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Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

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Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#281

Post by vile_wretch »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #59
neuroelectron wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is tied to the overall decline in movie and music quality. Maybe I'm just getting old. There is no more "Titanic" or "Nirvana". Lots of people have noticed the decline in audio mixing in movies as well, which has led to a generation of younger adults who need captions for regular movies. A discrete audio system would probably help with this but for what? How many times are you going to watch latest A…

> There is no more "Nirvana" That cacophony was considered quality music?

Are you 100 years old?

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#282

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

bigiain wrote: post #106
Mistletoe wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I love vintage audio. I’m sitting here listening to classical on FM radio on my Marantz 2215B made in the 1970s and it is what you are describing and sublime.

Same. Back in the mid 80s I spent way more than was sensible and bought myself seperate NAD pre/power amps, Boston Acoustic Speakers, and a Rega turntable for my birthday. I not only still have and use all that gear, but have since bought more of the same brands 2nd hand mostly from the same era, so I now have 5.1 surround in my lounge room, and stereo amp/speaker sets in my kitchen, office, bedroom, and guest bedroo…

> someone who can ship you replacement drivers

Exactly what I was thinking when you mentioned mid 80's vintage BA speakers. I have Missions from late 80's and I've had to replace the drivers twice. Also have a BA subwoofer that I should find a new driver for since it's now rattling like crazy.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#283

Post by wizardforhire »

Countdown to enshitification in three… two…

I forsee a future where marantz amps have really annoying separate startup and shutdown songs and jingles for increments of volume obviously ascending and descending for increase and decrease in volume respectively with unavoidable long melodies for each power of ten, which of course can not be skipped or disabled by the user and also pause all ui inputs while being played causing the unit to grind to a halt if trying to change the volume too quickly and even causing the unit to crash as the melodies over lap and cause a buffer overflow… to be fixed never of course.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#284

Post by bluGill »

steveBK123 wrote: post #247
bluGill wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with showrooms is it is easy to go in, see what you need, then walk out and order from the cheaper mail order place that doesn't have retail overhead. The other problem is walmart with the generic stuff is good enough for most even though it is measurably bad, in a cheap but measurably bad listening environment - but they can thereby compete with online sales. That and a lot of expensive stuff is measurab…

Maybe, maybe not re: Walmart being good enough. It goes back to the old tale of "being too poor to buy cheap boots" that US consumerism has forgotten. We are addicted to cheap stuff, not good value stuff. Cheap is not always good value.

I don't buy boots at walmart - I've been burned enough. However for other things I have often found the quality good enough.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#285

Post by bouke »

bouke wrote: post #212
BlobberSnobber wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple for some reason hasn’t implemented that feature, and it boggles the mind. Say I’m playing music on my iPhone and I try playing a track on my mac, it doesn’t ask me on which device to play, hell, it doesn’t even stop playing on my iPhone to start on my mac, it just puts an ugly warning in the middle of the screen saying something like “stop playing on your iPhone to listen to the song on this device”. It’s actua…

They have this feature, it is called Hand-off I think. It works between iPhones and HomePods. Additionally there’s “control other devices”, which allows controlling the music played on other devices. That is between most Apple device categories, although I’m unsure about Mac support for it.

The ability to control what's playing on other devices (e.g. HomePod / Apple TV) is also available from the Music app on Mac.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#287

Post by aidenn0 »

iwontberude wrote: post #148
hedora wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gee, look what fell out of the back of a truck: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/HDMI-1-4-Splitter-1-i... $25 minimum order (for ten) + shipping and tariffs. No idea if these work, but they’re the top internet hit. The metadata says they do.

Whenever I try to use these they don’t work with the latest hardware

Someone (Monoprice I think?) sells a box that downgrades HDCP; this is actually allowed in the HDCP agreement. Run the signal through that first.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#288

Post by ryandrake »

bombcar wrote: post #263
ryandrake wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of it is that the design of good home theater equipment is ugly and not spouse-approved. My wife simply will not tolerate big black speaker boxes and a black stack of receiver equipment in the family room. No matter how well it’s hidden away. And I know a lot of families that have the same desire for a nice looking living space.

That's where you upgrade to in-wall speakers! (It's partially a joke, but partially real - out of sight, out of mind!) https://www.crutchfield.com/g_12600/In-wall-Speakers.html Personally I think that the "takeover" of the living room by TVs and home theater has been one of the biggest "mistakes" in modern home design - they should be relegated to the basement or some other locale.

This is actually what I did in our previous home. Installed round Monoprice brand in-wall speakers, and hid the AV equipment in the next room, one wall away. It sounded--not too bad.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#289

Post by Arainach »

mikepurvis wrote: post #27
bombcar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

eARC or whatever it is really changed this. I don't need a receiver with buttons anymore, I just need one that handles eARC gracefully. We're about five years away from "no remotes" anymore, imo. As it is I only need to find the TV remote when something goes really wonky - and even then I can reset it by using the smart app to power cycle the outlet ;)

For a wall-mounted TV, it's still pretty essential to get a single cable run to it, vs needing to plug in each device individually. That said, it's curious how the multiplexing and audio amp functionality ended up in the same box. Really what it should be is: - a "remote" multiplexer comes in the box with my TV. It speaks HDMI/CEC to the TV telling it what input is active so that the TV's UI can reflect that and it c…

>Any initial calibration or speaker setup is done via a single-use phone app.

Please no. No more phone apps that are unmaintained, barely work in the first place, and don't work at all within 2 years or when the vendor goes bankrupt. Things should be physical buttons and work offline.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#290

Post by intrasight »

fsloth wrote: post #268
ryukoposting wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How much do you have to pay for a quick boot, no ads, and a private movie or music experience? Not much. Buy used. Buying new stereo equipment is an activity of the wealthy. Everywhere I've ever lived, CraigsList is overrun with excellent used speakers and receivers at reasonable prices. I won't inundate you with brand-flexing, but I'll say I'm very happy with my home theater system. 4K OLED TV, big ol' tower speak…

Can agree used speakers offer incredible value. Having an 4k oled TV bundled into $400 package _is_ surprisingly cheap even then imho!

Looking for used speakers. What makes/models should I be considering.

Also gotta add, if my B&W speakers started playing ads at startup, Id be fucking livid!

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