Black Friday and New Year Sales: Experience of Audiomania

Our showroom on the metro station Elektrozavodskaya

In the 28th issue of the podcast “Sound”, we discuss New Year's sales and touch on the topic of the double blind method , which came up with a lot of questions in Russian-speaking iTunes.

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Dmitry: This year was Black Friday at Audiomania. It began on November 26 (2015), Thursday evening. I wonder how it went.

Timothy: It should have started, to be sure. Something went wrong this year. At 19 o’clock they did not start. And at 20 hours nothing started. I doubt that next year the official website of the action will be needed.

Our own activity yielded quite good results even without an aggregator site that generated errors on transitions. A person clicking on our banner, instead of getting to our site, got to some page with the inscription "Oh, something went wrong." This is a familiar thing after the past and the year before last.

We decided to actively work with our site., made a lot of good offers and, due to this, got good sales at the time the action started, when we (and some other projects) were still not on the aggregator site. Other projects were present, something worked, something did not work. In general, it was fun.

Dmitry: If you clarify, then this is such a large aggregator of all kinds of goods that can only be in Russian e-commerce and are sold at a discount on Black Friday. If you look from the point of view of acoustics and audio equipment, what are the most interesting products for promotion can be noted on this day? What causes the greatest interest?

Timothy:Traditionally, inexpensive electronics of the middle segment are of interest, which after serious discounts becomes available to a wide range of people, not only the middle class, but generally to everyone. A similar situation is with acoustics. This time we decided not to display the products of the “ Do it yourself ” section and various accessories so that the most interesting products are more noticeable.

On the one hand, it turned out, on the other hand, we received feedback from some buyers that they were going to buy speakers and cables, and on our Black Friday these goods were not announced. In addition to this promotion, we are conducting a New Year sale, which takes place in December. This is a much older tradition. As part of this promotion, there are cables and everything else. Discounts are always good.

Dmitriy:It is interesting. Black Friday, one way or another, is connected with Western culture and Christmas. Here, an approach to Russian realities and restructuring of the action for the New Year, adaptation to our features are interesting.

Timothy: Yes. By the way, about traditions in general. This year I noticed an interesting thing. In the previous two years, there were many skeptics - companies that were not very serious about this event, that it was possible to get new customers at it.

We are often asked about why all this is needed at all, what is the point of trading in minus or zero. In fact, on Black Friday we get a lot of new customers. We are talking about people who have not previously interacted in any way with our company.

Unlike other major players who are only interested in the first order, we are interested in the client on an ongoing basis. The aftertaste of Black Friday lasts long enough. We continue to work with these people, and they buy goods already without discounts. Of course, there are people who are chasing discounts and buying only that way, and without discounts they are not interested in anything.

Fortunately, a large number of people are no longer interested in discounts, but in goods and specific offers. This year there was just an insane amount of sellers on the official Black Friday website. This did not happen in the past, especially in the year before last. It so happened that companies relying on big traffic did not really receive it. The effect was not what it was predicted.

I already saidabout this, and next year it’s not at all a fact that we will participate in this project. We will do discounts, of course. We will not part with our tradition. Our hot price , which is traditionally held in December, will continue. Black Friday is likely to come to naught.

The global negative about the stock as a whole in the market is coming from all directions. And on the part of buyers, because many sellers, instead of making a discount, simply set the price next to them, and crossed out the old one as the price before the discount. This is stupid.

It would seem, looking at the experience of previous years, it could be concluded that such an approach does not work. People all understand this very well. There is a search engine cache, there are regular customers who go to the site and look at prices. When the action is launched, people understand that nothing in the prices has changed except for their display on the site.

Dmitry: Well, in many ways I had to fight the wave of this misunderstanding and prove that prices are really real.

Timothy: By the way, we do not have to prove. This has never happened. Maybe there were a couple of questions from people who are far from the topic and saw some expensive goods at a discount, and did not believe that the discount was real. What is the problem? It’s easy to check everything.

Now there is no problem with this, so we have no such questions. If we give a discount, then it is real.



Dmitry: In this light, the New Year sale is a promising and good thing that will leave a longer lasting effect. What categories besides do-it-yourself products should I include in this promotion?

