My lady loves them, our first date was the new Stooges movie in 2012, we laughed through the whole movie.
Are soundbars and Bluetooth speakers killing hifi ?
- Thread starter KingAzazel
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My lady loves them, our first date was the new Stooges movie in 2012, we laughed through the whole movie.
Judas Priest
Super Member
You don´t need to spend anywhere near that much for a smartphone.
Battlebots are awesome,(Just Saying!!!) I like big bots i cannot lie!!!!
Really? How much was yours? Where did you get it? What's your monthly cost?
charles 1973
Super Member
Part of the boom in soundbar sales has to do with TV's, not the quest for hi fi.
We love our big screen TV's but unfortunately few bring with it big sound. So the soundbar was born. A lot of folks just want good sound for their video fix and have no interest in cluttering up their living room with racks of components and 6 - 13 (Dolby Atmos) boxes to do it.
Some of the better soundbar's will hold their own against many popular vintage and new stereo speakers as well. So they definitely qualify as hi- fi. And are also priced accordingly.
We love our big screen TV's but unfortunately few bring with it big sound. So the soundbar was born. A lot of folks just want good sound for their video fix and have no interest in cluttering up their living room with racks of components and 6 - 13 (Dolby Atmos) boxes to do it.
Some of the better soundbar's will hold their own against many popular vintage and new stereo speakers as well. So they definitely qualify as hi- fi. And are also priced accordingly.
whoaru99
Epic Member
Of course you don't need to, but if you want a new, top end model with the big internal memory, that's what they cost here in the US.
whoaru99
Epic Member
I tend to agree. I think rather than killing, these newer things are expanding better sound for more people. May not be us 1%er's notion of "hi-fi" but better none the less.
I wonder if price is the only basic difference between HiFi and MidFi? I bet it is.
charles 1973
Super Member
Some of those Bluetooth speakers are often for portable hi fi if you will. I have the bose Soundlink Color and it does a commendable job. I'm sure many others do to. It makes a fine laptop speaker or for use with small 32" screen TV's too.
They had portable hi fi in the late 70's and early 80's as well. Anyone ever heard of GE's Superadio II. I had one and can honestly say on fm it had better sound quality then this new Bose bluetooth speaker. While it may not have played as loud, The sound was clear and transparent. No bloated bass or artificial highs, Yet it produced a surprising amount of bass through the 5" speaker. It had a small tweeter as well.
They had portable hi fi in the late 70's and early 80's as well. Anyone ever heard of GE's Superadio II. I had one and can honestly say on fm it had better sound quality then this new Bose bluetooth speaker. While it may not have played as loud, The sound was clear and transparent. No bloated bass or artificial highs, Yet it produced a surprising amount of bass through the 5" speaker. It had a small tweeter as well.
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I just installed a Savant Artisan 65 soundbar ($3000) on a customer's 85" Sony Bravio and it only sounds slightly better than the TV speakers. Louder, sure...Better, not much. Waste of money IMO.
That's a frightening thought......no need for gatherings at a "Concert"....in the future there will be virtual Concerts...I think its here...
jcg1112
Active Member
My wife isn’t a big Stooges fan either. Now, Battlebots, good to go. She’s a geek at heart.
JoeESP9
ESL's & tubes since 83
We all need to remember where the term HiFi came from. It's a shortening of, "reproduce with a high degree of fidelity".
It really depends on what you use a phone for. My use of a phone is pretty much restricted to phone calls and text messages. I have no desire to have a phone as my primary device to connect to the world. Nor do I use it as a music player. I have a portable player that has 256GB of FLAC files.
PC's do the internet and other connective type things more than well enough for me. Besides, even the biggest phones have a screen that's uncomfortably small for me. The "joke" keyboards don't help. Also, I have no need to be continuously in contact with everyone else. I have no Facebook account nor a Twitter account. Living my daily life in a fishbowl on the internet holds no attraction to me.
FWIW: I have a Samsung J-2. It's small enough to actually fit in a pocket. After I added a 64GB Micro SD Card it has more than enough memory for my purposes. Oh, the cost. It was $50 brand new. Yes it's a full fledged smart phone.
