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Lies

I am sticking with the old stuff.

A Technics SU-G75 crossed my bench today. It was deemed not worth repair because it has some sort of preamp fault. It is built in a pan, which means the bottom access is very limited. You could change the output ICs but those are bound to be $100 or more from my experience. The cheap one for the surround is an SVI which mean big bucks. The big one for the front channels has an unrecognizable number on it which is even worse.

Anyway, on the front it has a sticker that clearly says "120 WATTS X 4". Well I got the service manual from the engine and that is not what it says. It says 120 WPC in the front and 50 watts for surround and center.

Many years ago before they started with those SVI IC outputs I used to recommend them. I liked them better than Sony even though I worked for a Sony Signature dealer, which means we could get the high end models the big box stores could not. You could walk out of the place twenty grand light. And the stuff was not bad, I just thought Technics gave you more bang for the buck.

I bought Technics stuff, a couple of cassette decks, buddy of mine had the BIG analog tuned receiver, I forgot the model but it was excellent. I had an excellent three head cassette with HX and adjustable bias, lost it gambling, but in my defense I was playing against something really good, IIRC it was a gun.

They let me down in later years. I heard that "new class A" and it sounded no better to me. And at that point they had crappy tone controls as well. Could not bring up the low end without the boominess, too high of a turnover and not that much range. Rooms kill that bottom octave, if these things are so powerful...

Remember folks, a few things.

Number one, in home audio the FTC/IHF ratings only apply to the front two channels. They can lie their ass off about the rest with impunity, and in almost every case once I get the cover off and get the print, they do. I think a couple of manufacturers don't, but those are going to be expensive.

Number two, if it says "professional" on it the rules do not apply. I have seen "pro" amps claim to be 500 WPC and I get into them, look up the chip they use and it is rated at like maybe 70 WPC. More than once. I work for factory service for one of those manufacturers which I will not name, but they lie out the (_|_). Certain brands, QSC for example, and Crown makes pro equipment, they do not lie. In fact when some people get their hands on those after having the cheap ones they blow speakers. I know one guy who actually set a speaker on fire because he had a REAL 1,300 watts RMS for a change. Thought the speaker could handle it, nope.

Number three, car audio. The FTC/IHF rules do not apply to car audio. In the good countries people know basic electronics from school. Here, you have an amp rated 1,000 watts that has a 10 amp fuse. At 100 % efficiency it can only put out 120 watts total. For 1,000 watts at 100 % efficiency it would have to pull a hair over 83 amps. These days when you buy a new alternator for your car it comes with a warning not to use it with a dead battery, charge the battery first. We used to just go and jump start it and let it run for an hour. Can't do that anymore because it will fry the new alternator. And 83 amps is more than almost any car takes to run the starter. Now back in the day with a 400HP high compression V8 it was different. Not no mo.

I used to build car amps. With a center tapped output choke I was able to get about 35 real WPC. Yes, RMS. These things blew 10 amp fuses about once a month mainly because there was no filtering I think, none was necessary with that topology. People were blowing speakers all the time. So was I, I kept a bunch of 6X9s in stock and didn't even mount them. I put studs in where you would normally mount them and just layed them down on those. I did not use coax speakers, I had horn tweeters. But still, I had to keep on changing woofers and fuses.

Now I wonder how else they lie. I have seen ads about cellphone companies not telling you that once you reach a certain amount of data your rate is cut back, or you have to pay. Even in the old days, I saw computers built so cheap I wouldn't hit a dog in the ass with them. Now I wonder about these "4K" TVs.

It is looking like there is almost zero consumer protection in this country.

Even with the power ratings, even if they don't lie usually the thing chokes on four ohms. Sometime in the 1980s they started making speakers with less radical impedance curves so they wouldn't fry out the cheap amps of the time. With it went that bottom octave but they fixed that by changing the way speaker response is measured.

At one time it was as swept frequency. Then they changed it to 1/3 octave bands of pink noise. Also, for bass they switched to close miced measurements of the woofer and the port or passive radiator and summed them. That does not yield an accurate result because those are out of phase. And with the pink noise they could be at say 50 Hz and the speaker could put out 100 Hz, 150 Hz and it is all counted in the output. That is not valid.

Some manufacturers do a good job with passives, like Polk. Not sure how but I bet their passive have more mass to shift the phase and reduce the cancellation. Even so, I have heard that some of their bigger models sound muddy. I have heard good things about KEF but have never heard them. I can say this though, the best sounding speakers I have heard all my life have been sealed systems. They might be a bit less efficient but instead of having to boost the bottom octave 17 dB maybe 5 dB would do it and they sounded excellent.

I wonder what other lies they are getting away with. Technics ? TECHNICS ? With the SU-G75 they just spent their reputation as far as I am concerned. Pioneer too, buddy has one that the book actually rates it at 100 WPC all five channels. I open it up and I see two ICs, one bigger and one smaller. Are they trying to tell me that the smaller IC puts out 100 WPC into three channels and the bigger IC puts out 100 WPC into only two ? Gimme a break.

I got this elcheapo pair of "Sonic" brand speakers. I either had a pair of these in the 1970s or someone I know did. Took them apart and they are the cheapest thing I had seen. And I thought they sounded like shit. Compared to everything else out there they did. After the years of conditioning I guess, with all the junk they have put out I think they sound alright. Back then I wouldn't have them, but look what's in the stores now. Somewhere between five and eight speakers with paper thin cabinets and a one note subwoofer. And that ain't worth shit. I'll SHOW you a subwoofer, I got a JBL PSW-D112. They are claiming these little shitboxes are 500 watts when they got a bunch of 4" speakers and a 10" sub ? And it only has a 4 amp fuse ? Boy that is efficient, with a 4 amp fuse the most you can pull is 480 watts, and they put out 500. Well I think that is marvelous. (sarcasm of course)

Rant over. I am here to tell you not to trust anything they say these days except for certain companies. You are NOT getting a 500 watt stereo for $279 including speakers. The old stuff, with used prices and obviously no warranty, at least you get honest ratings.

New cars are all junk too but I won't rant about that here. I'll have to see if there is an appropriate forum for that. But if I had a million dollars I would never consider buying a new car. When I find that place I will tell you why.



Edits: 07/07/16

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Topic - Lies - JURB 03:01:18 07/07/16 (32)

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