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A practical example

Paul's Posts — 29 March 2012

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A practical example

Much of the feedback on this subject centered around the name “high-end” and the general feeling the name’s a turn off because it equates to “high-priced” in people’s minds and doesn’t really describe the concept.  I agree.  But that just reinforces my first contention that we need a brand name.

Brand names create brand promises.  Take PS Audio as a brand.  We promise high value, high-end audio and power products and provide exceptional interaction with our community.  It’s what you think about when you think of us.  That’s a brand promise.

What’s the brand promise of high-end audio?  We put you in the concert hall with the musicians and we do that by adding a third dimension to a two dimensional process. Stereophonic sound is a two-dimensional technology providing everything in the X (left to right) and Y (top to bottom) axis between the two speakers.  High-end audio adds a third dimension in the Z axis (front to back) we call depth.  It is the addition of this 3d dimension that helps the illusion we are trying to create: you are there.  We immerse you in the sound experience.

Let’s make up a brand name for this example: 3D Stereo.  Ignore all the rush of doubts this may generate in your mind – it’s just an example.  Better minds than mine can take this and give us something better, of that I am sure.  But it does two things: creates a brand promise and differentiates high-end products from run of the mill consumer products.

Getting a system to sound like you are there is not necessarily expensive – it just takes skill, knowledge and execution of techniques that we in the high-end audio business understand quite well.  It’s what we do and what we know how to design.

If we then follow through with advertising and media stories about these “new” products that – when used together properly – add another dimension to what I am hearing, who wouldn’t that be interesting to?  I am interested already.

On the long shot anyone likes 3D Stereo for the brand name, I grabbed the URL www.3dstereo.org for the high-end community. I am happy to donate it if there’s any interest.  BTW, I just pointed the domain at ours for now, so you’ll just be taken to the PS site.

 

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About Author

Paul McGowan

Paul McGowan is the CEO and co-founder of PS Audio Inc. a Boulder Colorado design and manufacturing company of high-end audio products and services. McGowan has been designing and building high-end products for nearly 40 years. Hobbies include skiing, music, hiking, artisan bread baking, kick boxing and cooking. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his 4 sons.

(21) Readers Comments

  1. Gannon

    March 29, 2012 at 4:30 am

    Geez, I’ve been trying to resurrect the term “Hifi” for decades!

    It got abused in the 50s and 60s by cheap electronics…then discarded in the 70s (when did the rag High Fidelity close?!)…so it is ripe for renewal.

    When I got the job with Stereophile and moved to LA over a decade ago…I got my first vanity plate. California has the heart symbol for their ‘support the children’ series of license plates, so of course I had to get I (heart) Hifi.

    Was stopped in traffic one time (in LA, go figure!), and a very young girl rolled down her window and asked why I loved ‘old record players’, since her father apparently told her that was what Hifi meant.

    So, it NEEDS some PR help…LOL!

    But yeah…we should make manufacturers EARN the use of the term. When they are faithful to passing the recording as true as possible, THEN they can describe their products as Hifi.

    Or even this 3dStereo…is there any way we can create real metrics which align with our perceptions?! Can depth-of-field and sound-stage size be quantified in some way?! There may be some use to those new triangulation sensors they use to locate vector and distance of gunshots. I wonder if something like that can be used to help us define and measure what we hear.

    Where’s my caffeine?!

    Cheers,
    John

    • March 29, 2012 at 6:33 am

      Jeez John you’d be perfect to spearhead such a charge!

      • Gannon

        March 29, 2012 at 9:15 am

        Can we find a revenue stream in it?! LOL!

        Perhaps I go ahead with the magazine concept…when I test-questioned a few key folk around the industry, the feedback I got was the need exists for the particular approach I wanted to take…but I couldn’t find enough revenue to make it viable. There wasn’t an acceptance to subscriptions on-line, and eventually I’d piss off every manufacturer in the industry…unless one of ‘em suddenly became perfect.

        Maybe things’re different a few years down the road. Except for the perfection acquisition…

        Cheers!

    • Tom

      March 29, 2012 at 9:56 am

      I agree. “Hi-Fi” has for years seemed to me as good a term as anyone could imagine. Hell, “Wi-Fi” has become ubiquitous and clearly some of its appeal is the hearkening back to “Hi-Fi.”

