sprev Wrote: > Thanks for all the replies, but I'm afraid that I still don't understand > why the SB doesn't have a higher profile in the hi-fi press or why in > many cases it isn't reviewed at all. Here are a few potential reasons: > > The SB is too cheap. But this can't be because why then did John > Atkinson choose the Airport Express as Stereophile's product of the > year. The Airport Express is even cheaper than an SB, and hi-fi > magazines don't come more high-end biased than Stereophile. > > The SB is too geeky or hard to setup. But this doesn't seem plausible: > you just switch the SB on, install the software, and hey presto, it'll > find your iTunes collection and start playing. Installing an SB just > isn't rocket science. Many people buy wireless routers, and installing > an SB isn't harder than that. > > People prefer standalone servers like the Sonos over wireless clients. > But this just doesn't seem plausible either. I have yet to meet anyone > who would pay for an expensive standalone server like the Sonos---they > just seem to specialised, and the small built in hard-drives are > obsolescence waiting to happen. Moreover, many people already have > their music collection on their computer ready to be synced with their > ipod or other portable player. The hi-fi press loves the Airport > Express and Roku, and rate them at least as high as standalone systems: > why don't they know about the SB? > > The hi-fi market is too small. But this doesn't seem right either. The > hi-fi market is huge. It contains more than just the high end that > Stereophile caters for---magazines like What Hi-Fi? cater for systems > from $200 upwards. > > The wiff from the hi-fi press is that computer-based music servers are > one of the most exciting thing that has happened in home audio for a > long time. A lot of people are interested in it. Why isn't the SB > getting in on this action in a more explicit way? I don't want the SB > losing out to Roku, or some equivalent weaker system, that happens to > get the market through better publicity.
Over the hollidays I was in one of the more credible audio stores in town (Ottawa Canada) checking out the boxing days sales. I spied a SB3, the salesman said it was the hottest item in the store during the Xmas season, they only had one or two left. So I guess it is catching on...Ottawa has lots of high tech however which may help the acceptance understanding factor. -- sfraser ------------------------------------------------------------------------ sfraser's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2026 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19598 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
