greenhorn
Well-Known Member
cross posting from reubensm's thread
My point was not that modern hifi offers much better stuff at lower price points - It does, and I'm very grateful for it, but my point was that nobody is interested in buying high fidelity, and most of what passes for entry level hi fi isn't actually.
To give an example -
At the very lowest rung, 10 years ago, there were very nice PC speakers at every price point below 10k. Starting with the altec lansing ATP3 at 3K, the MX5021 at 6K, and the Z2300 at 8K. all of these speakers sounded very fine for their respective prices.
Fast forward to now. The ATP3 was replaced by the VS4121 which was only marginally inferior, but the VS 4621 is sad and costs about substantially more. The MX5021 was replaced by the FX6021 which looked better, was more expensive, but sounded worse. The Z2300 was replaced by the Z623, you can read the comparison here
http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/14365-logitech-z-2300-last-titans-reviewed.html
The circle arko 80/100W were a good attempt, but circle didn't push them as much, and landmarks weren't the best place to sell them, eventually they disappeared.
If you filter for the sub 10K price range in flipkart or amazon india, you'll get surround speakers, bluetooth speakers, lifestyle speakers, speakers with USB inputs, wireless speakers and so forth, but not a single high quality stereo/2.1 speaker.
Given that altec lansing used to sell something at the 6k price point not too long ago and circle at 7-8K till last year, it should be possible, but nobody wants to buy it, and the ones who tried selling them have moved to greener pastures.
There is loads of entry-level hifi that has no bells and no whistles, just stereo sound. There has been for decades, and it does it at prices that, in previous decades were unimaginable.
If you must compare, then at least compare like with like.
My point was not that modern hifi offers much better stuff at lower price points - It does, and I'm very grateful for it, but my point was that nobody is interested in buying high fidelity, and most of what passes for entry level hi fi isn't actually.
To give an example -
At the very lowest rung, 10 years ago, there were very nice PC speakers at every price point below 10k. Starting with the altec lansing ATP3 at 3K, the MX5021 at 6K, and the Z2300 at 8K. all of these speakers sounded very fine for their respective prices.
Fast forward to now. The ATP3 was replaced by the VS4121 which was only marginally inferior, but the VS 4621 is sad and costs about substantially more. The MX5021 was replaced by the FX6021 which looked better, was more expensive, but sounded worse. The Z2300 was replaced by the Z623, you can read the comparison here
http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/14365-logitech-z-2300-last-titans-reviewed.html
The circle arko 80/100W were a good attempt, but circle didn't push them as much, and landmarks weren't the best place to sell them, eventually they disappeared.
If you filter for the sub 10K price range in flipkart or amazon india, you'll get surround speakers, bluetooth speakers, lifestyle speakers, speakers with USB inputs, wireless speakers and so forth, but not a single high quality stereo/2.1 speaker.
Given that altec lansing used to sell something at the 6k price point not too long ago and circle at 7-8K till last year, it should be possible, but nobody wants to buy it, and the ones who tried selling them have moved to greener pastures.