What is HIGH-END?

Solidstate (amps, preamps), Tweaks, Cables, New gear, etc...

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Postby docb » Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:13 am

high end? try this Marten Coltrane
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Re:

Postby bass_nut » Sun Nov 16, 2008 12:24 pm

godspell wrote:
Like your style bro. Anyway, High End for me is something that is beyond the general standard. It is not always an expensive audio gear, to say that it is High end. Some audio gears are not that expensive but has excellent performance. Others are sooooooooooo expensive, but not that good when you test it.

Thus, High End is an ultimate category of sound system, that can make an individual very very happy. When you listen to true High End audio gear, it is hard to sleep. You're always in a hurry to go home just to listen from your audio gear. It is a situation when your wife got jealous of your system. :lol: (sometimes)


i like your inputs bro GODSPELL :clap:

there is a way so as not to hurry home to enjoy your audio system... headfi gears ... enjoy very good music practically anywhere :rock: :music: :y: :clap:

this way you have more quantity & quality time with the wife/boss/commander and the kids ;) :clap:

best regards,
fer
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby AudioAmp » Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:56 pm

Just came back from the Guangzhou audio fair. Boy did we see high-end stuff there. Speakers priced more than $100,000 were a plenty. In spite of the economy the mainland Chinese still crowded the fair as it was packed like sardines. Shouldn't we be in a global recession? hahaha...
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby qguy » Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:22 am

Are these Chinese brand speakers ?

Photos naman please

AudioAmp wrote:Speakers priced more than $100,000 were a plenty.
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby bagman » Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:21 am

qguy wrote:Are these Chinese brand speakers ?

Photos naman please

AudioAmp wrote:Speakers priced more than $100,000 were a plenty.

chinese speakers more than $100,000????????? :@
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby AudioAmp » Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:12 pm

bagman wrote:
qguy wrote:Are these Chinese brand speakers ?

Photos naman please

AudioAmp wrote:Speakers priced more than $100,000 were a plenty.

chinese speakers more than $100,000????????? :@


Nope. those are non-chinese speakers although one was honest to claim that their cabinet is made in china. The guangzhou fair is the biggest in China so most of the international brands are there. You name it they are there. The exhibit had 7 floors in a huge hotel as well as all their function rooms. Its like umm... 10x bigger than what we have here.
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby dimfer » Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:28 pm

AudioAmp wrote:Just came back from the Guangzhou audio fair. Boy did we see high-end stuff there. Speakers priced more than $100,000 were a plenty. In spite of the economy the mainland Chinese still crowded the fair as it was packed like sardines. Shouldn't we be in a global recession? hahaha...


did you see any Accentus model there?
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby AudioAmp » Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:49 pm

dimfer wrote:
AudioAmp wrote:Just came back from the Guangzhou audio fair. Boy did we see high-end stuff there. Speakers priced more than $100,000 were a plenty. In spite of the economy the mainland Chinese still crowded the fair as it was packed like sardines. Shouldn't we be in a global recession? hahaha...


did you see any Accentus model there?


Nope... Accentus is made by Aurum for a Canadian distributor thus it is restricted to the North American market (i think). Aurum did have a big demo room with their V10 featuring a new tweeter design and bi-polar tweeter positioning for ambient sound. We will wait for them to fine tune this model before ordering :)
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby egay » Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:39 pm

wikipedia defines "high end Audio" as:
High-end audio can refer to the build quality of the components, but more specifically, refers to the subjective or objective quality of sound reproduction. Typical qualitative attributes that are scaled by audiophile publications and experts are:

    accuracy vs. warmth
    tonal color vs. speed
    timbre
    size of sound stage vs. depth (spatial origins)
    clarity
    pace
    timing

A theoretically perfect audio system would create the illusion of the listener being present in the performance venue and with the musical performers performing on stage. There would be no sonic signature that imparts any clue as to the fact that the performance is a playback of a recording instead of witnessing a live performance given by the actual musicians in the particular performance venue.


Whatever we say, the "price tag" for high-performance, high-quality audio gears will not be the same as your "mini-compo" or your raon-sourced gears; and even if you turn blue arguing that "high fidelity" should not be "expensive", the question is "what is expensive"?