      I’d suggest that it needs the hyphen as well as the capitals to become a brand.

      As an alternative: “Hi-Def Audio.” This, too, would tie neatly into established terminology and wouldn’t need much in terms of explanation.

      • March 29, 2012 at 11:30 am

        I have always been fond of Hi Fi as well. The one reason I like 3D Stereo (as opposed to 3D Hi Fi) is maybe totally geek – but stereo means two-channel and juxtaposing it next to “3″ implies something pretty special.

        On Facebook it’s been mentioned that the problem with focusing on 3D is it’s all about imaging and high-end audio is not all about imaging.

        Problem is, we have to focus on something that’s simple – and it’s the best I have.

    • Soundminded

      April 2, 2012 at 8:41 am

      “when did the rag High Fidelity close?!”

      “When I got the job with Stereophile”

      I see it the other way around. High Fidelity Magazine relied on test reports of the well respected CBS Laboratories, later called CBS Technology Center. Stereo Review relied on Hirsch Houck Laboratories, Audio Magazine had its own laboratory. Whatever the opinions expressed at least the test data was reliable.

      In Stereophile Magazine by contrast I don’t think even published measurements in its early days. Based on what I’ve read of it I don’t hold its opinions in any regard. After awhile I got tired of reading about the best speaker, amplifier, cd player or whatever in the world of the month. Nor do I have much respect for its editor who has published some viewpoints elsewhere that make no sense to me at all.

      Once upon a time Stereo Review made the mistake of publishing the results of double blind testing between a certain well known early manufacturer of audiophile speaker cables, 16 gage lamp cord, and 18 gage “speaker wire.” Result, no difference between the expensive branded product and 16 gage lamp cord but both better than 18 gage. You can be sure that manufacturer dropped his advertising in that magazine and other magazines learned from their mistake. Why should I trust any of these magazines? One year their reviews of a product are stellar, a few years later they look down on the same product that is “dated” when something newer to advertise comes along. The goal is not a moving target.

  2. dmdz9

    March 29, 2012 at 5:55 am

    The term, “Entry Level” is also a turn-off and off-putting in my mind. A well selected, low cost system that provides “3rd sound” in abundance is as hifi as a high dollar system. If we use dollar values to guage the level of the system and not its ability to communicate the musical experience, we are missing the point of a being well informed buyer.

    My thoughts,
    Doug

  3. Adolf

    March 29, 2012 at 10:22 am

    Why don’t you speak about “True Audio”. High, 3D or what else wording will be used is only “marketing” speech.
    True Audio means what it really is. Everyone has his own perception of truth. On the other hand the truth is an absolute term, which cannot be negotiated. What is 3D Audio? It’s only a geometric description of a sound field. Next idea will be 4D Audio, which could be 3D paired with the new dimension of emotion. All these marketing terms will be copied soon and probably damaged by claims of audio products, that will never fill these High……claims like it has been with HIFI.
    PS Audio is “True Audio”

    • March 29, 2012 at 11:31 am

      Hmmmm. There’s merit to True Audio. Not sure it’s the perfect term but I like where it’s going.

  4. Ed S

    March 29, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    Hi-def audio? Def-initely not! Hi-def (deaf) audio besides being oxymoronic is ripe for ridicule. 3-D audio?… Do you have to wear funny earmuffs, like those 3-D glasses, when you listen? Besides, 3-D is such a dated concept, and is perceived as a gimmick, which the current 3-D movie fad is trying not very successfully to milk. Let the movies and TV guys have it. And besides, youll be open to false advertising lawsuits if you claim 2 speakers are creating real pinpoints of sound around the room. Comeon, even some audiophiles say soundstaging is bogus. And dont we already have 5.1 and 7.1 for that immersive effect? My email is “hifi.guy”… Nobody gets it. They think it refers to my 30-years of marriage. True HD, Master Audio are already taken. So you see the difficulty. It’s not going to be easy to re-package an old wine in a new bottle, but good luck!

    • March 30, 2012 at 6:13 am

      Ed, I agree with you it won’t be easy. Not sure I agree with you stereo can’t be three dimensional in the truest sense of the word. However, I am open to your thoughts. If not 3D Stereo then, what would you propose?

