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Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#131

Post by bjelkeman-again »

m463 wrote: post #123
rixrax wrote: post #59

I feel that the AV-receiver market has gone the way of the DSLR market. Compact speaker systems like Sonos (that don't need a separate AVR) simply got good enough. Thus the need for buying a separate AVR to drive your Dolby / DTS / etc. setup has all but vanished except maybe for the most determined audiophiles (and even most of these would do well to simply get a compact wireless speaker setup instead of some monstr…

I think soundbars have taken over for home theater setups. annoyingly, you can't get a system without a wireless subwoofer. I have a soundbar that creates a wifi access point for the subwoofer and it's really annoying. I really just want a wire. So, I've been considering an a/v receiver and dedicated speakers, which means I can't mount them on the tv

I am using my old Stereo, which has 5.1 support for the DVD and the TV. Way better than must friends soundbar. Maybe there are decent systems, but I doubt you can get as good as proper stereo stuff.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#132

Post by initplus »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #116
initplus wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Streaming services don't compress dynamic range, rather the opposite - because every streaming service employs loudness normalization the loudness wars have largely ended. Compressing your track to hell in an effort to get it to sound louder doesn't work anymore because every streaming service will just normalize it anyway. Spotify at least uses 320kbps vorbis for their "high quality" setting which is at the point wh…

> Compressing your track to hell in an effort to get it to sound louder doesn't work anymore because every streaming service will just normalize it anyway. This is a bit of confused remark. "Normalization" means applying some constant gain factor to the signal so that the loudest level is 0dBFS. Compression applies a varying gain factor to the signal to meet some parameters. Normalizing audio will generally make it l…

Modern volume normalization isn't done based on the highest peak of the track. Instead they normalize based on the average perceived loudness of the whole track (to a level below 0 so there is headroom for peaks). It's intentionally designed to avoid the exact issue you describe.

If this was not done users of streaming services would have to be constantly adjusting the volume to deal with perceived volume differences between tracks due to different levels of dynamic range compression.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#133

Post by Gordonjcp »

philjohn wrote: post #70
Gordonjcp wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any of those compact speaker systems that actually sound good, though?

Yes - the Sonos Arc + sub + 2 rear channels sounds amazing after using the built in sound tuning, and got a pretty damn good review in What HiFi.

That's one I've already listened to, and it's atrocious. It sounds like 1990s car speakers.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#134

Post by Gordonjcp »

aurora72 wrote: post #83
Gordonjcp wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any of those compact speaker systems that actually sound good, though?

Even the USB powered Logitech z120 which costs a few dollars sounds good enough even for movies.

I guess you watch movies where all the dialogue takes place over a telephone and there's no music?

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#135

Post by wallacoloo »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #54
codefreeordie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The middle of the market is actually all messy generally these days. The very high end wants systems that feel like current systems, but if you want something in the middle, you don't actually really want the awkwardness associated with having an audio system today. A system of passive speakers, an amplifier or two, and the complexities of the user interface (I can't hear the TV, which of these three remotes do I nee…

> I can't hear the TV, which of these three remotes do I need to push the "source" button on? I have a fairly dumb amplifier (it does BT, and the DAC can be fed through optical and coax, too). It can also be controlled over RS-232 and Ethernet. It doesn't have any kind of HDMI or other "home theater" related functions. But the remote of my Fire TV can be configured to control the input and the volume of this amp. So…

modern day i expect to not have to turn off/on my receiver: it should wake on input and go into a standby state after so much inactivity.

hence my problem: i’ve got the Technics receiver + stereo speakers i inherited, but if you leave the receiver on for more than a couple days without explicitly venting it’ll cut out (even if it’s inactive: its idle power draw is incredible). that’s fine for me, but if i’m the only one who cares about audio, it’s a hassle for everyone else in the house to manually flip the rocker switch on as they use the tv and off when they’re done.

now i think about it, there’s probably some “smart outlet” i could get to make this transparent.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#136

Post by gkanai »

lynguist wrote: post #55
Hamuko wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it refers to Tokyo’s To such as in Toshiba. You mean it refers to "east"?

No, it’s an abbreviation of Tokyo. Even if To means East - in a compound To often stands for Tokyo. Same concept in these words: 来日 - Nichi means day, here it stands for Japan. Here’s an article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_abbreviated_and_contr... More examples: Todai (To for Tokyo), Nissan (Ni for Nippon)

日本 = Japan

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#137

Post by mancerayder »

christoph wrote: post #105
chmod600 wrote: post #77

There's no doubt that, for a lot of people, there is just a better convenience/quality trade-off. I had a good size Onkyo system for watching movies and I configured it meticulously. But it's hard to explain to others why there is so much ceremony and bulk, especially when watching habits degenerate from immersive movies to binge watching netflix serieses. Part of the experience with hobbies is some kind of sacrifice…

Weirdly in the last couple of weeks we’ve been clearing out our house and I found three(!) Onkyo home cinema amp boxes in the attic. I don’t own a single Onkyo amplifier anymore. Every single one got returned due to a serious fault (from suddenly producing no sound, to literal smoke coming out of it) within a year or 18 months, and typically swapped for another, slightly newer model Onkyo amp - rinse & repeat yearly.…

I had two very old receivers that lasted a number of years each. When the last one wouldn't stay on, I tried to then buy another Onkyo receiver. Somehow late last year but there was some insane shortage everywhere, and Best Buy was literally out of everything. Online also proved to be difficult.

I therefore couldn't find another Onkyo to buy, and after some research I learned that those receivers (of various brands) with complicated A/V functions are the ones that have issues. I ended up getting a higher-end, but non-AV (meaning no HDMI) simple stereo receiver and have been happy so far.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#138

Post by whyoh »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #116
initplus wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Streaming services don't compress dynamic range, rather the opposite - because every streaming service employs loudness normalization the loudness wars have largely ended. Compressing your track to hell in an effort to get it to sound louder doesn't work anymore because every streaming service will just normalize it anyway. Spotify at least uses 320kbps vorbis for their "high quality" setting which is at the point wh…

> Compressing your track to hell in an effort to get it to sound louder doesn't work anymore because every streaming service will just normalize it anyway. This is a bit of confused remark. "Normalization" means applying some constant gain factor to the signal so that the loudest level is 0dBFS. Compression applies a varying gain factor to the signal to meet some parameters. Normalizing audio will generally make it l…

>"Normalization" means applying some constant gain factor to the signal so that the loudest level is 0dBFS.

Not necessarily, although that has been perhaps the most common use of that term so far. But you can normalize to a lower peak level or to something else... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_normalization

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#139

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #94
dylan604 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The switch to little bitty teeny tiny speakers just makes me sad. I miss my towers with multiple drivers and crossovers accordingly.

When I discovered full-range I disavowed multiple drivers, crossovers. Try it sometime. It's like headphones without the headphones. Crossovers + multiple drivers kill phase information and you throw the "sound stage" out the window.

You can have 2-way coaxes. I do like the sound, but they tend to bundle so the sweet spot is small.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#140

Post by bitL »

rixrax wrote: post #59

I feel that the AV-receiver market has gone the way of the DSLR market. Compact speaker systems like Sonos (that don't need a separate AVR) simply got good enough. Thus the need for buying a separate AVR to drive your Dolby / DTS / etc. setup has all but vanished except maybe for the most determined audiophiles (and even most of these would do well to simply get a compact wireless speaker setup instead of some monstr…

The main reason why I got a Marantz AVR was to be able to connect 10 different devices to the TV at 4k@60 via HDMI, as well as various sound outputs, including the output of my music studio mixer.
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