Side and top of an Ayre MX-R oh-so very high-end power amplifier.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)It's the hi-fi's job to produce the sound of music encoded in a recording.
Does how well or how accurately it produces the sound affect musical enjoyment? I'm not so sure about measurements; they just define distortion levels, power rating, and frequency response, but they don't have all that much to do with good sound. Good sound is much harder to nail down; we like what we like. You know good sound when you hear it.
Studio recordings rarely sound "live," or even realistic. How could they? Chances are the band never played the entire tune together "live" in the studio. Their music was patched together from bits and pieces, overdubbed, pitch corrected, rhythm corrected, EQ-ed, dynamically compressed, and processed in a gazillion ways. Of course, a lot of that also goes into modern "concert" recordings. So what constitutes a good sounding recording is pretty impossible to define. Play it back over a great system and what do you hear? Does it get your blood pumping?
So the question really is, does the music fully engage the listener? Sometimes, the better the hi-fi, the more music the listener hears, the more they like the music. Why that is? I don't know.
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(Credit:
CNET)
I'm a middle-aged guy, so sure, I read the CNET review of the new Dodge Challenger SRT8 just to get vicarious kicks imagining what it's like to drive a 425-horsepower muscle car. It sounds like a real thrill ride, and sure it's a serious gas guzzler: "The EPA rates the Challenger SRT8 at 14 city mpg and 22 highway mpg. However during our leadfooted testing, we only managed 13.7 mpg over a mixed city and highway cycle."
(Credit:
Klipsch)
Even so, I suppose the Challenger's tested price of $43,730 will place it in the affordable range for a lot of folks, or let's be honest, guys. It's a car to get noticed in, but no one's fooling themselves into believing the SRT8 is merely reliable transportation. It's a toy, and if you can swallow the fuel bill, it's a heck of a ride.
Same can be said about high-end audio. It's not practical and it can be expensive to run, but once you get used to what it can do when it's playing your favorite tunes, a $500 HTIB won't cut it anymore. High-end audio isn't an appliance, it's supposed to get your heart pounding and blood flowing, not so different than the SRT8.
(Credit:
Parasound)
Thrill seekers lusting after a muscular audio system equivalent of the SRT8 should check out the following system.
Muscle cars are as American as apple pie, so I went for American made hi-fi where I could. I reviewed Klipsch's mighty RF-83 tower speaker ($2798/pair) for Home Theater magazine last October, but it's still a current model. With three 8-inch woofers and a 1.25-inch horn-loaded titanium diaphragm compression tweeter, the RF-83 mos' definitely will rock your world. Add the 12-inch Klipsch RT-12d subwoofer ($2,199) to ensure the deepest and tightest low bass.
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Back in the day, we built great cars and the best TVs. And our advanced engineering was the envy of the world.
That was a long time ago. Today "world-class" design and manufacturing is mostly sent off-shore to Europe and Asia. American companies market and distribute products made somewhere else. According to American Economic Alert, the U.S. has imported $250 billion worth of goods and services more than we exported so far this year.
(Credit:
Audio Research)
High-end audio is one area where made in America products are still truly world class. While the major brands like Audio Research, Ayre, Cardas, Conrad-Johnson, McIntosh, Thiel, and Wilson Audio are only known here by audiophiles, these brands are major players in the global audiophile market. And with the U.S. dollar at record lows, exports sales are healthier than ever.
Audio Research reports strong sales surges in Italy, France, and the U.K. Russia has just recently become a major market for Audio Research's vacuum tube electronics. The company is still selling mostly two channel audio components; home theater products aren't a big part of their growth over the last few years. In the U.S., you can buy an Audio Research VSi 55 tube integrated amplifier for $3,495.
Thiel Audio, based in Lexington, Ky., is enjoying robust sales. "Our export business doubled in 2007, and is now about 40% of our gross revenues. The biggest increase has come from Europe. Fortunately for us, our domestic business is up, too, though not as much as foreign sales," said Kathy Gornik, Thiel's president . I reviewed Thiel's least-expensive speaker, the SCS4 in the May issue of Home Theater magazine.
(Credit:
Cardas)
Cardas Audio, maker of high-end speaker and interconnect cables, has also noted that Russia is coming on strong. George Cardas, the company's CEO, said, "I have always found (that) overseas sales surge with a drop in the dollar. Distributors hold orders until the right moment and even increase orders if the drop is substantial." Interesting.
Steve Silberman of Ayre Acoustics, based in Boulder, Colo., chimed in too. "Export has been off the charts this year, mainly in Asia, though Europe has been growing steadily too," he said. "What's been the real surprise is that the U.S. saw growth in the first quarter on par with export growth." Ayre electronics have been part of my reference system for years.
(Credit:
Ayre)
Wilson Audio, the Ferrari of American speaker manufacturers, is also doing well: "Our sales are up in all international markets. This is especially true of Europe, where we have benefited most from the weak dollar. Of course, it is a complex issue with several factors, only one of which is the weak dollar. For example, the Hong Kong dollar is tied to the U.S. dollar, and so in that market we don't directly benefit from the weak dollar. We are doing extremely well in Asia for an entirely different set of reasons, unrelated to the dollar."
Of course, all of these American made-products are far more expensive in other countries than they are here.
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