Home Theater Geeks 458 Transcript

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00:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks I answer a question from Craig who laments the death of stereo shops. So stick around Podcasts you love From people you trust. This is Twit. Hey there Scott Wilkinson. Here, the Home Theater Geek. In this episode I answer a listener question from Craig in San Antonio, who is responding to the episode I did about my lament of the death of print magazines in the home theater business. That was episode 453. And Craig responded to that writing along with your mourning the passing of home theater print magazines, I lament the death of stereo shops where I can do side-by-side comparisons of different components.

01:07
Over 20 years ago, I went to a local store armed with some of my favorite CDs to find what sounded best. To my surprise, a Sony ES receiver paired with Klipsch speakers were literally music to my ears. The Denon, Marantz and Yamaha models all sounded muddy in comparison, even when paired with the same Klipsch speakers. I was very surprised, as I had never heard of the ES line and considered Sony to be a low-end consumer brand. I no longer have that system and I'm looking to start rebuilding it. I wanted to see if the new ES line sounds as good as my old system, but I can't find anywhere to listen to a new Sony Klipsch combo. The only local stores with listening rooms that aren't selling gear way out of my price range are Magnolia centers in Best Buy stores. When I went to a local Magnolia, they had neither Klipsch nor Sony receivers set up as demo units. There were Kef speakers, Marantz and Denon receivers along with other brands I'd never heard of, and nobody who worked there had even heard of the Sony ES line.

02:26
My question is this Do you have any experience with the new Sony receivers? I'm looking for a voice, I trust, who can say whether Sony and Klipsch have continued to improve on their traditional sound profiles. I've read many reviews and the units are being well-received, but I haven't found any that specifically address how the new models sound compared to the older versions. Also, why do you never mention the Sony ES line? I don't recall you ever suggesting them. I know that good sound is subjective, but that's why I wish I could find a place to listen side by side.

03:10
Well, Craig, you've hit upon a real conundrum. Stereo stores with moderately priced equipment are now dinosaurs, and even stores with high-end gear are fading fast. And even stores with high-end gear are fading fast, and most of the ones I found doing some research, for this answer focused mostly on car audio, so that's a little bit of a problem. Now there are still some stores in a few cities and I recommend a few of them. One is Value Electronics in Scarsdale, New York, but it's pretty high end. They carry more high end stuff than you might be interested in and you're not in Scarsdale, New York anyway. Worldwide Stereo is in Montgomeryville, which is north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in your town, San Antonio, Texas, there's a store called Bjorn's B-J-O-R-N apostrophe S, and they carry both Klipsch speakers and Sony ES receivers. Now I don't know how much demo space they have, so you might give them a call, though you know, to see what they might be able to, what they might be able to arrange.

04:32
Now we've put the links to all three of those stores into the show notes, so you should be able to look them up and see if there's anything there. All of them sell online, I'm sure, but that doesn't answer the question about being able to demo them in person, demo any products at all. As you mentioned, Magnolia within Best Buy is one of the only widely located places to hear any demos at all. Now what comparisons you can make in a Magnolia depends entirely on what products they carry. So it's a real crapshoot. They might carry clips or they might not. They might carry Sony ES or they might not. Now I've put the link to the Best Buy store locator in the show notes as well, and you should be able to find a store near you wherever you are. But I didn't see any indication that that any store particularly had a Magnolia or not, which is a section within the store, as you can see in these pictures here from around the country. So you know, I guess you just have to find a store near you and call them up and see if they have a Magnolia and then see if they carry the particular brand you're interested in and then see if they're set up to demo it.

06:06
Now I'm astonished that the workers in the Magnolia you went to had never heard of Sony ES. It's a very common brand and well-respected, so the fact that they had never heard of it, that's really shocking to me. Now, I've never considered Sony to be a low-end consumer brand. I've always thought of it as a good quality, mid-level consumer brand, even a little higher than mid-level. Perhaps Now their prices are a bit higher than other similar or comparable companies. But I've always thought it was worth it to tell you the truth. So I am not with you in thinking that Sony is a low-end consumer brand.