Timothy: All categories are interesting. I think that people who remain indifferent to Christmas and New Year sales simply do not exist. Everyone wants to buy something at a more “tasty” price. December is a great time for this. We are also actively moving towards professional equipment and musical instruments . Who often happens on our site already sees this.

We have a lot of completely new brands that we have not dealt with before. I think in the next 2-3 months we will have a lot of musical instruments. Guitars have already appeared . In general, we are moving in a new direction. Of course, this is not very simple. There are always some pitfalls, but, I think, everything will work out.



Dmitry: This is interesting. The main thing is not to stand still. Development always requires some effort. On the other hand, the process itself is enjoyable.

Timothy:Yes. The main thing is that this development is consistent with the concept of business. We will not sell peas for 28 rubles. We are only talking about music and audio: home, portable, professional. We are still Audiomania. We will never be an aggregator or a hypermarket. This is not in the plans; we are not even discussing it.

Dmitry: Then let's return to a very specific topic in the world of audio and sound. There are many questions about the double blind test. People are interested in what we think about this and how we evaluate this approach, what is its meaning, what is the secret.

It seems to me that it is worth starting from the approach as a whole, which allows one to evaluate one or another acoustics, the sound of one or another instrument with one's own ears. Is it worth it to do in the showrooms, come to the shops? Or is it worth it to rely on your instinct, take it from your friends, use some other approach?

Timothy: Regarding the topic of audio, I don’t know if blind tests are needed or not. Most often they say this when someone is trying to prove something to someone. For example, a skeptic is trying to prove that different cables sound the same, that anti-vibration accessories do not work, that the speakers sound the same, that MP3 is no different from lossless, and so on.

There are still useless tests that a static picture through one HDMI cable matches a static picture through another HDMI cable. The main trouble of all these tests is the preparation and conditions for the testing itself.

All this is at an amateur level. It is very difficult to adequately conduct this test. For example, you can put expensive speakers and equipment and check the difference in the sound of some cables, but at the same time take as source music material that is obtained from MP3. This does not make sense because this musical material will sound equally bad.



Former AV Cafe. Now - another showroom of Audiomania on the metro station

Dmitry University : I think it should be taken as a scientific experiment, where it is necessary to observe certain conditions for its "purity".

Timothy: Of course, any experiment should be "clean." I heard people taking household testers and using them tried to measure cable resistance or inductance. This is such nonsense. Devices have a certain error. It is foolish to use a device with a large error to measure the difference, which is within this error. This makes no sense.

Even if we take the anti-vibration accessories that we give people home to try, in particular Cold Ray cones , there are situations when a person comes home, puts them under the equipment, turns on, listens. He does not immediately understand whether there is a difference. We can provide them for a week or two, and a person within this time listens to music and understands that there is no difference, and decides to return the accessories to the store.

What happens next: the person removes the cones from under the equipment, turns on the music to make sure that he is right. At this moment, he realizes that something from the music has disappeared, and he is no longer ready to return the accessories to the store.

The situation plays a role, and what is being listened to and how it is being listened. A psychological question also takes place, especially when two people try to prove something to each other. When the conversation is about the different sound of the equipment with some cables, for example.

Dmitriy:Still, a double blind test should be taken as a laboratory experiment, an experiment in a vacuum, when people try to prove their concept and understanding in the heat of their argument. This leads to a separation from specific life realities that allow a person to live or not live in comfort in accordance with his taste wishes.

In pursuit of the truth from one side or another, which, most likely, does not correspond to the reality of both one and the other, people simply come to a detachment from any practical application.

Timothy: Yes.

Dmitry: That is, there is no special truth in this.

Timothy:On the one hand, yes, on the other hand, no. The double blind method, when even the one conducting the experiment, does not know which cable and source are used in this case, this, of course, is correct. Another question is that often these experiments are not carried out with the aim of choosing a component.

People are trying to get subjects to determine which component or cable is more expensive and which is cheaper. This can be compared with wine, when people are given bottles without labels, two glasses are poured and asked to say which wine is more expensive and which is cheaper. At this point, the meaning of the test is replaced by the interest of the one who conducts the test. But does it really matter which is cheaper and which is more expensive?

I have always wondered why this particular question is asked to people who participate in the test as subjects. If I like some wine, I drink it and buy it for the holidays. Who cares if it’s expensive or cheap if I like it. A similar approach can be applied to acoustics. This is a subjective thing: there is taste, and here is hearing.

