Thursday, July 19, 2007

Hi Fi Discussion Forum

I was trying to weigh options for a Hi-Fi system. Not surprisingly, the choices in India are limited and prohibitively expensive. I happened to walk into Bose store in Pyramid and was awed by the equipment on display. Bose stores are great at marketing their products. After I was treated to a well scripted demo I was sold to the idea of owing those tiny jewels (I guess the satellites are actually called so) . Eventually the conversation drifted from the sound and fury to the price tag and one could hear the jaw and spirits fall to the lower end of sonic spectrum. I scuttled off suddenly remembering a phantom appointment and returned home crest fallen.

Upon googling the topic a bit I discovered a new world. A world of Audioholics. In this world there are only bose bashers and no takers. Bose is for sissies they say. Well that kind of hurt my sentiments. But I took a deep dive into their world and discovered I was swimming with Dolphins.

I guess the forum is one of its kind for Indian Audioholics and ironically its hosted on a german domain. Thats kind of weird I thought but then so long as the contributors are desi bhai log, the .de domain is just a minor technicality.

These guys know what they are talking about. They know which good brands are available in India, and for each cities who are the dealers, where the shops are and how they compare to each other. Also, the threads taught me how to describe music in its own lingo. Whats sound stage, what are upfront / laid back / transparent / colored / rolled off speakers and how to navigate through the myriad choices to pick whats best for you. Also, they would tell you whats the bargain and how much to pay.

A bunch of music romantics amongst tone deafs like me. Quite heroic. Through them I could learn to appreciate the sound of music. Check this out hi-fi forum Pick the stereo track. Most other tracks are in german if you fancy the language.

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