What might be the reason we are not moving away from the "regular" brands? When recommendations for HiFi gear are solicited all I see are the usual suspects. Marantz, KEF, Dali, Wharfedale, NAD, Klipsch, Audiolab, QA etc. No doubt these brands are more than decent in their own right. Aren't there any "gems" from the "not-so-popular" brands to be found?
We buy the mainstream names because of:
- Easy Availability
- Herd mentality
- Reliable brand support (repairs, warranties etc)
- Not enough exposure for other brands.
- Brand conscious, peer pressure.
- "Safe" buy (tried and trusted)
- Combination of the above
Any other reasons?
I'm also eager and curious to listen to your tales about any "obscure" brands or great pieces of equipment you may have found.
Its a nice question and I was thinking of this into some kind of phases we all go through in terms of our journey as an audiophile . we are all in different stages and also spend different time durations in each. we may also have overlaps between. DIY folks may have a different approach depending on where they branch off though.
I will assume price to be an important factor no matter what stage you are in. Again these are stages and one can remain and be very very happy in each stage including the 1st and choose not to move further
1. We all start off as someone who loves music and hence want to listen to it better. here Price is crucial and some combination of brand/safe buy ie who all have bought it before helps but usually still in internet searches and trying to learn ( or not) as to how to listen. this is when we might move to a separate component based system. even perhaps as Movies+Music but music being the focus.
2. now we have spent some time listening and started appreciating difference in components, primarily Speaker/Amp/Source and start reading up and analysing , we may waste little to lots of money on upgrades both lateral and higher. start realising price vs quality ie how they might or might not correlate etc. At this time resolution , presentation , soundstage, dynamics etc start becoming important things. some of us might take measurements as our route and others trusting ones own or others ear eg friends/reviews etc. Here again brand/peer pressure/price play a role
3. While equipment is still important we now start understanding nuances in tonality and now start getting on to other elements like Cables/Power/vibration etc as also being important and we start experimenting. here we are clearer of the sound we want and what we really like but are still unsure of what is doing what and discussions are around whats really neutral eg am squeezing the best out of the source ?. here we go more by trust in ones own ear /measurements as well as in others we trust and know . you do serious experiments with tweaks of all types.
4. one step higher where we now realize the importance of each element and start looking at acoustics, how the system couples together, nuances. trust in owns own ears /others ears or measurements is a lot more. We know the tweaks to tune your sound and Brands are looked at mostly in terms of engineering /servicing etc. . At this stage one very circumspect about what to buy and may even go for nondescript brands as long as we are satisfied with what it can do and its quality. We are also able to see through jargon and also evaluate equipment to its true potential than whats available in the public domain.
5. is closer to nirvana where sound quality is all that matters and brands may not mean much to oneself and go around with the best well engineered product branded or DIY and can shape our system to a clear defined taste.
I started this as a 3-4 liner but got me thinking and realised I have really rambled a lot ..do not have the heart ot delete it as well.