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But please let people who can and want nice things do what they want. Simply accepting that others may have other priorities.
If such advertising guy have to make this video, it only means that WiiM is a really great audio equipment !A totally stupid comparison
If such advertising guy have to make this video, it only means that WiiM is a really great audio equipment !
I wouldn't go so far as to say any format, but I must admit I was recently incredibly impressed by just how good a well-recorded cassette sounds - especially type 4 tapes, but even high quality type 1 tapes, even without any Dolby Noise Reduction. Without comparing the cassette and the cd side-by-side, I could not actually tell which format I was listening to, and my hearing still goes up to about 16 kHz. Badly recorded cassettes definitely sound bad, though.True audiophiles kept their records. CD praise was marketing. In truth any format can be audiophile. It depends on how well it is implemented.
I fully agree. I'm probably biased because I bought my very first three head cassette deck just recently (I went with Yamaha, not Wiim because ofI wouldn't go so far as to say any format, but I must admit I was recently incredibly impressed by just how good a well-recorded cassette sounds - especially type 4 tapes, but even high quality type 1 tapes, even without any Dolby Noise Reduction. Without comparing the cassette and the cd side-by-side, I could not actually tell which format I was listening to, and my hearing still goes up to about 16 kHz. Badly recorded cassettes definitely sound bad, though.
i'm loving this discussion about tapes... which yamaha did you get? i am thinking about getting one of those braun atelier c1s to hook up to my WiiM pro...I fully agree. I'm probably biased because I bought my very first three head cassette deck just recently (I went with Yamaha, not Wiim because ofAtze Schröder'sTechie Ted's review) just for the fun of it. It's amazing how well some of my own 40 year old tapes are still sounding (Yamaha's Play Trim feature is of some help here). I also acquired a large amount of good quality used cassettes no longer loved by their former owners and again I was surprised how good some of the recorded material really was.
The biggest problem with cassettes has always been wrong bias and EQ settings, mismatched tape sensitivity and - consequentially - bad Dolby NR recordings. And that's just referring to HiFi decks, of course.
However, if you have been lucky enough to experience what a two-track reel-to-reel tape recorder at 15 or even 30 ips could perform like, back in the day, then you know how limited even the best cassette decks have been, in comparison. Great fun for me, still and much better than I had remembered.
I agree so much with you on this.One thing that's slightly off topic, but has always baffled me is that people who spend big money on a nice TV, rarely stop to think about the sound, they might buy a soundbar to go with that TV, but just as many use the internal speakers that come with the TV.
Surely if you've bought a big TV because you love watching TV or movies at home, you would also invest in a good audio system, as movies are just as much about sound as they are images.
I couldn't afford a Nakamichi Dragon back in the day, so I settled for the still excellent Nakamichi CR-3E, and optional extra RM-5 wired remote control unit. I have it connected to my WiiM Amp, together with another oldie from the past, a Pioneer PDR-609 compact disc recorder.Still working fine. Not very often, but still fine.
Really far away from topic. Sorry.
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I believe there is eventually only room for one option, not both. There will always be the niche markets with low volumes, high prices. But that niche will be so small, you will not anymore have electronic (or hi-fi) stores even in all larger cities to supply. That will make it even more niche and smaller manufacturers will disappear with their brand names reused for the masses.hmm.. i swear i'm not playin devil's advocate for no reason...
but i do agree with their point that if anyone is shelling out cash for paid "reviews" on youtube/tik tok/insta, it's the Chi-Fi crowd... many of them have obviously developed a reputation over the years by building quality products, but they almost all initially started out this way (at least by giving out free products) because they are smaller, younger companies who are more savvy with digital marketing and don't have a distributor network to help them sell the products.
i'm not saying that the established Hi-Fi brands would never or are not doing this, i'm just saying that they don't really need to - partly because their target consumers don't really overlap with the digital-everything younger people with less money to spend and who shop online. and also because they have possibly outdated ideas about how to efficiently market to consumers in the digital age
i also actually do think it is a fair comparison because the price is comparable, and because the solutions (WiiM mini + onkyo AVR vs Wiim Amp - notice both options include a WiiM device ) would actually end up fitting in the same place in the customer's life. and tbh if i was making the choice i would actually think that overall even a wiim pro + the AVR would be the most cost-effective solution, with a possibility of adding multichannel in the future.
i'm not in any way saying the wiim amp is not good value for the people it's appropriate for. but as they say in the comments - it's not the right choice for everyone and the value in their video is showing people an alternative that may suit their situation/needs better that they wouldn't have considered unless they went to their local Hi-Fi Dealer...
I don't see this happening right now, at least not here in Germany.I believe there is eventually only room for one option, not both. There will always be the niche markets with low volumes, high prices. But that niche will be so small, you will not anymore have electronic (or hi-fi) stores even in all larger cities to supply. That will make it even more niche and smaller manufacturers will disappear with their brand names reused for the masses.
Also, i don’t think the older generations will make a business. If/when they need to renew the hardware, they will follow the advice from younger generations. They too, appreciate usability, perhaps even more so than many sound quality enthustiastic young people. A set-up consisting of equipment that has to be manually operated with five separate infernally designed remotes is not an option for the average person in 2024.
It can be, and stuff like the vinyls brought back is certainly interesting. I think it's not a question if it is a niche, but rather how large a niche. Back in the day the large electronic chains had dedicated departments for AVRs. Nowadays they don't have any, and no proper sections for speakers, subwoofers, cables etc. All they sell is bluetooth speakers and soundbars. You need to find a specialised Hi-Fi dealer, which at least where I live are still alive, but becoming less every year. I have no numbers if the market size is changing, but it is suffering the same as every brick-and-mortar, moving to the web. In the web the low-cost options have certain edge over high-end.I don't see this happening right now, at least not here in Germany.
Yes, there has been a meaningful market consolidation at least 10 to 20 years ago and it's probably still going on, but at a much lower rate now. Small specialist shops are getting a bit rare, but really big shops selling high-end stuff only have taken over. Specialist manufacturers serving an advanced market in the past have shifted their product range even more upmarket (with prices for top-of-the-line products skyrocketing).
The death of high fidelity has been announced many times and by now nobody can impress their friends with better HiFi gear. But there's still a lot of life in the absolute top class market and a new generation of entry level devices.
I don't think this is true. Most people have only ever listened to music on cheap radios with very cheap speakers and found no issue with it. There are now more options than ever to listen to music, and in fact the average quality of cheap music formats, Bluetooth speakers, earbuds, headphones, etc, has only gone up in recent years. Even YouTube's terrible audio compression has improved significantly. This is also the cheapest it's ever been to get a high quality music setup, and where there are always newcomers to high quality audio, there isn't anyone who, after enjoying said high quality for a number of years, says "screw this, I want to hear my music from a cheap tinny mono speaker".People don't listen to music in the same way as they used to.