CQ-Contest
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [CQ-Contest] Wireless Headphone System

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Wireless Headphone System
From: Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: k9yc@arrl.net
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 10:20:13 -0800
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Exactly right.  It's also important to realize that the quantity of units sold can be a very large component of their cost. The Yamaha CM500 headset and Koss equivalent are relatively inexpensive because they are designed for and sold to a mass market of computer gamers, which is a far greater market than hams and audio professionals.  Their production quantities are in the hundreds of thousand units.

Roughly 20 years ago, the designer of a VERY sophisticated DSP system for large sound systems applied the same principle,  using off-the-shelf Ethernet hardware to transport the signals rather than designing their own hardware from scratch. That decision drastically reduced the total system cost, making it cost effective. The system (called Cobranet) was widely used in large scale like stadiums and theme parks (think Disney). They weren't using consumer-grade hardware, but rather the pro-grade stuff designed for high reliability IT systems. And that decision meant that they could use off-the-shelf products to use fiber interconnects.

73, Jim K9YC

On 12/24/2017 5:52 PM, Kelly Taylor wrote:
True, price isn’t always an accurate indicator of quality, either way. Cheap isn’t 
necessarily junk and expensive isn’t necessarily quality.

The trick is understanding what you need, what the technical specs are telling 
you and what potential problems may derive from the design. Without that 
understanding, you can run into issues no matter how much, or how little, you 
pay.

Then you decide what trade-offs you’re comfortable making.


_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>