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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

#161

Post by mindslight »

christoph wrote: post #117
leokennis wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think “listening to music as an activity” and “buying, tweaking and upgrading expensive audio setups” are two separate activities that often overlap but do not require each other. As an example, I fiercely enjoy sitting on my couch with my eyes closed listening to full albums of the White Stripes or Stars of the Lid or Boards of Canada or Sufjan Stevens on my AirPods Max, streamed via Bluetooth from my iPhone. Ever…

It’s exactly this. “Audiophiles” are a weird bunch. Much of what they claim to hear is scientifically proven as total nonsense. Audio Science Review is a great place where they scientifically analyse audio equipment. The quality of speaker wire for all meaningful measurements is utterly irrelevant for instance. Realistically, as long as you are enjoying the art, how you are enjoying it should be irrelevant. I often m…

I don't agree with the inverse. Bad speakers (eg laptops, especially Thinkpads) can make listening to good songs into a meh experience. It's better than nothing when you want music, but rarely will you notice that spontaneous feeling of love for what you're hearing. This doesn't justify the utterly diminishing returns of the audiophile world or the whole speaker cable nonsense, but paying something for a decent setup is worth it. Although from what I understand that effective price point is much lower with headphones compared to speakers.

For movies, I watched a cam rip once. The experience was so bad I vowed never again. And the weird bit is all the distortions were like only half-perceptable (warbly audio, mild shadows / reflections from people walking near the camera), so I would just feel like something was wrong but couldn't immediately place it.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#162

Post by krnlpnc »

Unfortunate but it’s understandable, home theater has gone out of style and been largely replaced by soundbars.

I used to have a large 5.1 setup but over the years I’ve downsized to a hdmi enabled 2.0 setup.

Also my Onkyo receiver stopped working, while my NAD, Yamaha and technics amps have been going strong for decades.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#163

Post by jay_kyburz »

overcast wrote: post #152
jay_kyburz wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This!. I've been searching for a set of speakers for my lounge room with a nice big cone in them, but I just cant find that is not priced for audiofiles. I have been looking second hand, but everything I can find is over 40 years old and the cones have all started disintegrating.

Yeh, unfortunately you're going to have to spend some bucks for quality. I'm still using my fathers 50 year old ESS Model 5's in my upstairs office and they sound amazing. Original woofers too! I just refoamed them, easy. I love the sound of the HEIL air motion transformers. Downstairs is all Totem I bought 20 years ago.

I would love some JBL L100 with the 12 inch cones, but I just can't justify the $8K they are here in Australia.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#164

Post by overcast »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #163
overcast wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeh, unfortunately you're going to have to spend some bucks for quality. I'm still using my fathers 50 year old ESS Model 5's in my upstairs office and they sound amazing. Original woofers too! I just refoamed them, easy. I love the sound of the HEIL air motion transformers. Downstairs is all Totem I bought 20 years ago.

I would love some JBL L100 with the 12 inch cones, but I just can't justify the $8K they are here in Australia.

Love the look of those, I'll have to listen to them. $5000 here in the states.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#165

Post by madengr »

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…

No post body was provided.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#166

Post by lowbloodsugar »

supernovae wrote: post #149

I switched to sonos and never looked back. I had a lot of Onkyo over the years and it always felt like they should have gone the software route much sooner. ultimately i think smart tvs and roku were a bigger part of the receiver demise - it just didn’t fit the receiver mindset and the experience sucked sonos wasn’t cheap but i’m on year 7 and it still works and i only saw one product refresh on soundbar but my old o…

The convenience / sound quality balance has shifted because things like Sonos are very convenient, even though the sound quality has, if anything, gone down for the price. Certainly the convenience of streaming has curtailed the AVR market, since streaming has shit audio.

But SPDIF is limiting you to DD at best which is 640kbit/s IIRC. Steaming services are often DD+ which won't go over SPDIF. I've got discs, so looking at 18Mbit/s on some soundtracks. My $600 Yamaha amp was absolutely better than an SPDIF setup.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#167

Post by christoph »

cookingrobot wrote: post #159
christoph wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bought an Onkyo 5.1 receiver at a garage sale yesterday for $5. This house I moved into has prewired surround speakers and I felt like I should take advantage. What a hassle though, I can’t get audio flowing from the tv, can’t get it to drive all the speakers, it runs super hot. It really seems like a hardware hobby more than a way to enjoy movies so far.

Honestly.. just drop 400 to 500 bucks on a recent Marantz or Denon amp, your experience will be infinitely better. Five bucks might have been extortion and/or theft. Also, a decent sub (or two ;)) and spending time tuning it to your room, makes maybe more difference than anything else.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#168

Post by nl »

leokennis wrote: post #104
alasdair_ wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sonos still has severe limitations and I regret buying two 5.1 setups from them. As a simple example: there is no 7.1 support at all and the Atmos support is a sort of faked 5.1.2 support where the upward firing speakers try to bounce some sounds off the ceiling. Sonos only supports 2.4GHz (no 5GHz support at all) so in a congested area network degradation is a big issue. Codec support is limited as well. For example…

Wait Sonos is 2.4Ghz only? Even my cheapo digital photo frame and my “need to make it cheap to turn a profit” ereader work on 5Ghz…

This isn't true. I have Sonos running on 5GHz right now, from a setup including the Ikea Sonos speakers.

Maybe the OP is using an old, v1 Sonos setup or something?

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#169

Post by mwexler »

akmarinov wrote: post #12

This isn’t big news, the actual “Onkyo” that consumers know will carry on, the Bankruptcy is the remains of the company that had already sold off the hardware divisions. “The company sold its core home audiovisual business to Sharp and U.S.-based Voxx International and its earphones and headphones business to an investment fund, both in September. A joint venture between Sharp and Voxx is expected to continue using t…

This. The final ignoble nail in the coffin of folks saying "Hey, I remember Onkyo: I'll buy this storied brand's products" in the futur and feeling miserable after getting a cheap junky product.

There is a special place in hell for brand destroyers: it's bad enough when the original company does it, but to have a licensee skate on nostalgic happiness only to slam you with their blade... Consumers deserve better.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#170

Post by nl »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #163
overcast wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeh, unfortunately you're going to have to spend some bucks for quality. I'm still using my fathers 50 year old ESS Model 5's in my upstairs office and they sound amazing. Original woofers too! I just refoamed them, easy. I love the sound of the HEIL air motion transformers. Downstairs is all Totem I bought 20 years ago.

I would love some JBL L100 with the 12 inch cones, but I just can't justify the $8K they are here in Australia.

I'm in Australia, and there are still plenty of good options around.

I got a pair of Dali floorstanders for around AU$1000 a few years back on sale. The Dali Oberon (which I think is the replacement) is $1500 when not on sale right now.

You can get B&W 603s for under AU$3000.

Sure, you aren't getting a 12" woofer - but these are lovely speakers.

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