On Music Systems and PMPOs

Long back I had been to an Onkyo showroom (2004) and was marveling at some of the gadgets available at the place. The Liverpool series was what that had grabbed my attention on their web pages. Being a good audio fan, I naturally lusted at the thought of having a small Class A amplifier delivering the notes out of my CDs and Tapes with utmost clarity. At 26 Watts RMS it was unlikely to actually cause any inconvenience to my neighbors as well. I should also say that at this point we had a Home Theater powered by a massive Yamaha amplifier and the sound delivered through a pair of Bose 301 Series 4, and a few Pandams for the other channels. Anyways, this is not about that.

So I am in the shop, testing out stuff and walks in another customer. A conversation starts between the customer (who looked well educated as well as literate and definitely with the buying power) and the showroom manager. Here’s the conversation that followed:

Customer: “What’s the price of this system here. It looks good.”
Manager: “Sir, that will cost about Rs 18,000/-”
Customer: “What all does it have? ”
Manager: “Its a Liverpool mini system, it has a CD player and a FM Radio.”
Customer: “What about tape player?”
Manager: “That you will have to buy extra, it comes for Rs 12,000/-.”
Customer: “Does the CD player play VCDs (Video CDs) and DVDs as well, what about MP3?”
Manager: “No sir, it just plays Audio CDs.”
Customer: “Does it have very high wattage?”
Manager: “It delivers 26 Watts RMS per channel sir.”
Customer: “That’s ridiculous, the Sony I saw in the other shop plays CDs, VCDs, DVDs, Tape, has FM Radio and delivers 4000 Watts per channel, costs only Rs 12,000/-. You are cheating people by selling this so expensive.”
(The customer starts to leave)
Manager (now fairly angry): “You can buy the Sony sir. These are for people with ears.”

Through the whole incident I felt really sorry for the shop manager, and felt even worse for the guy who wanted to buy the Sony instead of the Onkyo, just going by the wattage and the amount of things that it could do. I went searching as usual as to why Sony would mark its products on PMPO in India & Middle East while the same will sell mentioning its RMS (Correctly) in Europe or USA.

The reason is simple, people in India or Middle East are simply too ignorant to actually know the difference. Hence, why really bother, why not sell what “sells”, in other words PMPO (Peak Music Power Output). In technical terms, its know where near the actual capability of the music system. Also, are these people dumb to think that an appliance which consumes 30 Watts of electrical energy per hour can give out 4000 Watts of music? I mean, isn’t it natural to equate the too. Maybe not for the common man. Its easy for him to ridicule the “better” as he cannot comprehend the difference. Not surprisingly, most brands of televisions do follow the same route to sell their products in the market. Some even claim that the system is derived from a “Bazooka” to give that pure base to the audio. And people spend their hard earned money to buy.

Not so long back (early 2006) I landed in a similar shop again, this time picking up the latest Liverpool from Onkyo for my home-office. In the background I could see one of the sales boys trying to sell an Aiwa (or something similar) to an elderly person. He liked what he heard but was not convinced by its prowess in the audio rendition part. Meanwhile we connected the Liverpool and tried out my Dire Straits CD, track 4, Money for Nothing. Mr. Elderly, although he was clearly not a fan of the genre of music, told the sales boy, chuck the Aiwa aside, I am taking one of those. I was happy.

Shows, weather you are a fan of Metallica, Dire Straits or MS Subhalakshmi, if you know your music, you will be able to get the right gadget for it as well, no matter who is selling it to you.

Word for the wise: When you buy an Audio Appliance, PMPO is something which will never come in use throughout its suable lifetime. Don’t get fooled by it, look for the fine print that mentions the RMS output, (something which clams to have 4400 W PMPO should have around 40 W RMS) carry something that you might listen to on the system, play it back and in all probability, you will buy the Onkyo instead of the Sony. (Else you need to visit your local ENT guy)