I wish audio advertisers would stop . . .

A good point also. I left it blank to see if people were really following this suggestion.

 

Cats.

 

At least DAK's catalogs were an enjoyable read. You could tell Drew really loved to write... and write... and write. He even came up with cute little nicknames for all of the products he sold.

 

Cutting and pasting the exact same company PR across pages within the very same catalogue (see Audio Advisor, holiday edition).

 

Tricking me into giving them my money.

 

I wonder if anyone ever bought one speaker and started saving for the 2nd one, only to have it discontinued. Lol

 

Or you want a identical single speaker for a 3.1 setup (many of you here love your subwoofers)

 

AR built the AR 2 and AR 3 models for many years. KLH made the Six for many years, Klipsch has built Klipschorns since 1948, and the Cornwall and Heresy have been in production for over 60 years. Good equipment in the day tended to stay in production far longer than now (3 and 4 year cycles were common between new models).

 

OR they fail to specify! Usually (but not always) it means price per each. I can handle the truth, just don't hide it!

 

Except for some Pioneer CD players that utilised the 'Stable Platter Mechanism' (played discs upside down).

 

Even older but still in the same style: In the 70's-80's cassette decks were often pictured with tapes that had clear shells and two metal "reels" inside them. Most of the time there did not even appear to be tape in the reels.

 

1- Photos in sales magazines and on websites of turntables with records on them I have never seen. Often colored vinyl with one of a kind picture labels. Hats-off to the new Music Direct catalog picturing labels like London FFRR and Motown. That alone to me makes the table more appealing.
2- Components (mostly speakers) in a "living room" that looks like something in a model home or sometrhing on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. I remember back 25+ years ago that some ads (JBL. Cerwin-Vega) had speakers pictured in living rooms that looked like someone actually lived in them and were comfortable to be in.

 

Right, it takes some serious math skills to deduce the price of a single speaker from the price of a pair.

 

I once read an economic anlysis somewhere that convincingly showed that at small to medium scales of production, it's far more profitable to produce fewer, higher priced units than more, less expensive ones. I don't object to the logic or the practice so long as there is still a correlation between cost and quality. I feel like the highly subjective nature of assessing the quality (and ultimately value) of audio gear really presents an often overwhelming temptation for manufacturers to simultaneously raise prices while reducing quality. The upper tier of audio equipment seems to be almost entirely predicated on the maxim that a fool and his money are soon parted, and many products come across as more of a con than anything else; "This might finally be taking it too far, but let's see if someone bites!"

 

Those poor, downtrodden high-end manufacturers. I feel for them.

 

I just went to their website to have a look. They do have pictures of their products and the innards. It looks like a website from the 90's but the pictures are there.

 

Or names that are just ridiculously stupid. Speedball, Crack, S.E.X, Mainline.

 

And if there aren’t enough bites, provide perpetual “amazing” sales which bring the product’s price down to a more realistic amount that still includes a respectable profit margin.

 

I am not bothered when the manufacturer uses unconventional model names... If anything, I thinks they are poking-a-stick-in-the-eye of the industry, which they view as overly self-aggrandizing... I probably would not repeat the meaningless name unless telling an friend interested in buying one.
The names you mention are from Bottlehead, a company in business about 25 years with a reputation for diy quality tube products. They have introduced many younger people on a budget (also offer more expensive amps) to quality audio components. There is often a waiting list for their products..
Another company that comes to mind with a similar naming philosophy is Schiit. A company with a reputation of selling quality/price components for less then the industry average...
I do not own either, but both would be near the top of my list when searching for new gear.

 

Let's see Schiit or Crack? Both sound gross.

 

Which really brings out the point in even bothering to giving things a name at all.

The manufactures give them names, like the names impart strength an meaning to a inert product.

For example Rogue Audio, had their 225-Watt, Dual Mono, KT88 driven, Zeus tube amplifier, that weighs 200-lbs.



They use other names of the Greek God's for their amplifier's.

Here are their Apollo, monoblock amplifier's. These currently have a compliment of six KT-120 power tubes, which deliver 250-Watts, per-monoblock, which weigh 100-lbs. each. I believe these are their "Dark" version.

 

And in the 1980s some cheap stereo systems had stickers with fake reels printed on them inside the cassette compartments, to make it look like it came pre-loaded with the fancy "reel-to-reel style" cassettes.

 

Using four-letter words in their ad copy to show how edgy/hip/woke dey is. Spare me, Klipsch!

 

I’m not sure what you’re getting at with that comment. You do realize that these are, for the most part, very small companies that employ very few people, right? Rogue Audio, for example, has something like ten employees. They are real people with jobs they need to support their families. VPI may seem huge based on their presence online - they are also a tiny company, operating out of a very modest space.