BlessedPrince Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I want to share an experience I had recently. I went to Best Buy and went into their magnolia room. They had Macintosh equipment which is way out of my budget right now but I wanted to hear it up close and personal. First I tried out the 2 channel stereo for music which was really nice and clean( B & W speakers suck, they had other speaker on floor though and they used those) then I tried out the theater room. Also powered by Macintosh. Sounded very clean but lacked something. I couldn't pinpoint it, maybe the speakers just weren't up to par(speakers were behind screen). After having this experience I was able to compare what I heard there, to what I have at home. At home I have the klipsch RP 280 system with ks 525 thx as main surrounds. Powered by a Yamaha RX A1050, Adcom amp to power surrounds and bi-amped front left and right at 180wpc bi wired with canare speaker cable. First of all I listen to music in pure direct without a sub. Just 2 channels. I honestly couldn't hear much of a difference and maybe go as far as to say that my system is more pleasing. In the theater($250k worth)I was also not very impressed. I also think mine almost sounds better(Atmos dsp setting)If I learned anything, it's that the speakers make all the difference. Gotta love my klipsch and Yamaha quality. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Great story. Your gear, your speakers, your room. Bill 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlessedPrince Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 It's good to be able to compare and experience a different set up. Can bring out the flaws in yours or vise versa. I tried to keep story short as possible. Could of kept going quiet a bit though. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 1 minute ago, BlessedPrince said: It's good to be able to compare and experience a different set up. Can bring out the flaws in yours or vise versa. I tried to keep story short as possible. Could of kept going quiet a bit though. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk You can keep going, it's great to hear these kind of stories. Congrats on your system, awesome feeling huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srinath Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Hey man, I think you made the difference. Best Buy clowns are clueless. Big corporations like BB have no room for interest or passion or anything remotely like that. They will think nothing of making a rubber limbed programming genius stock shelves and a well muscled guy write code. I can buy crap @ goodwill and in about 5-6 tries beat their system in their own room easy, with Panasonic thruster quality speakers no less. Cool. Srinath. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlessedPrince Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 You can keep going, it's great to hear these kind of stories. Congrats on your system, awesome feeling huh?I know some people don't like to read long Stories so I tried to keep it simple. The guy who was walking through really try to sell me on the equipment. He also let me compare the sound output of a high end Marantz receiver and a Macintosh processor. Receiver sounded like junk. I think they do it in purpose. Hell, my Yammy sounds as good as there Mac equipment almost. I've never owned other Avr's besides Yamaha so I'm not sure on that. But no doubt Yamaha is worth it. I will eventually add more to my system as budget permits. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holtrp Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 IDK about McIntosh stuff (or other equipment in the same price range for that matter). I think it is all disgustingly overpriced. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I would venture to guest that many of us have had similar experiences. Price does not mean better in all cases. Sure more expensive parts may be in something but, that does not equate to better performance. One guy can have on a Rolex watch and the other guy a Timex watch. Most likely, both keep time the same. At least, the Timex won't mess up if you stop wearing it for a few days or weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueJester Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 1 hour ago, willland said: Great story. Your gear, your speakers, your room. Bill Nice, and I'll add "your ears" to that. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronB123 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I absolutely love stories like this! Many have heard about my best buy experience which was before I bought my first heritage speaker. I've told it before but I'll tell it again. I was thinking of redoing my home theater which at the time consisted of JBL S310's which weren't bad and I always wanted to try Klipsch's bigger offerings after hearing the Pro Media's and a Home theater in a box system my brother had by them which was very impressive. Anyway I went into Bestbuy and asked what they thought of Klipsch and the guy in the magnolia theater said honestly I think there overpriced garbage. He said come here let me show you some better stuff so he proceeded to show me speakers by Bower and Wilkins, Bang and Olufson, Martin Logan and honestly I wasn't all that impressed because it really didn't sound any better than what I had at home already. Now this was before I had ever even heard a Klipsch Heritage speaker remember. So I told the guy I had to think more and left. Fast forward a while later I found the Chorus's on Craigslist. I didn't know anything about the speakers or that they were even part of the Heritage line, I just knew they looked badass and had the Klipsch name that I loved. I ended up buying them without even testing them out first due to a misunderstanding between me and the guy I bought them from. When I got them home I hooked them up and threw on one of my test songs and honestly I was absolutely 100% in love and have never looked back since! I was so amazed at what I was hearing. When I turned up the volume everyone in my house ran to my theater room and could not believe the sound they were hearing! I literally wanted to go back to bestbuy and tell the people at that magnolia theater they should be ashamed of themselves! Needless to say I have not looked back since! It's funny speaking of McIntosh I was looking at AVR's a while ago and found a local dealer that sold McIntosh so I called to inquire about pricing and he was telling me he had them hooked to some Bower and Wilkins and swore if I came down to listen he guarantee's that I've never heard anything as good. I guarantee my K-horns blow whatever he had out of the water! