What defines High Performance Audio?
High Performance Audio refers to the High End Performance Audio Reproduction Equipment, which should be able to:
- involve us emotionally
- maximise our musical pleasure
- sound musical, lively natural & organic
- reproduce the finest nuances of music recorded
- make us forget that we are reproducing music
- make speakers “disappear” from the room
- provide a feeling of music being alive
- make us feel as if the music performer is in front of us
- be timeless
High Performance Audio products cannot be both high performance and consumer products (like a smartphone or similar) at the same time as the concept behind both types of products is both counter-intuitive and mutually exclusive!
What makes Real High Performance Audio equipment:
- Timeless, functional design that may be over 70 plus years old
- Priced relative to its musical performance and the quality of materials employed
- Employs only the most refined circuit designs and the finest materials
- All parts are carefully selected, voiced and harmonically matched
- Inside of equipment is explained and presented in a transparent fashion
- The sound Q is more important than specifications, measurements, looks and features
- Almost no marketing as most of the return is re-invested in to R&D
- May be not be popular or unknown to mainstream
- Known mostly to aficionados and connoisseurs
- Produced on small scale and in limited quantities
High-End Fake Performance audio equipment is characterized by a combination of following features:
- External looks above everything, otherwise internally cost-driven, lifeless low musical performance (approx. 99% of all products are like that)
- Eye-catching, expensive designer furniture looking with inexpensive, randomly chosen components and materials hidden inside
- Loaded with features that matter the least to sound quality (such as displays, numerous inputs and outputs, compatibility with all formats)
- Priced according to the specs and looks by a great deal of marketing (marketing cost more than 50% of total product cost)
- Fashion driven by the latest technology, which tends to change all the time
- Constantly in need to be upgraded for better, more modern and the latest versions
- Have the most advanced specifications and measure extraordinarily
- Driven by the impressive complexity of the circuit design
- Frequently advertised by audio press and on the web
- Is highly reviewed and regarded
- Mass-produced
In sum, real high-end performance audio equipment cannot be out of date, regardless when it was made.
