Re:Declining quality of consumer-grade products – 2009 fridg...
by enragedcacti on Sunday August 14, 2022 @09:26PM
(#32464870)
A more modern example would be dashcams. The vast majority of products on the market are using the same sensors and the same SoCs, and the image quality difference is practically negligible between <$100 units and $400 ones. A dashcam with the image quality of even a GoPro doesn't exist, no matter how much money you are willing to spend.
Re:Declining quality of consumer-grade products – 2009 fridg...
by AmericanChopper on Sunday August 14, 2022 @08:33PM
(#32464528)
Why does nobody mass produce a high quality version of this outdated technology that only myself and a small collection of enthusiasts care about? Has the free market failed yet again?
Re:Declining quality of consumer-grade products – 2009 fridg...
by bluGill on Sunday August 14, 2022 @10:05PM
(#32465088)
I will produce one in my garrage for a price. I know good preamps can be bought off the shelf. I'm not sure about the heads, so I'll have to do some research, if I have to make the head cost goes up because I need to buy tools I don't have. Some for the other parts, some I can make already with tools I have, some I can buy quality, others I'll need to charge enough to pay for tools.
Re:Declining quality of consumer-grade products – 2009 fridg...
by hakfoo on Sunday August 14, 2022 @10:58PM
(#32465382)
I saw an interesting schematic to use a cut off casette-tape head to read the magnetic stripes on credit cards.
I wonder if the reverse could be done-- using the heads that are still (likely) in production for use in card readers, then using some DSP magic to reconstruct a decent audio product?
Re:Declining quality of consumer-grade products – 2009 fridg...
by djkivi on Sunday August 14, 2022 @08:36PM
(#32464547)
Well, the cassette tape is obsolete, unlike toasters or refrigerators.
Re:Declining quality of consumer-grade products – 2009 fridg...
by tialaramex on Sunday August 14, 2022 @09:41PM
(#32464964)
The original comment offered no such exclusions. If we want to say only that the free market will provide whatever it wants and we can like it or lump it suddenly that's not very attractive is it?
Nobody makes high quality cassette tape mechanisms. It doesn't make sense to make ten of a custom cassette tape mechanism, only at least tens of thousands, so, they don't. But the market for thousands of these mechanisms is for the cheapest possible not good quality. So you simply can't buy good quality.
It was possible in the 1980s, at great expense, for the humble cassette tape to sound pretty good, the Nakamichi Dragon is the most famous high end tape deck.
But you can't do that today. There are a handful of Chinese manufacturers, spitting out variations on the same basic cheapest possible "eh, it's good enough" mechanism and that's the entire market.