I listen to music to get some positive emotions. I want to get the maximum of these emotions and for this I’m buying some, maybe expensive equipment. There is marketing, and everyone has already perfectly understood that not necessarily a better thing will cost more. There are cases when a cheap product is of good quality.

This may be part of the concept of brand development. In my opinion, you have to try. If we really conduct such tests, then our task should not be to compare the expensive and cheap, our task should be to compare what is better and what is worse.

All this is very subjective and the result is suitable for a particular person. At this moment, it turns out that the very meaning of the experiment is lost. How to draw conclusions if ten people sit, and five say that they like one option, and five that another? What does it mean? Does this mean that an expensive cable is bad or a cheap cable is good, or speakers, or a source? This does not mean anything.

Dmitriy:This means that one person liked one set of equipment, and another - another. These are rather strict restrictions, and here we are talking about such acoustic individualism, when a person cannot spread his personal opinion and convince everyone that only he is right and everyone should like only what he likes.

Timothy: That's the point. I am quite skeptical about the idea of ​​conducting such tests. You need to understand what we conclude. Let's say we test sources or DACs, or even usb cables. It would seem that everywhere is a solid figure, but there are nuances. For example, few people know that audio is transmitted via a USB cable over a specific protocol that differs from the protocol used to transmit ordinary data. People don’t think about it. They believe that the cable is digital.

We have already talked about this, but, nevertheless, I repeat, there are no digital cables. Any cable is an analogue, and a figure is just a representation of the information at the entrance to this cable and at the output. Therefore, there can be no digital transmission in the cable. This is just an interpretation.



New site of Audiomania

I had such a funny argument with one friend on the forum. I told him that the equipment may sound different if you replace the network cable from a complete cable to a decent one. He said that this cannot be, because all network cables carry 220 from the outlet to the equipment. And if you need to use a good cable, then you need to carry out power from the power line. And only then it makes sense, otherwise it is impossible, because noodles can even go to the outlet.

Indeed, not very high quality cable can go to the outlet. To do this, there are surge protectors that plug into the outlet. And already from network filters connect the equipment with decent cables. A person from the forum said that this would not work.

He had a fairly active subscriber base, and a bunch of people supported him, naturally without experience in such listening. I told him: “Well, come. I'll turn it on, you listen with your own ears and then tell your own. So that there are no questions, we will connect one option, we will connect another option. And then you will say what you think. ”

He came and listened. And the conclusion was: “Yes, there is a difference. I do not understand why. I thought there was a 6th grade high school physics. I thought this was enough to explain what happens in the wires. " Unfortunately, 6th grade physics is not enough, that's true.

He hears this difference, he does not understand how to explain it. He wrote about such a post that he did not understand anything, but he heard the difference, and asked him to forget about it faster, because everyone had just said that this was not so.

Dmitry: Living in a new reality is not very familiar.

Timothy:And this, by the way, is a classic. I have old friends who still listen to acoustics acquired many years ago. They think it's great. Every time a conversation comes that you can come to us and listen to something, I warn them that there will be no turning back.

On the one hand, it’s great to learn something new, on the other hand, it is always a rather serious danger, because a person learns that there is something much better, and that he wants to throw away what is at home.

Dmitry: Well, yes, you already have to transport old friends to the garage.

Timothy:But this immediately entails additional costs and time. If a person did not know about this, he would have perfectly existed further. As Zhvanetsky had: “All your life you will think that she loves you, and she will tell you this, and will not know the truth, and will live happily ...”.

Maybe the man was happy with everything, but then he found out that there is a completely different life, and his favorite music sounds completely different from what he was used to. He will have to urgently buy other equipment.

Dmitry: Often, such discoveries occur precisely during personal listening in a particular store, showroom or boutique, which is specially equipped for competent listening to acoustics.

Timothy: Yes.

Dmitry: Now there are many times more such opportunities than seven years ago.

Timofey: Recently, the Moscow Hi-End Show was held. Traditionally, such exhibitions on Hi-Fi and Hi-End are held in hotels, where each hotel room is a company. The hotel room is not designed to listen to something: the very configuration of the room and a lot of unnecessary things that cannot be removed or removed.



