The Value of Shopping Outside the Mainstream

It's an interesting phenomenon to witness the evolution of tech used in personal and home entertainment. The infusion of cheap, decently-performing (to many anyway) gear and the accessibility of it creates an atmosphere that says that cheap is OK, since tech moves so quickly. This creates a feeling that investing in quality is pointless, since the features change so rapidly as to create a feeling to many consumers that the investment made is behind the curve as soon as they make the purchase.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

Paying attention to the latest of anything--taking the "bleeding edge" approach to purchases--is a key mistake. What this does is takes the onus off of performance and build quality, and places it in the area of feature-set. What bells and whistles are on board a piece of gear takes precedence over long-term quality and immediate performance. In fact, even professional television calibrators (ISF) will happily inform you that resolution is towards the bottom of the list when it comes to judging image quality. Sony's marketing engine would have you think just the opposite, calling 1080p "true high definition" creating the perception that without, one has a deficient television. The industry does this to itself all the time--creating mixed messages, counteracting themselves, and causing consumer confusion--all to get consumers to move from one product to the next in a stressful game of leapfrog.

In years of watching equipment flippers and what I call "format chasers"--people that jump all over emerging, untested "next best thing" formats (SACD, DVD-Audio, BluRay)--it seems that inevitably the equipment is mired horribly in the mainstream. In fact, there is a strong sentiment among consumers that BluRay will "never succeed" until the average price point for the players is $99 or less. In other words, there is a perception that in order for the format to succeed, the industry must do everything in its power to reduce the performance of the hardware to its most base elements. The advice I've always given is to pursue maximizing existing, proven formats (CD, DVD) which has an almost inexhaustible amount of software and works 99.9% of the time. In fact, if I had a nickel for every time someone finally came clean and admitted that if if only they had bought that one great system the first time (as opposed to constantly moving from one quasi-system to the next), I wouldn't have to waste my time on this stupid blog.

:)

The thing is, these formats have a lot more potential than most give credit for. Of course, playing them back on a $299 receiver and $89 Walgreen's DVD player will maybe leave you with a different impression. This isn't snobbery; it's fact. Anytime you read that "everything sounds the same anyway" you should immediately recognize that person as an individual that despite his claims, will never be happy with anything he owns. Deep down, that individual knows that either ignorance is bliss, or his wallet has a far heavier influence than his eyes and ears.

The elixir is not using that same cheap-is-OK model, hoping that a new "super format" will solve the ills that are really hardware-based. The advice is to always invest in at least one level higher than you might think you're comfortable with. This involves really any purchase, and is sound if you believe that spending a little more initially will give you increased pride of ownership, reliability, and enjoyment.