science-based audio companies...

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Hey,

i was wondering if there was a list of audio companies who don't market based on snake oil (as in, don't suggest that maybe your problem is your interconnects, or that shatki stones could be room treatments, or talk about the magic of cryogenized cables), but rely on no-BS, sound engineering. Bryston, Benchmark, Parasound, NAD and Harman somewhat come to mind, but what would the others be ?
 
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Well first and foremost were Western Electric and its spin-off, Altec. They set the standard.

In the pro audio world you can count on Canare, Belden and Mogami for no-nonsense cables. Meyer Sound and a few others for speakers. There is less BS in pro advertising than Hi-Fi, even tho pros are just as susceptible to it. ;)
 
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I'd say that YG Acoustics qualify too and possibly Musical Fidelity. All companies these days though tend to include some marketing mumbo jumbo as a way of pleasing a certain crowd. What's telling though a lot of the time is how certain products perform under measurement. This is especially so with loudspeakers where even something as simple as on axis flatness can be rubbish in a great number of expensive designs. Then designs where the on axis is okay, but a poorly chosen crossover frequency compromises the off axis curves.
 
Hey,

i was wondering if there was a list of audio companies who don't market based on snake oil (as in, don't suggest that maybe your problem is your interconnects, or that shatki stones could be room treatments, or talk about the magic of cryogenized cables), but rely on no-BS, sound engineering. Bryston, Benchmark, Parasound, NAD and Harman somewhat come to mind, but what would the others be ?

The electronics and physics involved in audio is science. Pretty much every minute detail of that topic is a known science. In fact most legitimate audio companies spend millions of dollars on testing equipment and product research to be able to make scientifically based claims about the quality of their products. Any time you read or see marketing brochures that doesn't list standard specifications of all the various parameters of their piece of equipment or device they may be hiding something, haven't thoroughly tested their product in a scientific fashion to be able to make the claims they make or are just made up fictional snake oil. Numbers and specifications don't lie and makes things pretty easy to determine who's lying or phony if you know and understand that. Interpretation of those specifications is what real engineers do everyday in order to fabricate designs of quality and compatibility.
Specifications for wire, amplifiers, speakers (anything really) produced by a professional legitimate company will publish those. They have to if they want to be taken seriously as a legitimate vendor.
All you need to do is understand what they mean and be able to compare them.
If you don't find scientific results for something your buying a red flag should click in your head and you should investigate any claim further.
Reputations in the audio-electronics world like JBL, EV, Crown, Shure, Yamaha, Pioneer to name just a few all provide clear science to back up their claims and quality, Stones placed around a room to enhance the capacitance of copper wire don't....I think you get the idea....there's no magic involved in physics and electronics....
 
The electronics and physics involved in audio is science. Pretty much every minute detail of that topic is a known science. In fact most legitimate audio companies spend millions of dollars on testing equipment and product research to be able to make scientifically based claims about the quality of their products. Any time you read or see marketing brochures that doesn't list standard specifications of all the various parameters of their piece of equipment or device they may be hiding something, haven't thoroughly tested their product in a scientific fashion to be able to make the claims they make or are just made up fictional snake oil. Numbers and specifications don't lie and makes things pretty easy to determine who's lying or phony if you know and understand that. Interpretation of those specifications is what real engineers do everyday in order to fabricate designs of quality and compatibility.
Specifications for wire, amplifiers, speakers (anything really) produced by a professional legitimate company will publish those. They have to if they want to be taken seriously as a legitimate vendor.
All you need to do is understand what they mean and be able to compare them.
If you don't find scientific results for something your buying a red flag should click in your head and you should investigate any claim further.
Reputations in the audio-electronics world like JBL, EV, Crown, Shure, Yamaha, Pioneer to name just a few all provide clear science to back up their claims and quality, Stones placed around a room to enhance the capacitance of copper wire don't....I think you get the idea....there's no magic involved in physics and electronics....

Guys,

thanks a lot for all the suggestions... and yeah, djmeverett, i know all that - hence the question... i also don't have the skillset to build my own stuff, but i do not want to give money to companies with a track record of using up resources to delude others into thinking that magic exists (or that the position of planets on the day of your birth have an influence on how your day's going to go)
 
The electronics and physics involved in audio is science. Pretty much every minute detail of that topic is a known science. In fact most legitimate audio companies spend millions of dollars on testing equipment and product research to be able to make scientifically based claims about the quality of their products. Any time you read or see marketing brochures that doesn't list standard specifications of all the various parameters of their piece of equipment or device they may be hiding something, haven't thoroughly tested their product in a scientific fashion to be able to make the claims they make or are just made up fictional snake oil. Numbers and specifications don't lie and makes things pretty easy to determine who's lying or phony if you know and understand that. Interpretation of those specifications is what real engineers do everyday in order to fabricate designs of quality and compatibility.
Specifications for wire, amplifiers, speakers (anything really) produced by a professional legitimate company will publish those. They have to if they want to be taken seriously as a legitimate vendor.
All you need to do is understand what they mean and be able to compare them.
If you don't find scientific results for something your buying a red flag should click in your head and you should investigate any claim further.
Reputations in the audio-electronics world like JBL, EV, Crown, Shure, Yamaha, Pioneer to name just a few all provide clear science to back up their claims and quality, Stones placed around a room to enhance the capacitance of copper wire don't....I think you get the idea....there's no magic involved in physics and electronics....

I think they teach the class in magic over in the business school. Advertising 301. Even serious companies with serious science have fallen victim to "Madison Ave. Engineering" It is really a shame when a otherwise well engineered and sound product is marketed with total BS. It happens.
 
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