What would people pay for a true 'audiophile' version of the Squeezebox? Traditionally 'audiophile' products are expensive, for which there are several reasons, some reasonable, some simply marketing based. Some of it is related to perception (i.e. it can't be any good unless it's pricey - the Stereophile effect, if you will) but at least as much, in a truly well-engineered product, is related to the very significant design effort needed to produce something that sounds great and keeps you from your bed, or the TV, in pursuit of music.
Couple that to the ever-shrinking market for two-channel only audio systems and the development costs take on a whole new meaning; the simple commercial reality is that they have to be spread across the potential number of customers for that product. For a Linn CD12 that number runs to just thousands, worldwide, I suspect, hence the huge price tag. The SB2 as it is is a wonderfully elegant, modestly sized, reasonably easy to use, immensely practical device, that gives great access to a wide range of media, which as a user I love. I don't personally feel it can currently feed my main system though as a main source having tried it. I would actually love that it did it all, but interestingly there's not much talk about the *sound* above! The point is that for me, as a consumer (rather than an engineer) what goes on inside the box should be irrelevant, it's what comes out that matters. What comes out is very much related to what goes on internally, but I'm curious as to whether the comments above are just becuase the SB2 is *perceived* as not being audiophile (because it doesn't tick the right boxes and looks like a radio alarm clock) or whether people identify, as I do personally, that there's something missing from the results it produces? Lots of meaningless (in my view) talk about components, interfaces, design implementation, features (absent or not) but nothing about the most important thing of all - the music! Surely the purpose of an audiophile version would be to sound as good, or better, than whatever your own personal quality reference is? If, for example, you are comparing to a Linn CD12 at 12000GBP, it's going to be hard to expect that level of performance for significantly less than that. I think the current SB2 is a marvellous piece of superb engineering, but am curious as to how much people are seriously prepared to pay for a product that competes with some of the other audiophile standards out there. Curiously, my own absolute standard, in terms of musical enjoyment, is still the vinyl record, courtesy of a Linn LP12 turntable. No CD player, or any source (with the possible exception of a good FM tuner and broadcast) I've yet heard comes close to it! Andy. -- Andrew L. Weekes _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
