Audio Reviews and Marketing

A

admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
We've all had to deal with the uncomfortable situation of having a friend tell you how much they spent on cables at their local big box store when you know you could have gotten them the same performance for a quarter (or less) the money. We've all been there. Let's put the cards on the table as this beating around the bush doesn't seem to be getting to people: I'm sick and tired of blatantly false marketing claims and loquacious "reviewers" who think they can hear a mosquito fart. They shouldn't even be able to call themselves "reviewers," they're more like re-spewers...


Discuss "Audio Reviews and Marketing" here. Read the article.
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
That was absolutely the best AH Rant I have ever read. You made my day. :D
 
J

jandawil

Enthusiast
I own a pair those $7500 speaker wires so I'm a little offended at this rant. They make my $1200 Axiom M80s sound like a pair of $2500 speakers they are that good....no wait...that means I spent $8700 to get speakers that sound like they cost $2500.....#$@!! I am an idiot!!!!
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
I own a pair those $7500 speaker wires so I'm a little offended at this rant. They make my $1200 Axiom M80s sound like a pair of $2500 speakers they are that good....no wait...that means I spent $8700 to get speakers that sound like they cost $2500.....#$@!! I am an idiot!!!!
Hahahaha!!! Excellent! :D
 
A

Alexhunter27

Audioholic Intern
I own a pair those $7500 speaker wires so I'm a little offended at this rant. They make my $1200 Axiom M80s sound like a pair of $2500 speakers they are that good....no wait...that means I spent $8700 to get speakers that sound like they cost $2500.....#$@!! I am an idiot!!!!

LOL:D
Nicely put!
 
H

Hypocrite

Audiophyte
I wish that when you guys go on these rants about manufactures that you would have the balls to tell us specifically what manufactures you're talking about! I'm curious if the omni-directional speaker company you mention is Mirage, because you haven't checked your own site. Audioholics recommends this brand and type of speaker! Do a search and find out for yourself! No, I don't work for or own Mirage speakers.
These "rant" articles that get posted just make this site less credible.
 
stratman

stratman

Audioholic Ninja
Well put Tom, marketers rule the world. Marketing is nothing more than smoke and mirrors and the goal: to make you unhappy with what you have, that's how you keep consumers consuming. Marketing majors are basically taught how to systematically varnish the truth, give them a set of specs and they'll turn them into a miracle. I believe, dollar for dollar, the best marketer is BOSE or rather who ever does their marketing, in house or an agency. This is a brand that eons ago put a relatively decent product, but lost their integrity, quality and self-respect along the way,all to chase the all mighty dollar at the expense of truth. And for marketing in general, how many of you find yourself reaching for a Coke, McDonalds, Burger King, Budweiser? Simple marketing, you know Coke isn't good for you and neither are fast food burgers, Bud is a question of taste, and yet billions eat this crap every year. Never has the old axiom been so proper: "A fool and his money soon part company." There is a solution, read and research before buying, caveat emptor!
 
R

rushwj

Audioholic
what a great article/rant! truly amusing and well-written (i also liked jandawil's response - very witty). yeah, the whole omni-directional thing is something a lot of speaker companies dabble in here and there, but tom wrote about it quite amusingly, regardless of which companies they are.
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
I wish that when you guys go on these rants about manufactures that you would have the balls to tell us specifically what manufactures you're talking about! I'm curious if the omni-directional speaker company you mention is Mirage, because you haven't checked your own site. Audioholics recommends this brand and type of speaker! Do a search and find out for yourself! No, I don't work for or own Mirage speakers.
These "rant" articles that get posted just make this site less credible.
You do realize that your user name, not Tom's, is Hypocrite...right? No one said that Mirage didn't make good speakers for the money. The design is unnecessary however.

Great article by the way Tom, I think you should have done a podcast of it with Dina. I think she would have been taken aback by all that.:D

I noticed earlier on in the TV show "House M.D." that he had some rather high end looking speakers, but later in the series he had a Panasonic HTIAB thing.:confused: What where the speakers he had?
 
Rock&Roll Ninja

Rock&Roll Ninja

Audioholic Field Marshall
I noticed earlier on in the TV show "House M.D." that he had some rather high end looking speakers, but later in the series he had a Panasonic HTIAB thing.:confused: What where the speakers he had?
His apartment was robbed when he "accidently" left the front door open when babysitting a dog. The stereo was stolen, but the dog stuck around. (episode 321, 'family'). I believe they were B&Ws. And also iPod earbuds are accurate enough to diagnose a heart murmur.


