Interpretation of star ratings

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I am looking for 5.1 speaker package in the £500 - £1000 range for my Onkyo 605. My question is how much better is a five star rated system in the £1000 bracket (eg KEF KHT3005SE) than one in the £500 bracket (eg Q Acoustics 1010i)? After all, if the 1010i is as good as the 3005SE, why pay the twice the price? I have also seen ex-demo Linn Komponent at £999, these were rated 4 star a couple of years ago but in the £2000-3000 bracket. How would these compare to a modern 5 star rated system at a grand? Any advice gratefully received.
 

Clare Newsome

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I don't know the Linns well (but i'm sure Andrew knows more), but I can clarify the other situation - though it's not straightforward.

If you look at our Buyer's Guide, you'll see we list style speakers like the KEFs separately to traditional speakers like the Q Acoustics 1010i package as it's not comparing like with like - there's no point saying the Q Acoustics are almost as good as the KEFs if all you can fit/tolerate in your home are smaller, more stylish speakers.

Good traditional speakers will typically outperform good style speakers at the same price-point because of sheer physics, though designs are improving to lessen the gap - therefore the £1000 KEFs are better than the £500 Qs, but would be beaten (for movies and especially for music performance) by the Tannoy Mercury F1 Custom Package at £799.

In more general terms, a five-star product offers exceptional performance in its price point. For a more expensive product to gain five stars, it has to merit the premium charged over the budget product - in other words to be worth the extra investment.

You can see this most clearly in our Awards, which are divided up into price-bands- for example, the Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 is the best traditional speaker package under £750, while the Tannoy Mercury F1 Custom is the best traditional speaker package £750-£1500 and so on....
 
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Anonymous

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This is a perfect example Clare of my as yet unanswered post from weeks back!

http://whathifi.com/forums/t/4782.aspx

A performance rating OVERALL would assist buyers in selecting products, tested by yourselves, all in a similar performance bracket. As the purchaser closer approaches the high end equipment then more selective auditioning is required but I suspect this will be a minimal proportion of your readers,

It would help us middling buyers look at all equipment ranged around (say) 35% of reference and not get a great 5 star deal on a set of fantastic value for money speakers (say) only to find they are an overall 20% and let the whole system down.

Do you see my point yet?

Gerry.
 

Clare Newsome

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Hi Gerry,

Not really, to be honest - I didn't answer the thread as I really didn't understand what you were asking for.

If you mean we should rank every piece of equipment in absolute performance terms, I fundamentally disagree, because the high-end, expensive equipment would always win out, leaving anyone with less cash feeling 'what's the point?'.

I feel such a system would be elitist and discouraging, making people as likely to spend the money on something totally different (new sofa; saucepans; shoes) rather than the best home entertainment kit they could afford for their budget (which would probably be far, far better than what they already have or have had in the past).

That doesn't mean we think budget is best - we just believe in true value for money. Something like the Leema CD player at £2K+ can be equally good value as a Marantz player at £270 when compared to the performance of its peers.

If you look at our full Awards listings, or our Best Buys page we run in every issue of the magazine (both elements soon to appear here online), you'll see we have recommendations at every price point - each step up represents a genuine increase in performance.

We also offer system-building advice - from those Best Buys pages to the 'Now Add These' panel to go with each Test winner -to point readers in the direction of the ideal partners for our top-rated products.

If anyone ever has a question about how far they could stretch the performance of a particular component in terms of partnering kit, please ask us here - with our testing, we always throw all sorts of combinations of partners with products, to see what they're truly capable of, so I'm sure would have plenty of suggestions.
 
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OK Clare, I see your point and agree with you in the main.

However, using an analogy from my other passion, cars, the fact Jeremy Clarkson raves about the BMW or Aston Martin has little effect on Ford Focus or Vauxhall Corsa sales. Most of us know our financial limitations, or priorities and act accordingly. I read in awe at some of the equipment owned by posters on this forum and could not personally justify spending that much on just a CD playing system, anymore than they could justify the supercharger on my 5.6 litre V12 BMW!

Thanks for the explanation of your position and the continuous support you have for all of your readers. I do still feel though that to have something to aspire to is an encouragement for the enthusiast, and to have something to aim at is more likely to promote expenditure rather than throw money aimlessly at equipment inappropriate to the buyers budget.

Just my .02 cents.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Gerry.
 

Gerrardasnails

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Oldskool.

I can see where you are coming from, however, the majority of people who buy Focus, Corsa etc, do so because they have to have a car for numerous reasons and that is what they can afford. Hifi, to a lot like us, is a necessity to a point but realistically it's not, just a luxury. What Clare is pointing out is that if ones luxury was awarded two stars in the mag, most would think, I'll not bother. Cars are very different, a lot of people have no interest in their car other than it working.
 

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