Quality has a price.
i also learned that "high-priced" pseudo high-end audio gears are not necessarily of high-quality... well, quality could have different meanings

one can make a piece of instrument or audio gear or accessory with all his might and expertise and price it like hot pandesal: i would definitely not complain because we, the consumer/user benefits from his work... but that doesn't mean that such high-quality work should fetch such dirt-cheap price, then again it is subjective: anong paki-alam natin kung gusto nyang halos libre?

the fact remains: there is a price tag for quality built hi-fi
if you want to price yours cheap, then bravo!
i won't.

one guy builds his priced turntable from wood, motorcycle engine parts (pang-harley para masaya), computer harddrive motor, and some excess parts from his garage and packages it in really nice birch plinth, voila! high-fidelity (daw). Contrast this with the US$125,000, close-to-a-ton Clearaudio Statement TT whose motor is similar to that used in the Mars Rover. So which has "quality build"? was this "cost-no-object" TT just a work of vanity? maybe. but that's what rich audiophiles do - buy, collect, buy. is that bad? says who?

only us poor audiophiles complain.

high-end audio WILL ALWAYS BE EQUATED to high-price.
I stopped complaining a long time ago and just went and tried/try to find my own.
perhaps you should do that, too.

if i am told that a PhP5K audio gear produces magical music, then i'd probably believe; but will i buy into the low-priced hype? probably not. not because i'd rather buy "quality" at higher price, but simply because i feel more secured that way... but hey, i've made some bad choices, too - but that's part of the "journey"

and yes, i am convinced that high-priced brands like krell, ML, wadia, CJ, etc are more believable than new-comers and wannabes.

meanwhile, let's try to hear if our gears can carry us "into" the concert hall.

.e.
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby vynilmaster » Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:19 am

Although the norm is;"if its expensive, it must be high end", for me does not necessarily seem to be the truth. Want to hear high end? Then perfect [url]MATCHING[/url] of hardwares is a must.. Listening environment plays a major role. Then our EARS, do they have the ability to determine what is good and garbage? I started out by having (Not counting the mini components) a Carver pre amp, a Japanese solid state power amp (forgot the brand) a Philips cd player, all preowned, and at that stage, I was so proud of them becuase to me, they were high end.
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby JackD201 » Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:26 pm

Thanks for reviving this thread. It would be nice to see the views of newer members and nice to see as well how older members might have modified their positions.

Vynilmaster, did you mean to Url link or was that a typo? If you need help hot linking just let me know. :)
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby ojof00l » Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:53 pm

price?
hype?
state of mind? :?:
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby fld » Tue Dec 14, 2010 3:04 pm

hi end is really no end to this craziness hobby of ours...
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby reynold » Wed Apr 06, 2011 5:04 pm

Hi-end are those gears that i cant afford (napaka-dami nun :D :D :D )
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby Capital1 » Thu May 12, 2011 9:45 am

What defines HIGH END most of the time is the lifestyle and personal preference of the the person listening... Hence upgrades are common because we also change our preferences/lifestyle as we become more knowledgeable (a better word for Tumatanda :lol: ). just my 2 cents!
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby Entry_Lvl » Thu May 12, 2011 3:05 pm

expensive. nuff said
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby Jon Agner » Thu May 12, 2011 6:29 pm

I was re-reading the whole thread again , as this is one topic that has been kept alive. What really is HIGH-END? After years of listening to music and improving my equipment (back then) that will suite my taste in music, I realized that high-end is more about the quality of music, never the cost of the equipment. Sure, one can always state that his/her equipment is considered "High-End" due to its price, but if it does not play the music as it should, then it should only be called a high-priced gadget/boombox.
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby Entry_Lvl » Thu May 12, 2011 7:32 pm

I agree with the many posts here.

but, this is my attempt at it.

high end equipment are those whose parts were not spared any expense. To varying degrees of course. that varying degree again becomes the gray area. Price, quality, and performance would, generally, be commensurate to the amount spent.

that gray area is the threshold wherein the price becomes a limiting factor to make it widely accessible. (generally, if its out of reach of the general audio populace, its high-end)

also, since High end, by definition (for me) implies the extreme and superlative, i could, sometimes, apply it to the extreme (most expensive) series of a 1st rate audio brand.

in the end, my own definition, at times ,contradicts itself :) anyway....
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby Entry_Lvl » Thu May 12, 2011 8:19 pm

i illustrate w/o illustration (sa mind na lang ang graph) :D


for a 1st rate audio brand - i assumed all their lines are beyond the general(average) buying public's threshold- their best line is high end
- anything below the above criteria is not. its not low or mid either. undefined (since its above the said threshold, hard to say) (but, for me at least, from where im standing, its high end)

for a mid priced audio brand - if their most expensive line exceeds the threshold of the general buying public, its high end
for a mid priced audio brand - if their least expensive line does not reach the threshold of the general buying public, its not high end

for a inexpensive audio brand - if their best/most expensive line does not exceed the threshold of the general buying public, its not high end
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Re: What is HIGH-END?

Postby Weib » Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:25 am

High end means where it is on the edge of innovation.
I consider an iphone 4 high end, due to the amount of work to design and satisfy the consumers life.
It commands a premium because if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
You reward with your disposable income those who have stepped up and invested their life to making game changing products that has bridge your lifestyle and experience to a higher level.

Luxury is a lifestyle, high end is just a term.
It is quality of the work that determines how far human innovation can go, like a bmw or ferrari.
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