HTM Measures the B&W 802D2

[BoredSysAdmin]

Send me all your speakers and I'll tell you which one wins.

Jerry??? I think the last post from you I seen like two years ago
Where were you??

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Jerry??? I think the last post from you I seen like two years ago
Where were you??

You see how good I am with bringing people out?

One time I got Sandy Gross (Mr DefTech/ GoldenEar) to come on AVS and argue with us.

 

[Irvrobinson]

You're right. With that said, the cost of shipping is worth the price for many to ensure they've purchased the right product for their needs. Some ID companies also cover shipping both ways. Dealers are less and less accommodating these days regarding in-home auditions, so the ID business model wins more and more folks over every day. You can also hear most of the ID brands at audio shows, such as RMAF (just this past weekend).

Good points, but it's not just about cost. With my real world case of the 140 pound sub just packing it up and getting it to a point it can be picked up by a shipper (like the garage) is most of the PITA. It would take another strong person to do it, and a well-muscled young man is never around when you need one. (He lives in another city.)

I could have saved $400 on the DD18+ by ordering over the internet, albeit from a non-authorized dealer, but $400 out of $4200 just wasn't enough. Anyway, the contender at the time was the Funk Audio 18.0 or 18.3, and FA doesn't offer a money-back guarantee.

I agree audio shows can be a resource, but I've never been able to make a speaker buying decision by what I heard at a show.

For electronics ID can be the way to go, but even there I'm cautious. For example, let's take the case of my Emotiva ERC-2 CD player, which I'm just using as a CD drive. I paid $369 for it, thinking, how could I go wrong for that price? So I bought it unseen. That turned out to be a mistake. While the ERC-2 is indeed a remarkable value in sound quality, even at its current $499 asking price, it is not ergonomically acceptable to me. The Toshiba CD drive is slow, noisy, and clunky. The button controls are cheap to the point of unreliability, and you often have to press some of them twice. The remote control has sharp aluminum edges; be careful with it on fine wood furniture. Truth be known, if I had a chance to test it in person I would have never bought one. I've ordered an even cheaper Tascam CD200 to replace it, but I've seen a CD200 in person, and it is indeed ergonomically superior.

 

[Nuance AH]

Good points, but it's not just about cost. With my real world case of the 140 pound sub just packing it up and getting it to a point it can be picked up by a shipper (like the garage) is most of the PITA. It would take another strong person to do it, and a well-muscled young man is never around when you need one. (He lives in another city.)

I could have saved $400 on the DD18+ by ordering over the internet, albeit from a non-authorized dealer, but $400 out of $4200 just wasn't enough. Anyway, the contender at the time was the Funk Audio 18.0 or 18.3, and FA doesn't offer a money-back guarantee.

I agree audio shows can be a resource, but I've never been able to make a speaker buying decision by what I heard at a show.

For electronics ID can be the way to go, but even there I'm cautious. For example, let's take the case of my Emotiva ERC-2 CD player, which I'm just using as a CD drive. I paid $369 for it, thinking, how could I go wrong for that price? So I bought it unseen. That turned out to be a mistake. While the ERC-2 is indeed a remarkable value in sound quality, even at its current $499 asking price, it is not ergonomically acceptable to me. The Toshiba CD drive is slow, noisy, and clunky. The button controls are cheap to the point of unreliability, and you often have to press some of them twice. The remote control has sharp aluminum edges; be careful with it on fine wood furniture. Truth be known, if I had a chance to test it in person I would have never bought one. I've ordered an even cheaper Tascam CD200 to replace it, but I've seen a CD200 in person, and it is indeed ergonomically superior.

I hear ya man. A person really needs to put in plenty of research time and ask a lot of questions, as all ID products aren't of the same quality. I was just saying that the ID business model is becoming a lot more popular, and that the 30-day trial period is a good way to hear them in your own home without having to worry about being stuck with the product. The cost of shipping and pains of getting them re-packed and what not can certainly be a hassle, but chalk it up to it being like a "rental."

With all of that said, I still wouldn't make a purchase blind; I'd have to hear it, or at least some revision of it first (speakers that is). Electronics is another story, but even then I wouldn't purchase without researching the crap out of it. Contrary to ADTG's lie, I always tell people to audition first. I also recommend products I don't or never have owned. I also don't get upset when someone recommends something I don't own. The ID stuff can be listened to at audio shows or in local owner's homes, as can the B&M stuff (along with the store fronts). There is no substitute for hearing before committing to the purchase.

For what it's worth, the Funk Audio subwoofers are amazing. Warpdrv has one of their cabinets and a LMS5400 driver (which they offer), but he powers it with his own external amp. Their build quality is top notch IMO!