    • Tom

      March 30, 2012 at 8:44 am

      Ah…30 years of marriage! So you’re not like the guy in the old joke who was so obsessed with his audio gear that his wife displayed low fidelity with high frequency…

  5. Tom Devey

    March 29, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    I agree with Ed S, it would be a marketing nightmare to get the concept you are proposing through all of the clutter ‘surrounding’ dimensional audio. The only way, in my opinion, that people might be convinced of the benefit of high end two-channel stereo, as you define it is to hear it, and unfortunately the marketing channel suited for that, independent audio stores, is largely disappearing.

    This requires the marketing skills of a Don Draper. Lay in a case of Canadian Club and give him a call.

  6. Bassman23

    March 29, 2012 at 1:17 pm

    3-D audio as a marketing concept may be a bit late; so many lousy 3-D movies lately makes it sound like a gimmick.
    I remember Carver used the term “Sonic Holography” for some of their processing equipment back when (it was a pretty neat effect when set up right).
    Maybe “Aural Holography” to avoid trademark infringement? We have certainly read enough reviews using the term “holography”, and with good reason. A person who hears a high end system for the first time is knocked out by the illusion of real music in real space.

    • March 30, 2012 at 6:16 am

      I am actually working on a real product that does give you a holographic sound field from anywhere in the room and not based on a gimmick or requires you to wear something or have you head in a vice – so I am reserving a few names for that step – but right now that’s only a pipe dream and what’s important is to work on branding 2-channel high-end audio. I wouldn’t want to get people’s expectations too high – but you’re right – maybe it’s too late for 3D audio? Anyway, I am certainly open to new ideas.

      Good dialog guys.

      • Soundminded

        March 30, 2012 at 8:23 am

        You’ve hinted at this before. Innovation IMO is the first step on the road to business success but it is just one step. Many others have to follow and good ideas can fall by the wayside. Care to give us a slightly better glimpse of what you have in mind? I’m sure I’m not the only one whose curiousity has been aroused.

  7. March 30, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Because the patent has been applied for and we’re waiting on results I cannot give full disclosure right now. It’s a single enclosure 3 dimensional sound projector that uses the room itself to create the holographic sound field. Instead of what most speaker systems do, which is work against the room, this system actually incorporates the room to its advantage. The net result is you can walk any where in the room (well, 170 or so degrees) and simply perceive a different perspective on the soundstage as you might in a live concert setting. It’s pretty unnerving actually – but quite amazing. Those that visit PS get a taste.

    • Soundminded

      March 30, 2012 at 9:00 am

      My patent also uses the room to advantage, in fact the room is an indespensible part of it. This runs counter to practically all audiophile notions as expressed in current designs which attempt to negate or defeat the room. IMO that’s a hopeless effort. Perhaps you’ve cited my patent (now expired) in your own application. Yes, very different results can be obtained this way, results not possible by other methods. My still largely proprietary mathematical model could not find a solution using a single enclosure. Contact me off line if you wish to discuss it further.

  8. sbrinck

    March 30, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    Sorry Paul
    Not remotely the same idea but the same sense of nausea came to me when I first read your URL I don’t have an alternate but this is whats out there I am sure it lives up to its apt description LOL !!

    Provides: Audio enhancement for dock connection iDevices
    Developer: SRS Labs
    Minimum Requirements: iPhone, iPad, iPad 2 or iPod with 30-pin Apple connector, standard headphones or earbuds, SRS iWOW App, iOS 3.1 (Note: iWOW 3D will work with any 30-pin Apple connector, even the iPod nano which does not have connectivity to the iTunes App Store, however, the user will not have the added function afforded by the SRS iWOW App)
    Price: iWOW 3D Deluxe – $79.99 (normally $99.99); iWOW 3D – $59.99 (normally $69.99)
    Availability: Now

    Digital music revolutionized both distribution and listening habits, but analog purists have always panned the digital medium’s fidelity shortcomings. Nevertheless, for most users, the convenience of digital storage and playback far outweighs consequential diminishment of the high-fidelity prized by audiophiles.

    However, there are ways to enhance the mediocre digital audio experience. One is the SRS iWOW 3D audio enhancing adapter dongle that plugs into an iPhone, iPod, or iPad—even the iPod nano—via the 30-pin Apple connector on these devices. The opposite end of the cable has a female 3.5 mm audio jack to plug in headphones or earbuds.

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