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Longtime Apple Designer Christopher Stringer's Latest Project Is a High-Fidelity Speaker With AirPlay 2

paulsydaus said:
What on earth (I’m putting this lightly) does an industrial designer know about audio engineering and speaker design?
A speaker is the last thing someone who graduated from Ive’s Form Over Function academy should have anything to do with. The egos of these people to think they have something useful to add.
I’m sure something like this will find a market somewhere.
But you do realize that musicians and recording engineers spend decades in the industry honing their listening skills before even thinking of embarking on something like designing a speaker. Every component has to have one purpose and that is to contribute to the sound, not looks and thinness…
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I agree. If it was Thomlinson Holman who left Apple to make a new startup with a radical new idea for speakers, I would be paying attention. But this Syng device just seems more like a cost-no-object Homepod to me. I'm sure it will sound better, but it's not even nice looking. Somebody will buy it and claim it's the best thing ever and proclaim that regular speaker manufacturers should watch out (the ones that actually make scientifically designed stuff recording engineers use to make the music we listen to) and then it will be forgotten.

I think this is the kind of thing that's a solution to a problem that doesn't need to be solved. There are millions of great sounding speakers, and at most, this thing sounds good for a speaker of this size, just like the Homepod did. It's a yawn from me.
 
paulsydaus said:
What on earth (I’m putting this lightly) does an industrial designer know about audio engineering and speaker design?
A speaker is the last thing someone who graduated from Ive’s Form Over Function academy should have anything to do with. The egos of these people to think they have something useful to add.
I’m sure something like this will find a market somewhere.
But you do realize that musicians and recording engineers spend decades in the industry honing their listening skills before even thinking of embarking on something like designing a speaker. Every component has to have one purpose and that is to contribute to the sound, not looks and thinness…
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Well it’s not like an industrial designer can’t hire folks in audio engineering and speaker design. And audio tech hasn’t reached an endpoint. We know more about audio and it’s creation now than before and there’s likely a few “clean room” implementations that could yield improvements over current tech. I wouldn’t be an early adopter, but I look forward to reading the reviews :)
 
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So, I guess that's supposed to be a competitor to Devialet?
At least the technology is very similar...
That said, I think Devialet is a lot more honest about their product being a speaker... Syng is promoting their speaker as some magic element (super spatial sound, single point source, sound field,...) yet there's 0 technical data listed.

Most of these uber HiFi products don't even have RMS or frequency curves published. Ever wondered why? Because often they don't even meet the definition of HiFi in first place. The goal of HiFi was an accurate playback of the recording. Spacial Sound or AI based stuff is like a filter on a photo... it may enhance the experience, but it's not necessarily an accurate playback.
For that you will need actual speakers that don't "artifically enhance" sound or change their builtin EQ with every firmware update.

I'm not saying it's a bad product, but it doesn't look like a good speaker...
 
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reig3 said:
Sounds Sticks had kinky sex and that's their baby?
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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... can I stop laughing?... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... *gasp!* *wheeze* *intake a quick breath*... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... *WHUMP!* [falls on the ground, unconscious, from a lack of oxygen]
 
Allyance said:
I think you are partially right. I owned a "Hi-Fi" store in the late sixtes and I think the collapse of the specialty stores was due the greed of the manufactures. We sold Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, but the Japanese companies wanted more, so they stopped supporting us and went with big tonnage discount stores, we couldn't compete with the prices.
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I think these Japanese brands ruined their own market that way. When you walk into a store and see what's left of those old brands (Sansui, Nakamichi) - if they even still exist - is like going to a high school reunion and finding out that the valedictorian you looked up to lost it all in a nasty divorce and is now a crack addict living under a bridge.
 
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ouimetnick said:
If people thought the $350 HomePod sold poorly, hold my beer!

At $1700+ I would imagine any audiophile would put that towards real speakers, or an exotic interconnect cable😂

The fast company article or whatever is a joke. This guy isn’t making speakers to compete with HomePod. The HomePod was a $299 consumer speaker, this is an exotic piece or art that rich people buy because they don’t know any better (about cheaper dedicated stereos that would sound better and give a real stereo image)

I happen to think it’s ugly and is definitely not something Apple would ever ship. The days of clear plastic left when the iMac G4 (lamp iMac) replaced the OG translucent design. Had this been announced in 2000-2002, I’d say it fits Apple’s design language and styling, but that was 20 years ago.
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This is a premium lifestyle speaker. Is it worth $1799 as a premium alternative to a Home Pod, Sonos or any number of companies offering premium priced alternatives? Hard to know unless you're willing sacrifice $1799 to find out. But spending that sort of money for an all-in-one w/ hipster aesthetics, I'd be more inclined towards a company that has been around for more than a minute with legitimate credentials in the 'audiophile' community like Devialet (which also typically maintains a solid resale value if things don't work out). However I'm happy avoid the inevitable downward spiral that is the 'spatial audio' debate.
 
