[ Start ] [ Omhoog ] [ Products ] [ Brands/Merken ] [ English ] [ Nederlands ] [ Map/Route ]    

-u kunt geld besparen door te vertrouwen op uw gehoor-

Audio-equipment is a mean to experience the event of music. Sometimes people seem to forget this when they speak about (High-End) equipment. We want to preserve this basic value and purpose.

We estimate the value very high of being able to experience in your home the real event of music. Inside your home you can go to places to experience 'real music, with real players' when you like. You can hear the finest music played by the most gifted musicians.

Audio equipment functions as a mean to cross barriers like time and distance. These barriers mostly make it impossible for us to be on places where the music is made. As for most people, time is scarce; audio equipment is an important instrument to handle with this scarcity: your'e able to listen to the finest music whenever and wherever executed.

Audio equipment reproduces music (mostly). This implies two elements. Firstly, the reproduction of melodies, rhythms, global timbres etc. Secondly the reproduction of the real and exact information which determines the quality of the sound of instruments, voices, their timbres but also the feeling of reality of the musical execution.

The first element can be realised by rather simple audio-equipment. On the beach you can hear music by way of a 'soundmachine'. If such gear reproduces the basic structure of music, many people are satisfied. This way of reproducing music mostly functions as 'back-ground' music, with almost no attention to the unique event of making music which is reproduced. People are doing their own things, and like some smooth back-ground music in doing that.

Totally different is the situation in which you concentrate on the quality of the sound, the timbre of the instruments, the spatial qualities of the concert hall, and want to forget the time and place of your actual situation. With an 'soundmachine' you need a lot of imagination, get fatigued and are distressed soon. You don't hear the clues of the sound which make it sound beautiful and real. This is the second element.

Unfortunately this second element requires a lot more of the construction audio-equipment. As a consequence that equipment is more expensive (mostly).

We can define High-End audio equipment as the kind of equipment in which the second element is maximally realised, given a certain budget. This means that construction, parts and design of the equipment are almost only oriented to this goal. So there can be rather inexpensive High-End, mostly with very few features.

From this perspective, the quality of (High-End) audio equipment is determined by: 1) the experienced easiness to imagine you're really present at the musical event; 2) the kind of fascination you experience, when listening real music instruments and their esthetical qualities. Clues like the attack, position, depth, quietness around the playing, and soft instrument-, voice- (f.i. breathing) and environment-sounds are essential to that.

There is a great difference in quality and prices. Broadly spoken, the price correlates to the quality of High-End equipment. But one has always to be critical about that.

The quality of equipment is dependent of many factors. In every concrete component there is a special mix of elements which determine the resulting quality. There is no one best amplifier, transport etc. Some elements are always realised at the costs of some others. It is the 'compromise' (design) which is decisive, given de availability of good parts and a good way of constructing.

Innovation of audio-equipment implies mostly: a change of design and the use of newly developed parts. So results of innovation (new design, parts etc.) don't necessarily imply a bettering of the sound. Better results on the test-bank are no guarantee for better results. Apperently technicians are not (yet?) able to determine those specifications which guarantee good sound. Experiencing, listening is essential in the development, and not only calculation by way of computer-technology. So it can be that new designs are not so good sonically as old ones.

Older audio-equipment can sound as good as new and even better. 'New' is no guarantee for better, in contrast with many advertising-campaigns of new products. Of course, new equipment can be good; meaningful innovation has to do with the realisation of a better sound-quality or a longer durability of the products for a lower price.

A last but not unimportant remark. Generally spoken, we see the way of production and use of High-End audio equipment as a responsible way of handling material and natural resources. The components are not designed to throw away them a few years later. The way of production ought manifests care and respect for material. We see sustainability and stability as high values. Further, audio-lovers handle their components carefully too: also an expression of respect for material. This attitude is adequate in a time where consciously handling the environment is becoming more and more important.