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbphoto Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 42 minutes ago, derrickdj1 said: I would venture to guest that many of us have had similar experiences. Price does not mean better in all cases. Sure more expensive parts may be in something but, that does not equate to better performance. One guy can have on a Rolex watch and the other guy a Timex watch. Most likely, both keep time the same. At least, the Timex won't mess up if you stop wearing it for a few days or weeks. The Timex will keep better time. The more expensive the watch, the less accurate it is. I listened to some Martin Login electro-static speakers powered by a McIntosh MC275 tube amp at Magnolia last year. Not impressed. In fairness, those guys didn't do it any favors with it's setup and positioning - it was sort of on an end-cap display to attract passers-by attention. I think McIntosh amps and integrateds are a great audio investment considering you can buy them gently used, keep them for 10-20 years, and then sell them for probably about what you paid for them. Not bad. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronB123 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 13 minutes ago, pbphoto said: I think McIntosh amps and integrateds are a great audio investment considering you can buy them gently used, keep them for 10-20 years, and then sell them for probably about what you paid for them. Not bad. Just like heritage speakers. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlessedPrince Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 IDK about McIntosh stuff (or other equipment in the same price range for that matter). I think it is all disgustingly overpriced. Tell me about it. I know they look nice and have some good parts but it's over kill. Some CD players are also like $5k. Like really, just so you can listen to a cd. I think a good pair a speakers and decent/good equipment can go a long ways. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlessedPrince Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 That's awesome! I had another experience similar to yours where they try to tell me klipsch speakers weren't up to what they had to offer. It's funny because the demo speakers they had weren't even speakers they sell. He let me listen to a huge pair of BB. I was like ewww change that. I guess that's one of the reasons they don't sell the top of the line klipsch speakers. Wouldn't even be a competition. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srinath Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 In 1992 with literally the first $$$ I made, I walked into a circuit city in Reading PA and plonked down $450 for a "state of the art" sony box system - isn't that an oxy moron right there. I had it till 2010-11 too thankfully didn't die, worked well, remote and everything, but man did I start feeling stupid once I found out what else was there and how I could have scored a SX1980 @ a goodwill in 92 for 1/10 that (OK OK just a joke). These places are designed to get your $$$ and provide you with nothing. That way, you are a repeat customer. Cool. Srinath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 McIntosh is sold at Best Buy now? What the hell is the world coming too? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlessedPrince Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 McIntosh is sold at Best Buy now? What the hell is the world coming too? Select Best Buy's only. I was surprised too. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 It's all about system synergy. Some combos just don't work. Mac is fine gear in the right application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holtrp Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 2 hours ago, BlessedPrince said: Select Best Buy's only. I was surprised too. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk I am curious to hear from other people. Two of three big AV dealers have gone out of business in the past 5 years where I live. One shop that sold a lot of big screen TV's and B&W gear went under 5 years ago, and this other place that sold mainly McIntosh / Denon / Marantz along with a lot of car audio folded up last year. The remaining dealer (that isn't Worst Buy) has to be on the ropes. They sell Klipsch / Marantz, car audio but have clearly tried to sell more furniture these days rather than focus on home theater equipment. Craigslist, Amazon, Ebay and Audiogon are really wrecking these companies. I think the last time I spent money on equipment from an authorized dealer was 10 years ago when I bought my RF83's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawson's Ridge Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 On 1/16/2017 at 6:32 PM, BlessedPrince said: I honestly couldn't hear much of a difference and maybe go as far as to say that my system is more pleasing. In the theater($250k worth)I was also not very impressed. I also think mine almost sounds better(Atmos dsp setting)If I learned anything, it's that the speakers make all the difference. Gotta love my klipsch and Yamaha quality. Budget usually has an unique sound of its own that many people prefer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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