Hi-Fi Companies that lose themselves

[_D_S_J_R_]

Spendor were a bit of a mess when Phil Swift took over I understand. Sadly, the wish to bring the brand back to affordable quality, as well as the desire to try to bury the classic stuff by pricing it all but out of the market, meant they were all but bought out by an Indian bank? a few years ago. I believe Phil maintains a smaller share still.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Well in sound quality terms they never made a better job than a bucket of turnips. So no great loss.

[jandl100]

Oooo - I dunno - I've heard some pretty good sounding buckets of turnips.

Spendies aren't to my taste either - but they had a Big Idea* and followed it through quite well and successfully early on.

*Viz. the BBC Tradition of midrange tonal neutrality uber alles.

[_D_S_J_R_]

Well in sound quality terms they never made a better job than a bucket of turnips. So no great loss.

OI! I distinctly remember comparing early 70's AR's (OK, UK made AR's such as the 3a and LST) to the BBC derived models of the day and found neither wanting, just 'different.'

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Like comparing turnips with oranges.

[Lindsayt]

What does "midrange tonal neutrality" mean?

Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron? Surely tonal neutrality includes the bass and treble too? And if the tonal neutrality applies only to the midrange, then you haven't really got tonal neutrality at all?


I get the impression that modern Exposure aren't what they used to be when John Farlowe was at the helm.

Heybrook and Peter Comeau...

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Early Exposure was Naim done properly. All the innovations of Naim like big toroid power supplies and high current output stages, but with a proper circuit instead of a 1950's joke.

But IvorT didn't approve of it so Naim made the money, thanks to all the brainwashed sheep.

[Dingsking]

Heybrook and Peter Comeau...

Peter Comeau is a talented speaker designer but a lousy businessman. In consequence, when Heybrook folded, he signed up as speaker designer for Mission. When he was not happy with where Mission was moving, he came out and set up World Designs, being the DIY business that evolved out of World Audio Design originally set up by Noel Keywood and Hi-Fi World. He also did some journalism at the time. That business also crashed and he is now, to the best of my knowledge employed by International Audio Group that is Chinese based and owns Quad and several other original British companies. Certainly he resides these days mostly in China.

From Wiki......
In the past the IAG purchased several British HiFi manufacturers: Wharfedale, Quad Electroacoustics, Mission, Tag McLaren, Audiolab and Castle Acoustics plus several Italian manufacturers of lighting equipment including f.a.l. and Coef. It has manufacturing plants in Shenzhen, China employing in the region of 1500 people. Design of the products is done by experienced British, Chinese, American and European designers. IAG is also manufacturing luxury yachts in a new shipyard near Shenzhen in China which is the biggest yacht yard in South East Asia.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Presumptions shouldn't be made. It is a problem with this industry that designers and those that pretend to be designers (example JulianV and IvorT) have been set up as minor rock starts and almost worshipped in some quarters. Quite obviously it is just daft bullshit per usual.Hi-Fi is very simple technology NO ONE deserves to be treated that way, they need to be doubted and questioned and challenged as to their real knowledge, and I am afraid Peter Comeau was one of those, but far from the worst.

If he was so clever he wouldn't have made such a balls up of it.

Audio designers are ordinary people doing an ordinary job. The problem is some of them only real skill is self promotion.

[jandl100]

What does "midrange tonal neutrality" mean?

Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron? Surely tonal neutrality includes the bass and treble too? And if the tonal neutrality applies only to the midrange, then you haven't really got tonal neutrality at all?

midrange tonal neutrality means that the sound is tonally neutral in the midrange.

i.e flat frequency response, no obvious resonances in the mids. Which means good on voices, which is most of what the BBC cared about at the time.

Was that really so hard?

I've got some simple kit that allows in-room freq responses to be seen - I was literally astonished when I hooked it up when I had some vintage Rogers Export monitors (same BBC tradition as Spendor et al) - the mids were completely ruler flat - I've never seen that before or since - the bass wandered and the higher treble drooped and swooped, though.

Dynamically neutral (i.e. true to source) the BBC Tradition speakers aren't, though, imo. Quite a bland and anodyne listening experience for me.