JOEL SCHWARTZ ---- Vice President, Mordaunt-Short, Inc.
"The Forum," which appears periodically, gives our readers the chance to share their feelings about specific areas of common interest or concern. Mr. Joel Schwartz, Vice President of Mordaunt Short, Inc., has some comments regarding the single-brand systems now appearing in the marketplace.
New concepts seem to come in cycles, somewhat like a seven year plague. Each time they are accompanied by their outriders, hype taking the point, with advertising and promotion guarding the flanks. In the early 1970s it was the "compact sys tem"; in the mid 1970s it was "quadraphonic sound"; a few years back it was the micro-miniature components, and to day, the audio enthusiast is being offered the single-brand system. Caveat Emptor --Let The Buyer Beware! My father used to say that there was no one in this world who served no purpose, that the worst among us could al ways serve as a bad example. Though it may not be true that the single-brand system represents such an extreme, there are very few benefits in it for the consumer, some benefits perhaps, but the detriments far outweigh them. The only absolute benefit is for the first-time buyer who, for Convenience sake, may choose the single-brand system. Rather than having to face an enormous and confusing smorgasbord of componentry, with almost infinite permutations and combinations, the first-time buyer can visit his local department store or discount store and find a single-brand system. The cost of this convenience is high--mediocrity.
If each single-brand system represented the best that the manufacturer had to offer, the concept might work.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. When the consumer purchases a single-brand system, he is buying a manufacturer's weaknesses as well as his strengths.
Though the manufacturers of one-brand systems would be loath to admit it, they do have weaknesses. Perhaps one manufacturer is better at amplifiers than preamplifiers, another better at turn tables than cassette decks, and the next better at cassette decks and turntables and weaker in amplification. The single component that is weak in virtually all one-brand systems is the loudspeaker system.
When purchasing a single-brand audio system, the consumer is buying a manufacturer's weaknesses as well as his strengths.
Loudspeakers, where accuracy, musicality, stereo image, ease of listening, dynamic range and value for dollar are to be the end result, should not ever be an afterthought to be quickly included in a single-brand system. The number of in dependent loudspeaker manufacturers around the world is in the hundreds.
Each of these manufacturers has given his undivided attention and the bulk of his effort to the design of loudspeakers that will express his design philosophy about musicality and sound. Since we all readily admit that there is no such thing as "the perfect loudspeaker" and that all designs are one form of compromise or another, the consumer has always been the final judge as to whether the design and the execution of this design through manufacture has been successful. Now we have a number of electronics manufacturers, admittedly good at what they do best, invading another arena for the sake of convenience.
The true audio enthusiast knows bet ter. He has always and will always demand the right to mix and match componentry to get the very best sound and value for his dollar. If this sounds too pompous, perhaps it is just that the enthusiast has always demanded the right to make his own mistakes in componentry, rather than permit the manufacturer to do that for him. Audio is the most subjective area in the consumer electronics field, and the human ear must be the ultimate judge of what is better and what is only good. If the consumer is satisfied and, over a long period of time, enjoys the sound of the system to which he listens, he has made the correct choice of componentry.
How then, you might ask, can the first-time or uninitiated buyer improve on the convenience offered by the single-brand system? The simplest and most direct way is to upgrade the loudspeakers. If the store will not or cannot accomplish this, he should go to another store, preferably to an audio specialist. How can the first-time or uninitiated buyer determine what is the best sound? It's true that the memory of sound lasts only for seconds, but there is one area of listening that travels well from store to store and is a good and true test of loudspeaker systems --stereo imaging. This dramatic and noticeable acoustic phenomenon can be defined as a field of sound produced by mixing both stereo channels to develop a definite and stable stage-like image. On vocals, the voice will usually appear directly between the two loudspeakers. The accompanying instruments will appear behind, to the left of and to the right of the vocalist, but not directly from either loudspeaker.
When the consumer closes his eyes and listens, he should not know where the speakers are. If he can hear and deter mine where they are, the speakers are getting in the way of the music! The majority of the single-brand systems being offered today will fail this very simple and basic test, but a good loudspeaker system will not.
Seek out the loudspeaker system that offers you the musicality, image, accuracy, listenability, value for dollar and the overall pleasure that you anticipate when you purchase an audio system. Pleasure is what audio is all about. Visit an audio specialist and take the time to audition a system that he recommends, filled with different manufacturers' strengths, not a system filled with both strengths and weaknesses of a single manufacturer. It is well worth the lost convenience of the single-brand system.
Also see:
Forum (AM Clear-Channel Proposal) (May 1979)
Forum by Richard Heyser and John Curl (Sept. 1979)
Forum by Leonard Feldman (Jan. 1986)
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