06:57
Now, in my research for this episode, I came across a blog or an entry by a YouTube audio video guru who goes by the name Youth man, and he documented a visit that he made to a Magnolia store about 10 years ago on a Klipsch forum and we put the link to that into the show notes as well and he saw no Klipsch speakers there, unfortunately, mostly higher-end electronics from Macintosh, which makes pretty high-end amplifiers and other electronics and B&W speakers again at higher end than you're really looking at. So again, it depends on, the best way to shop for electronics is by going to reviewers you trust, because there's no place to compare them anymore and, as you say, what sounds good is subjective. But a good reviewer knows how to put their impressions into understandable words, and that's an important thing. And you have to go, though, to reviewers that you trust, and here are a few of my faves. One is Brent Butterworth at Wirecuttercom. He writes exclusively audio reviews, and really good ones. He knows what he's doing. Thomas Norton at Sound and Vision. I've worked with him for 20 years or more and I've always respected his reviews as well. Then there's Steve Guttenberg, who has his own YouTube channel called the audio filiac, and, uh, I again I I trust his reviews greatly, and so if he's done any reviews of products you're interested in, you can take that to the bank. Any three of these guys knows what they're doing is objective, such as it is. I mean, they'll say what they like and what they don't like, just like me, right? My whole philosophy of reviewing is experience the unit, use it, put it through its paces, say what you like, say what you don't like, say whether you recommend it at the price that they're charging, and these guys will all do that. Now, in my own experience, I haven't listen to Sony ES receivers much, so I can't comment on whether they've improved over time. Here's a picture of the latest line of Sony ES receivers. Now, I haven't mentioned them, not because I think they're bad, but because I simply don't have experience with them. Others that I know and trust have had experience with them and like them quite a bit, so I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand.

10:11
Now, Klipsch speakers have always been very well regarded. Here you see a picture of two Klipsch speakers floor standers. They also make bookshelf and other center channels and other styles, but they have a distinctively bright sound because of the horn-loaded tweeters and you can see at the top of these columns the horn-loaded tweeters. That is a specific characteristic of Klipsch speakers that they use in virtually all their speakers and it does give a bright, characteristic sound. Now, some people like it very much and others don't, so there's a bit of your subjectiveness coming up right there. You obviously like the sound and I have little doubt that the newer models have a similar sonic profile. Klipsch is very consistent has been over the years, so I think you don't have too much to worry about there.

11:05
Now you asked about reviewers comparing older units to newer ones and I have to say I don't think you'll find any reviewers who talk about that very much, except if they possibly had the older units and then upgraded to the newer units, they might be able to talk about that. In general, you're not going to get much of that, I think, from reviewers because they don't keep the older products. So even if they had it, they might not have listened to it for years and audio memory fades over time and I don't think you'll find any reviews that specifically pair Sony ES to Klipsch speakers. I mean, you might, it's possible, but you'd be lucky if you did so. The bottom line is this If you liked the sound of the Sony ES receivers and Klipsch speakers from 20 years ago, I believe you'll probably like that combination.

12:02
Now, with the newer models, I don't think the sound profile of either product has changed that much over the years, except for general overall improvements. I mean these products, the companies, they try to improve things over time and they generally do, but you're not going to have radical changes, generally speaking. So I think you'd be pretty safe to get a Sony ES receiver pair of Klipsch speakers. I believe you would be very happy. So I hope that helps. Now, like this episode, I love answering listener questions, so please send them along to htg at twittv and I will answer as many as I can right here on the show. And, as always, we thank you for your support of the Twit Network with your membership in Club Twit, which gives you access to all the shows that TWiT produces in their video format. You can also come into the Discord channel and the chat room and speak with interact anyway with all the hosts that are doing the shows. So thanks so much for that. Until next time, geek out.