Well let's see....I have a Motorola MotoZ4 that I use in my business (Electrical/HVAC Service). I'm gonna try and list all the things I do with it. Notice that Phone calls and text messages are not included...I have a cheap-**** flip phone for those...
1 - Google maps for getting from A to B and a speedometer (my 89 stepvan hasn't had one since 2004)
2 - Google Maps Timeline for keeping up with where I've been and for how long (very useful for invoicing)
3 - sending Paypal invoices to customers at the Point of Sale
4- Taking pictures of jobs for future reference. Each pic automatically stores the time, date, and address.
5- Searching the internet for anything I might need...Anything
6 - Sending emails to customers and vendors
7 - Checking the weather forecast
8 - Calculator
9 - clock
10 - calendar
11 - flashlight
12 - Notepad
13 - Posting on AudioKarma...Haha
14 - Streaming music and radio stations
I have the droid, a flip phone, My wife has some IPhone crap + 2 tablets and our bill is $200-250/month
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My daughter has only had a phone for years, even her last year of school, wrote papers and everything on it. She sees no need for other devices.
I only use my work laptop for work (like now, I happen to be at my desk) and do not own a PC at all. At home its 90% iPhone and 10% Kindle. My phone or Kindle does every computer, camera, communication, navigation, control music, control TV, I am sure there is more, function I need.
Its a great time to be alive
and not be a tech curmudgeon 
charles 1973
Super Member
Cell phones and AVR's are really quite remarkable devices IMO. They do so many things for a reasonable price. And not just do them, But do them well.
My $200 (Canadian) Samsung J3 Phones camera takes shockingly detailed photos, And my $500 Yamaha Rx v485 AVR does a commendable job for stereo music and a dozen other things. The darn thing even operates wireless speakers.
I wouldn't say soundbar's or bluetooth speakers are as functional, But both have their place.
My $200 (Canadian) Samsung J3 Phones camera takes shockingly detailed photos, And my $500 Yamaha Rx v485 AVR does a commendable job for stereo music and a dozen other things. The darn thing even operates wireless speakers.
I wouldn't say soundbar's or bluetooth speakers are as functional, But both have their place.
Judas Priest
Super Member
I have a Samsung A70 with 128 GB internal memory and a slot for an SD card; so, pretty much memory as anyone could want. I am perfectly happy with it. The screen is big, and the camera is nice, too, IMHO.
I think it cost about €370 18 months ago. I pay €25 a month for unlimited calls and SMS, plus 8GB of LTE data.
But, there is no half eaten apple on the back cover
ouimetnick
Hafler Fan!
Correct, Bluetooth is used for initial setup and also for HandOff.
I have 5 regular HomePods. Two stereo pairs (listening to a pair right now) and 1 lone HomePod. Admittedly, they don't sound as full as a traditional speaker setup (My Boston Acoustics VR-M90, VR-40, Ohm C2, EarthWorks Sigma 6.2 all sound better) but the HomePod sound much larger than their size would suggest.
It's easier to AirPlay from my iPhone or iPad to the HomePods rather than turn the stereo on and sit in the sweet spot for proper stereo imaging. I've noticed that with the HomePods there is a much larger "sweet spot" The engineering that has gone into it is pretty impressive. Seven tweeters firing into a downwards horn. Eight amplifiers (one for each tweeter, and one for the woofer) 7 microphones. One mic listens just to the woofer and adjusts the woofer accordingly to keep in in line with the system volume and to prevent distortion. Six other microphones are used for Siri and to listen to the tweeters to control the beam forming. Pretty complex stuff.
I'll still stick with and use my regular audio gear, but these smart speakers combined with Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc are acceptable for most folks.
Its a great time to be alive
I agree completely.
I have a huge pile of hifi equipment i could never have dreamed of buying when new, and most of it cost next to nothing.
I've got an iPhone 6 ( as a gift ) that i begrudgingly accepted, and now it's one of my most used items. It really has made countless other devices unnecessary.
4 or 5 laptops that just sort of found us.
TV's are a 47", 40, 32, and 11.
And a few bluetooth speakers for public spaces where the wife doesn't want to see wires.
It's all very entertaining.