Digital Acoustic Corrector DSPeaker Anti-Mode 8033S-II

We always use a digital acoustic corrector - a device that puts in the gap between the source and the amplifier. A special microphone is connected to it. The microphone listens to what is output and corrects the signal.

This is not an equalizer, it is a much smarter thing that makes different adjustments at different frequencies. It so happened that before the exhibition we sold all the acoustic correctors, and we had nothing to bring. This is not a very pleasant situation. On the other hand, we were occasionally scolded that we, unlike our neighbors, use such devices. It's like doping in sports - you can’t use it.

This time we did not use it, and the impressions were similar. In fact, there is a difference, there are better conditions, there are worse, but you can’t hear how this or that speaker or equipment with this speaker sounds in a specially prepared room.

Of course, in every room with different equipment, with different sound material, the equipment and acoustics sound differently. The dishes in the cupboard begin to play, even the walls begin to play and play along. This is inevitable if we are not in a specially prepared room.

Our showrooms, for example, are not drowned. They are similar to ordinary rooms, only lacking plates, glasses, spoons. This does not interfere, but in general, the impression of listening is similar to what a person will get at home.

Returning to the topic of tests, which usually begin with a dispute between skeptics, audiophiles and music lovers, it is worth saying that quite often at exhibitions we hear the opinions of ordinary people who went to the next room and listened to the equipment for 3-4 million, and then came to us and heard equipment for 100 thousand.

They don’t understand why it is necessary to pay 4 million for that equipment, when the equipment for 100 thousand sounds better. From the height of my experience, I would advise you not to prove anything to anyone. There is no need for this. You have an opinion, someone has a different opinion, and let it remain so.

A dispute may be good, but conducting a really full-fledged blind test is not entirely easy. Providing the proper level of training and selecting equipment and materials so as to keep the experiment clean is not always easy.

All this is more than subjective, and an attempt to prove that with a cheap cable the equipment sounds better has a right to exist. It really can be true.

If you draw a graph of the dependence of sound quality, nuances and impressions on the price, then at some point the graph will change sharply crookedly. Investing in these nuances will greatly increase. Each small share of the improvement in this sound has to be paid for in a sufficiently large amount. It is a fact.

I would advise you to always keep this in mind. In the lower price range with a slight increase in the amount of money, the sound quality is significantly increased. The place where the graph starts to curve upward is the best investment, I think.

Dmitriy:Now the development of technology is at such a level that it makes no sense to spend millions. For reasonable money, you can get quality that is already sufficient and high. It allows you to enjoy using a good source, source data and material. Many people forget about the material and try to compare it on MP3 versions.

Timothy: Yes. In fact, it all depends on the task. If you plan to put the equipment in the room where the designer worked, in which everything is beautifully and well matched to each other, it is impossible to put the usual black speakers there. Acoustics is an element of the interior, if it is standing and visible. This cannot be ignored. At some points, you have to overpay for the design.

Dmitriy:This is a compromise. Depending on the specific tasks. If it’s more important for a person to enter something into a pleasant interior and observe some color preferences that do not always allow them to purchase the manufacturer’s products in the original configuration, maybe something has to be ordered additionally.

Timothy: I really like the comparison with the clothing market. There is a girl, sees some beautiful dress on the window, comes in and buys a gray blouse. In our topic, as a gray blouse, as a rule, black columns, despite the fact that now there are a lot of color schemes and a lot of interesting things.

For example, acoustics PenaudioIt looks completely unusual. Various veneers are used and Finnish plywood. People look, open their mouths and then still buy in black lacquer or in black satin, as is fashionable now.

The varnish gradually goes out of fashion, matte colors come in, nice-to-touch coatings. It really works, and we have a lot of such options. However, black remains very popular.

Dmitry: Why not, if people like it. The main criterion is personal preference.

Timothy:Yes. Return again to the tests. I would like to encourage people to conduct these tests not with the goal of proving something to someone, but with the goal of choosing for themselves this or that equipment, these or those components, accessories that will allow you to listen to music with great pleasure, with great feelings and reach out to the depths souls. We are music lovers, we listen to music, let others listen to the equipment.

PS For those who would like to please relatives, friends and colleagues with a good sound for Valentine's Day, Defender of the Fatherland and International Women's Day, we have prepared a special selection of musical gifts with good discounts.