topmounter said:
This is a premium lifestyle speaker. Is it worth $1799 as a premium alternative to a Home Pod, Sonos or any number of companies offering premium priced alternatives? Hard to know unless you're willing sacrifice $1799 to find out. But spending that sort of money for an all-in-one w/ hipster aesthetics, I'd be more inclined towards a company that has been around for more than a minute with legitimate credentials in the 'audiophile' community like Devialet (which also typically maintains a solid resale value if things don't work out). However I'm happy avoid the inevitable downward spiral that is the 'spatial audio' debate.
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In 2010, though, Devialet was in the same position this company is now. I’m sure the ‘audiophile’ community didn’t, from day one, embrace this new company that had only been around since 2007 and hadn’t even released a product yet :)

Considering that most folks can’t tell the difference between 256 and lossless, but they CAN hear the difference of Spatial Audio… :) if HiFi is just “biggerer numbers than last week, but you still can’t hear the difference!”, then it’ll be kinda boring, but very expected.
 
zackkitzmiller said:
I ordered one. I'm really interested to see what this sound quality is actually like plugged into a decent sound source. I'm running mostly McIntosh for my office HiFi, really excited to see how this works together with all of that
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I would buy something from audio experts rather than a designer. I believe real high end audio would need more midrange and bass than something this small can provide - and thats if you play CD's or AIFF Files, not Mp3 or Mp4
 
There is a reason there are 100's of speaker designs, none of them are totally neutral. Preview your favorite music, and buy what you like. I use a homePod in the kitchen for casual listening. I can clearly distinguish the free air resonance of the small bass driver when it first comes on, but the mind soon get used to it. I use two Large Advents for my main stereo speakers and two Small Advents next to each other for my center channel and a sub-woofer for movie bass. Bought the Large Advent for $100 because they needed re-coning and he didn't know how to do it. Real walnut cabinets, not the vinyl wrap cabinets. Small Advent where my father-in-laws I bought for him years ago. Retired now and don't have the budget to spent $1000's on esoteric gear. System sound pretty damn good.
 
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gregohb said:
I would buy something from audio experts rather than a designer. I believe real high end audio would need more midrange and bass than something this small can provide - and thats if you play CD's or AIFF Files, not Mp3 or Mp4
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Today’s designers sometime become tomorrow’s audio experts.
 
Unregistered 4U said:
In 2010, though, Devialet was in the same position this company is now. I’m sure the ‘audiophile’ community didn’t, from day one, embrace this new company that had only been around since 2007 and hadn’t even released a product yet :)

Considering that most folks can’t tell the difference between 256 and lossless, but they CAN hear the difference of Spatial Audio… :) if HiFi is just “biggerer numbers than last week, but you still can’t hear the difference!”, then it’ll be kinda boring, but very expected.
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You can't tell much difference on earPods but its very obvious even on a car stereo, much less high end audio speakers. I have tested it.
 
gregohb said:
You can't tell much difference on earPods but its very obvious even on a car stereo, much less high end audio speakers. I have tested it.
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If have no doubt YOU can. Your average person can’t though, even with high quality speakers on content they’re very familiar with.
 
You can tell this company has Apple roots......the website demanded I turn my ipad to portrait if I wanted to look at it. So.....telling me what to do front the get go, expensive product, very Apple.

I bet after 3 years the company declares the product obsolete and insists you buy a new one!
 
zackkitzmiller said:
Agree - It's quite possibly terrible, but I'm interested in the whole thing nonetheless. It'll be an interesting little toy to play around with and see what happens. At 1,700 bucks, why not just see what happens? If it's garbage it's garbage and can go in the closet with the rest of the crap I buy and never really use.
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Tell me you're rich without telling me you're rich

Anyway, what was your verdict on it? Worth the money?
 
zackkitzmiller said:
Agree - It's quite possibly terrible, but I'm interested in the whole thing nonetheless. It'll be an interesting little toy to play around with and see what happens. At 1,700 bucks, why not just see what happens? If it's garbage it's garbage and can go in the closet with the rest of the crap I buy and never really use.
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Did you end up getting one? If so, how is it?
 
Would be fun to hear reviews, seems like a great product just overpriced. But you never know if it blows you away
 
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