Yes, I watch alot fo TV.
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
His apartment was robbed when he "accidently" left the front door open when babysitting a dog. The stereo was stolen, but the dog stuck around. (episode 321, 'family'). I believe they were B&Ws. And also iPod earbuds are accurate enough to diagnose a heart murmur.


Yes, I watch alot fo TV.
I have seen every episode, I remember that one.:D

I am still trying to figure out what he had in his office for the first few episodes before he got the Panasonic.

THIS THREAD IS NOW ABOUT HOUSE M.D.:D
 
T

terror_beast

Audioholic Intern
Tom tends to get a little worked up and sometimes exaggerates or generalizes a bit, which is a shame because it provides easy material with which to counter his arguments. Whenever you're going to claim the moral or factual high ground, you REALLY need to be careful because ANY mistake, no matter how small, will be used to invalidate your entire position - regardless of whether or not the majority of your statements are correct.

On a lighter note, my absolute favorite "snake oil"/useless item are the after-market power cords! I get such a kick out of them! The amazingly outrageous claims that are made about a 6 foot power cord's supposed ability to improve audio make me laugh like few other ridiculous claims can.

If nothing else will convince you that after-market power cords are totally unecessary, consider this: behind the cable outlet into which you plug that insanely expensive 6-foot power cord is just the cheap, bulk, but perfectly working 12/2 copper cable that you can buy at any hardware store. Even if you've gone to the extreme expense of replacing the typical power cables in your home, the power that enters your home has travelled miles and miles through you neighborhood's power grid.

After traversing miles and miles of your State or City's power lines, all of a sudden the last 6 feet from the wall outlet to your component are going to improve dramatically because of an after-market power cable?! The very idea is just so ludicrous that I HAVE to applaud the makers of these cables for even attempting to sell a product based on such a claim! It's silly beyond belief, and yet they DO manage to sell their cords somehow!

There is one type of after-market power cord that makes sense to buy though: a longer one when the included one isn't long enough to reach the nearest power outlet. :D
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
I own a pair those $7500 speaker wires so I'm a little offended at this rant. They make my $1200 Axiom M80s sound like a pair of $2500 speakers they are that good....no wait...that means I spent $8700 to get speakers that sound like they cost $2500.....#$@!! I am an idiot!!!!
Aren't you glad we are here to help you:D after a few sessions, you will feel better. Oh, each sessions are $150; no free lunch:D We have to eat too.:D
 
Davemcc

Davemcc

Audioholic Spartan
how many of you find yourself reaching for a Coke, McDonalds, Burger King, Budweiser?
I think I've reached for my bottle of Bright's "74" one too many times. It's way off the marketers radar, but effective, nonetheless. But hey, I think I've still managed to make an intelligible post, so I'm going to reach for that bottle one more time.
 
Tom Andry

Tom Andry

Speaker of the House
I wish that when you guys go on these rants about manufactures that you would have the balls to tell us specifically what manufactures you're talking about! I'm curious if the omni-directional speaker company you mention is Mirage,
Mirage may call their speakers "omni" but the esoteric speakers I was referring to were "true" omni-directional. They had every driver pointing straight up into a reflector that sent the sound in all directions. Mirage's omni's reflect the sound forward and still have forward facing drivers. We don't mention the specific manufacturers for a lot of reasons not the least of which is we don't want to send anyone their way :p
 
birdonthebeach

birdonthebeach

Full Audioholic
Mirage may call their speakers "omni" but the esoteric speakers I was referring to were "true" omni-directional. They had every driver pointing straight up into a reflector that sent the sound in all directions. Mirage's omni's reflect the sound forward and still have forward facing drivers. We don't mention the specific manufacturers for a lot of reasons not the least of which is we don't want to send anyone their way :p
I like the pissed-off Tom much better than this guy....

Is that really a smiley face??!!!
 
P

Pottscb

Enthusiast
Nice job Tom, of course, I'm sure it will be ignored by Joe Consumer who will still wander into those super high end AV shops and be seduced into a pair of $10K cables, which he'll finance for 5 years like a car, by a honeytongued salesman...if you walk around some of these places and listen to the drivel they spout, it rarely makes sense even if you knew nothing about speaker wires.

What's even funnier is that I just got through reading the review about the "danceable" speakers...I paused and thought "WTF?" Pretty sad what people will do to sell you something.

I'm no granola, but when you could feed a tribe of natives in the Congo for a year for less than the cost of your speaker cables, you seriously need to take a step back and review your priorities.
 
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