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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

#211
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the good of licensing a brand if the company was known for high quality products? Its kind of like how toshiba made laptops 25 years ago that still work today but now they just license their name out to be stamped on cheap crappy laptops that barely make it through their warranty period.

Did you just answer your own question? It is precisely for that purpose - to give the impression that this lesser-known manufacturer produces goods with the original quality level of the licensed brand. Eventually, consumers catch on: > but now they just license their name out to be stamped on cheap crappy laptops

The whole comment is me presenting my case for why these brands should just die instead of having their logo pasted on chinese crap to deceive consumers

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#212
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the good of licensing a brand if the company was known for high quality products? Its kind of like how toshiba made laptops 25 years ago that still work today but now they just license their name out to be stamped on cheap crappy laptops that barely make it through their warranty period.

This worked for years for whatever entities bought the brand Samsui, same for modern-day Marantz brand.

Theres a whole burgeoning trend of chinese manufacturers buying the licensing rights to defunct brands and putting the eerily branded goods up on amazon.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#213

I'm using a 7-year old Onkyo 7.1 surround sound system right now. It sounds great, but when you use the menus (like browse a DLNA server) or switch inputs (or something cuts out), there's a second or two lag on everything. I wish that AV receivers had USB inputs for PCs. "But Andrew," I hear you say: "Go to $store and search for receivers with USB ports. There's hundreds!" Those USB ports are for playing MP3s off a f…

Get yourself some DAC like a Topping D10s. This specific model can also convert USB to SPDIF coax or toslink to connect in your receiver, instead of RCA analog.

I'm already using HDMI for 7.1 uncompressed PCM. I need to configure my receiver as an extra display just so an audio signal can piggyback off it. Thus, my desire for a simple USB connection.

I'm pretty sure my motherboard has SPDIF optical out, but SPDIF would be a downgrade since it only supports compressed 7.1 or uncompressed stereo.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#214

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…

>It's like takeout and boxed wine, wearing a T-shirt; versus dressing up a bit, making a nice meal, and opening a bottle from a winery you visited. The former is ovjectively good and convenient, and all of the latter ceremony is a hassle that provides little benefit (you probably can't tell the boxed wine apart in a blind test).

>But... aren't we happier with the latter experience?

No?

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as an audiophile, although I don't exactly agree with your specific choice of headphones (I have to say that or I wouldn't be an audiophile) I strongly agree with using good headphones driven by any old thing. Audio quality these days only really depends on the transducers - i.e. whatever converts things to or from electricity, which, unless you've got a turntable, means just your headphones and/or speakers.…

I have a pair of nice headphones (Hifiman Aryas, planar magnetics) that need to be driven fairly hard compared to most dynamics, and to that end, I've found that an outboard DAC + amp with enough juice to drive them properly makes a big difference. And not an "unnoticeable to audiophiles only" difference but a very obvious one.

Yes, fair. In fact my best headphones need a dedicated headphone amp too. I'd forgotten that! But it doesn't need to be posh power. Just power.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#216
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, AirPlay is such a disappointment. I'm thinking about investing more heavily into Chromecast related things since they're more amenable to custom code. Unfortunately, there's no way I'll sign up for any Google-based music service (and I work for Alphabet!). Edit to add: Dolby is also a bit of a fiasco. LG TVs went through multiple firmware updates to attempt to correctly negotiate Dolby Vision. I appreciate that…

Spotify works great with Chromecasts. I'm still really bummed they killed the Chromecast audio.. there's workarounds but it was the perfect device IMO. If you're a tinkerer there's also DIY solutions like running snapcast on a Pi.

I'm also bummed they stopped selling the Chromecast audio.

But if you can get your hands on on they still work perfectly.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#217
post #75
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…

It all comes down to demand I guess... Most people seem to like Beats headphones or think their Airpods have top quality sound and don't care that $200 headphones exist that blow them out of the water. Most people use bluetooth with low quality codecs that distort the sound. In addition, most people listen to their music on streaming services that compress the heck out of tracks that are already heavily (dynamic rang…

I recently wanted up upgrade from 2 to 5 channels. Previously I just had 2 powered studio monitors hooked up to my tv via 1/8th inch. All I wanted was a D2A box that took the atmos signal and let me plug in more speakers. Turns out these are crazy expensive and it’s way cheaper to buy the giant box.

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#218
This and many other "japanese luxury products" will for sure go down the drain when for a drop of 5% in quality (which is already quite subjective) you could get virtually the same product in other brand for about 60% of the price, this (pretentious) focus on the details will kill many of those products/brands

Re: Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recovering audiophile here. I used to continually chase gains until I got more into the professional side of things (I’ve been making music myself for a couple of decades). I ended up getting a few TOTL setups and I regret not doing that sooner. I went through entirely too many mediocre headphones and speakers before just spending the money on high-end studio monitors. I’d recommend people check out the pro offerings…

> I’d recommend people check out the pro offerings from ATC, Focal, Barefoot, PSI, DynAudio, Adam, etc. Seconding this. A friend of mine had a pair of ATC SCM25As, and they blew me away . I had never heard music like that before (and I'd been producing music for a decade prior on mid-range professional gear). I didn't have 20k to drop, but I did have $2k, so I got a nice pair of headphones + a little desktop DAC+Amp…

Speakers are a personal choice and ATCs aren’t forgiving of poor rooms, but I have SCM50ASLs and like them very much. I also have smaller ATCs for surround and the sound is quite consistent between models.
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