4 ms·

You could estimate it from sales or something, but Walmart has a huge wall full of various TVs, and barely one half of one aisle-side of soundbars, and no recei

You could estimate it from sales or something, but Walmart has a huge wall full of various TVs, and barely one half of one aisle-side of soundbars, and no receivers/speaker setups. I suspect something like 80% of people use the TV, and of those who upgrade, use a soundbar, maybe. And even those with a dedicated theatre room, probably have other TVs that are just TV audio.

brianwawok 2y ago
People who have a home theater aren’t exactly the core market for Wally World.
- bombcar 2y ago
  Sure, but just look at the revenue. Some do build it out (and I'm sure HN has higher percentages of "home theater types" than most) - but the average house? It's a TV. Thinking over everyone I know who has a TV, I'm the only one with a receiver connected. I think one has a soundbar.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    A lot of it is that the design of good home theater equipment is ugly and not spouse-approved. My wife simply will not tolerate big black speaker boxes and a black stack of receiver equipment in the family room. No matter how well it’s hidden away. And I know a lot of families that have the same desire for a nice looking living space.
    - bombcar 2y ago
      That's where you upgrade to in-wall speakers! (It's partially a joke, but partially real - out of sight, out of mind!) https://www.crutchfield.com/g_12600/In-wall-Speakers.html https://www.crutchfield.com/g_12600/In-wall-Speakers.html Personally I think that the "takeover" of the living room by TVs and home theater has been one of the biggest "mistakes" in modern home design - they should be relegated to the basement or some other locale.
      - ryandrake 2y ago
        This is actually what I did in our previous home. Installed round Monoprice brand in-wall speakers, and hid the AV equipment in the next room, one wall away. It sounded--not too bad.
dylan604 2y ago
That's a really sad percentage of people listening to such subpar sound that they might as well not be. I understand not everyone can afford nice audio, but a soundbar is such a drastic improvement, VHS=>DVD level of improvement, while a soundbar to surround is a DVD=>BluRay improvement. It's great for those with discerning taste, but not noticed by the vast majority. Granted, I'm not an audiophile, but I've been in/around audio mix bays long enough that I notice shit audio. It's one of those things that once you see/hear it, you can't un-see/un-hear it. Sometimes I really wish I took the blue pill in this regard
- bombcar 2y ago
  I swear there's something genetic about it; I can see the difference between VHS and 4K clearly every time, but I have to remind and point it out to my wife (she couldn't care about the difference between the VHS-quality rip of a movie and the 4K blu-ray). It has to be absolutely seamless; the received stopped working and the TV was making the noise instead, and it took a month for me to be finally arsed to go fix it.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    We have traditional cable TV, where there are standard def channels on, say, channels 2-99 and then identical HD channels from 702-799, and my wife constantly lands in the SD channels by accident and doesn’t notice the difference. I have switched back and forth between the same show on SD and then HD to show her the huge difference and she just shrugs and legitimately doesn’t see it or care.
    - dylan604 2y ago
      I did the A/B test between an OTA broadcast and the cable channel to show people just how poor the cable compression really is. The majority of people could see the difference, but like you mention there's always at least one person claiming to not see it. These are definitely not someone to hire as a QC/QA team member!
- prpl 2y ago

brianwawok 2y ago

People who have a home theater aren’t exactly the core market for Wally World.

bombcar 2y ago
Sure, but just look at the revenue. Some do build it out (and I'm sure HN has higher percentages of "home theater types" than most) - but the average house? It's a TV. Thinking over everyone I know who has a TV, I'm the only one with a receiver connected. I think one has a soundbar.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  A lot of it is that the design of good home theater equipment is ugly and not spouse-approved. My wife simply will not tolerate big black speaker boxes and a black stack of receiver equipment in the family room. No matter how well it’s hidden away. And I know a lot of families that have the same desire for a nice looking living space.
  - bombcar 2y ago
    That's where you upgrade to in-wall speakers! (It's partially a joke, but partially real - out of sight, out of mind!) https://www.crutchfield.com/g_12600/In-wall-Speakers.html https://www.crutchfield.com/g_12600/In-wall-Speakers.html Personally I think that the "takeover" of the living room by TVs and home theater has been one of the biggest "mistakes" in modern home design - they should be relegated to the basement or some other locale.
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      This is actually what I did in our previous home. Installed round Monoprice brand in-wall speakers, and hid the AV equipment in the next room, one wall away. It sounded--not too bad.

dylan604 2y ago

That's a really sad percentage of people listening to such subpar sound that they might as well not be. I understand not everyone can afford nice audio, but a soundbar is such a drastic improvement, VHS=>DVD level of improvement, while a soundbar to surround is a DVD=>BluRay improvement. It's great for those with discerning taste, but not noticed by the vast majority. Granted, I'm not an audiophile, but I've been in/around audio mix bays long enough that I notice shit audio. It's one of those things that once you see/hear it, you can't un-see/un-hear it. Sometimes I really wish I took the blue pill in this regard

bombcar 2y ago
I swear there's something genetic about it; I can see the difference between VHS and 4K clearly every time, but I have to remind and point it out to my wife (she couldn't care about the difference between the VHS-quality rip of a movie and the 4K blu-ray). It has to be absolutely seamless; the received stopped working and the TV was making the noise instead, and it took a month for me to be finally arsed to go fix it.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  We have traditional cable TV, where there are standard def channels on, say, channels 2-99 and then identical HD channels from 702-799, and my wife constantly lands in the SD channels by accident and doesn’t notice the difference. I have switched back and forth between the same show on SD and then HD to show her the huge difference and she just shrugs and legitimately doesn’t see it or care.
  - dylan604 2y ago
    I did the A/B test between an OTA broadcast and the cable channel to show people just how poor the cable compression really is. The majority of people could see the difference, but like you mention there's always at least one person claiming to not see it. These are definitely not someone to hire as a QC/QA team member!
prpl 2y ago