent and differences in pricing levels between big companies and smaller upstarts all accrue to the benefit of us hobbyists by giving us more options at different price levels.
Purely personally as a hobbyist I think it's fun to try to find a less expensive component from a smaller upstart company which I enjoy sonically as much as or more than a more expensive product from a more established company. For example, I think the Trafomatic Audio Lara is an amazing sound quality value at around $12,000. At the next price level up I am really enjoying the Aries Cerat Incito S. There is an element of fun about this to me, as opposed to paying four times or five times these price levels for a preamp from the biggest and most established manufacturers. (Yes, there are differences in build quality and consistency and other things, but at four times and five times the price there damn well better be!)
Roy expresses the view that price is not necessarily correlated with sound quality. I agree with this point.
But maybe his actual words go a bit too far?
The sad truth is that price and performance were never really equivalent and that any relationship they once enjoyed is long gone. . .
Perhaps I am quibbling unfairly, but even I think there is a positive, if weak, correlation between price and performance. I don't think the correlation between price and performance is zero, as Roy suggests.
I think the more valuable part of the article is to explain to consumers and hobbyists the reality of and the practicalities of pricing and mark-ups in the high-end audio industry. Explaining the underbelly of the high-end distribution and dealer model is very valuable.
On the dichotomy between the biggest and most established companies versus smaller innovators I don't even understand what you guys are arguing about. Both types of firms exist, and the industry is better for it!
New inventions by innovators at all sizes of companies and small companies pressuring large companies not to become complacent and differences in pricing levels between big companies and smaller upstarts all accrue to the benefit of us hobbyists by giving us more options at different price levels.
Purely personally as a hobbyist I think it's fun to try to find a less expensive component from a smaller upstart company which I enjoy sonically as much as or more than a more expensive product from a more established company. For example, I think the Trafomatic Audio Lara is an amazing sound quality value at around $12,000. At the next price level up I am really enjoying the Aries Cerat Incito S. There is an element of fun about this to me, as opposed to paying four times or five times these price levels for a preamp from the biggest and most established manufacturers. (Yes, there are differences in build quality and consistency and other things, but at four times and five times the price there damn well better be!)
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What innovations? These are marketing terms . How do these things move the industry ? Just because you like it didn’t make it an innovation or in fact make it significant. Why should I give them credit for their own literature, this makes no sense.
I am truly amazed that you don’t get that dropping names and spouting marketing terms means nothing when trying to advance the state of the art.
I don’t have anything bad to say or bad intentions towards any of these companies but you seem to constantly spew their verbiage as gospel. It may be to you but that is just one persons opinion
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I suggest you get your hands on a Wadax studio player, it’s price versus value I would love to hear your thoughts on!
I am not perceiving malign intent. We all use recent component examples to make whatever point we're trying to make.
“… less expensive component … value at around $12,000”. Are you kidding? That’s far more than most consumers ever spend on an audio system, probably more than the vast majority spend in their lifetimes.
His conclusion starts:
The bottom line here is that, once you reach a certain (surprisingly low) price level, the whole industry is sliding in an uncontrolled and haphazard manner towards a two-tier model, while the hold-outs and established practice means that three margins are still generally applied – and then raped for discounts. And that’s before you even start to consider single-tier, direct to customer sales, which introduce a whole new and very different cost structure. In other words, the relationship between manufacturing cost and asking price is now utterly unfathomable and ranking products, or choosing them on the basis of price is a fool’s errand.
What’s he’s saying is that the industry is moving to a manufacturer-distributor (2-tier) model on the one hand as opposed to the traditional manufacturer-distributor-retailer (3-tier) model. When there are only two tiers in the distribution model, they can agree the best pricing strategy and know their profitability per sale with certainty. There is no discounting and more certainty for customer as well, because they know the resale value of their purchase is based on a fixed new price.
Examples are Schiit and Holo Audio. Moreover, they need very few distributors (Holo has only 3 globally), so each one will have much higher sales, much less sales effort and can therefore afford to have a smaller margin. Holo distributors hardly have to sell the product, most of their effort is keeping supply up with demand.
In the 3-tier model it becomes a massive bun-fight. If the customer expects a discount, the retailer and distributor will be arguing with each other and, if the product is made to order, the manufacturer might be drawn into the fight.
The 1-tier model are manufacturers selling from their websites or Amazon, but include large brands like Cambridge Audio, who are owned by Richer Sounds, which is the largest audio retailer in the UK. They are my favourite brand - you can get a very good complete electronics package streamer to amplifier for under $3,000.
The point he seems to be making is that you can get ripped off at any level, because anyone can make or buy in a $100 cable, pile on the B/S and sell it for $3,000. However, 1-tier ands 2-tier models have the potential to offer much more value and certainty, whereas the 3-tier model is a value lottery.
RG sees the audio market moving to most people buying direct from manufacturers or distributors at low price-points (closer to $1,200 than $12,000), neither having any need for retailers, offering certainly and value. The 3-tier model will remain for the wealthy few with money to burn and the idea of value almost non-existent.
Most of the innovation these days is by the likes of Zidoo (EverSolo) and HiFi Rose, putting together very attractive and high performing products at great prices sold direct or by distributors. They are taking a lot of traditional 3-tier sales.
My idea of value is a Whest Two.2 Discrete phono stage, bought direct from Whest for £1,500 last year.
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I do think this is part of what frustrates budding audiophiles. As astronomical prices become the norm, the bar is raised - suddenly a very good DAC is thought to cost $40 - $50k (some will say less but know they are losing the argument to the price=performance logic).
From the perspective of enjoying music, if that is the goal, one need not spend that much. Previously, I never spent anything remotely like the amounts I spend now, yet enjoyed music with every setup.
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