Indoor sound contest: Deep, large, room filling sound

[panabox1]

Maybe the best 'commercially produced' Boombox. I prefer the standard Boombox style bass and treble controls with no software driven presets.
Each box will have its own natural tone. With bass and treble controls set to flat, my V5.0 box leans on the bassy side due to the size of the drivers and speaker cabinets. In other words, you don't have to boost the bass and treble levels to make it sound great. That is a well designed setup in my book.
Modern BT speaker buyers aren't like HiFi buyers though. How many HiFi buyers would judge the performance of an amp by how it sounds at max volume?! BT box buyers will mark a box down if it shows any sign of distortion at max volume! So what do manufacturers do in response? - They give the buyer no tone controls and they throttle back the bass as you turn up the volume to avoid distortion. They treat the user like a baby who can't be trusted not to blow up the speakers with excessive distortion.

I don't agree with you. Amps should be tested at max. Testing it lower than that is a cop out. I want to know what my potential purchase is fully capable of. If it distorts, clips, rolls off, blows the speakers, they need to be called out for it. This will force manufactures to produce better components.

 

[Reli]

I've never owned a single audio device that didn't distort.

I always laugh at people who say "You can crank up this boombox all the way and it doesn't distort!!!"..............Yeah, that's because the bass knob wasn't on max, the Loudness button wasn't on, or your iPod volume was low.

Also, distortion has no bearing on product quality. Even a $20,000 McIntosh amp will distort if you push it enough.

Therefore, for someone to say "This product sucks because I can make it distort" is stupid. Think about those Hallmark greeting cards that talk when you open them. Those don't distort, but that doesn't make them high quality products. The only reason they doesn't distort is because there are no volume or bass knobs on it. If there were, you could make it distort.

I suppose someone could built a product where the volume control only allowed you to access a small portion of the amp's potential, but that doesn't make it a superior product. It just makes it a product designed for pussies.

 

[panabox1]

I've never owned a single audio device that didn't distort.

I always laugh at people who say "You can crank up this boombox all the way and it doesn't distort!!!"..............Yeah, that's because the bass knob wasn't on max, the Loudness button wasn't on, or your iPod volume was low.

Also, distortion has no bearing on product quality. Even a $20,000 McIntosh will distort if you push it enough.

Therefore, for someone to say "This product sucks because I can make it distort" is stupid. Think about it, a talking greeting card doesn't distort, but that doesn't make it a high quality product. The only reason it doesn't distort is because there are no volume or bass knobs on a greeting card. If there were, you could make it distort.

I suppose someone could built a product where the volume control only allowed you to access a small portion of the amp's potential, but that doesn't make it a good product. That just makes it a product designed for pussies.

I disagree. When all of the components have been specifically chosen to come together and to work together as one functional product, it should not distort, period. The unit should be able to perform flawlessly at maximum settings. I think you're setting your expectations rather low.

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

I don't agree with you. Amps should be tested at max. Testing it lower than that is a cop out. I want to know what my potential purchase is fully capable of. If it distorts, clips, rolls off, blows the speakers, they need to be called out for it. This will force manufactures to produce better components.

The only, I repeat the only audio products that don't distort are modem, shitty BT speakers that have special circuitry/softwear that deliberately reduces bass near max volume to avoid distortion. They don't give the user tone controls as this would circumvent the no distortion system.

No proper HiFi systems have this hand holding feature. Why would they? Anyone who knows anything about audio knows that excessive distortion overheats voice oils and blows speakers.

It's only the modern, no nothing consumer who would consider a machines' inability to resist all mistreatment as a design fault.

I can't believe I'm having to say this on a forum of audio enthusiasts!

 

[duckman]

"The unit should be able to perform flawlessly at maximum settings"

That would be like expecting to drive your new car non-stop @ the max speedometer reading from new York to LA without having to account for hill climbs or desert temperatures and make it there without encountering any problems because the speedometer reads that.

I am sure any knowledgeable salesperson would advise you to what to expect from any piece of gear, thus going beyond that wouldn't be prudent. Gear is designed with a margin of error to allow for transient peaks, impedance drops, and that isn't even accounting for the source signal entering the amp.

In a perfect world where we all ride unicorns, eat rainbows and poop butterflies . . . . . . . then maybe.

As far as holding them accountable and expecting them to make better gear, well, we have been hoping for that since the early 1980s and we ain't winning, least at the consumer level.