Russ Andrews Sky HD box
Author
Discussion

shep1001

Original Poster:

4,619 posts

212 months

Sunday 28th October 2012
quotequote all
Anybody running one of these? are they worth the money he charges for them in terms of increase in AV quality over a std box.

Shep

IforB

9,840 posts

252 months

Sunday 28th October 2012
quotequote all
In my eyes, there's no way it's worth it, especially as I haven't demo'd one.

Mentioning Russ Andrews on any forum involved with AV kit will invariably involve some people call him a shyster and others defending him.

I've demo'd a lot of Russ Andrews kit and some is very good and some I cannot notice the slightest difference whatsoever.


Some Gump

13,014 posts

209 months

Sunday 28th October 2012
quotequote all
Shep, sky doen't broadcast at th limits of the gear - 90 % of the time, the bitrate / quality of feed will be the limiting factor...

shep1001

Original Poster:

4,619 posts

212 months

Sunday 28th October 2012
quotequote all
IforB said:
In my eyes, there's no way it's worth it, especially as I haven't demo'd one.

Mentioning Russ Andrews on any forum involved with AV kit will invariably involve some people call him a shyster and others defending him.

I've demo'd a lot of Russ Andrews kit and some is very good and some I cannot notice the slightest difference whatsoever.
Thats my concern. I could get a demo box and try it. All the marketing twaddle as you would expect says its the dogs danglies but I am not convinced

miniman

29,300 posts

285 months

Sunday 28th October 2012
quotequote all
A tiny grasp of electronics combined with the upgrade features list of this thing equals instant scepticism. The word you are looking for, Gentleman, is bks.

jontymo

844 posts

173 months

Sunday 28th October 2012
quotequote all
Probably best to have a look around avforums.

P700DEE

1,181 posts

253 months

Monday 29th October 2012
quotequote all
Russ usually offers a sale or return so you can try with no risk. Have to say that I have tried some of his kit, I use his speaker cables and some mains cables. I also had a balanced mains set up before he started selling them, huge difference for audio.

Tycho

12,122 posts

296 months

Monday 29th October 2012
quotequote all
Surely any company selling a kettle lead for £100 has to be taking the piss?

IforB

9,840 posts

252 months

Monday 29th October 2012
quotequote all
Tycho said:
Surely any company selling a kettle lead for £100 has to be taking the piss?
Have you tried their stuff? There is a massive temptation for people to simply say "what a load of guff" when discussing this sort of thing, however, having tried the leads and other bits, then I certainly heard a difference and I'm as cynical as anyone about it.

Whether it's worth it to you is a different matter, but I'm very careful about slagging something off I haven't tried out.

MissChief

7,835 posts

191 months

Monday 29th October 2012
quotequote all
IforB said:
Have you tried their stuff? There is a massive temptation for people to simply say "what a load of guff" when discussing this sort of thing, however, having tried the leads and other bits, then I certainly heard a difference and I'm as cynical as anyone about it.

Whether it's worth it to you is a different matter, but I'm very careful about slagging something off I haven't tried out.
more likely you subconciously wanted to hear a difference so you did. if you did 9 blind listening tests I doubt you'd be right more than 50% of the time.

IforB

9,840 posts

252 months

Monday 29th October 2012
quotequote all
MissChief said:
IforB said:
Have you tried their stuff? There is a massive temptation for people to simply say "what a load of guff" when discussing this sort of thing, however, having tried the leads and other bits, then I certainly heard a difference and I'm as cynical as anyone about it.

Whether it's worth it to you is a different matter, but I'm very careful about slagging something off I haven't tried out.
more likely you subconciously wanted to hear a difference so you did. if you did 9 blind listening tests I doubt you'd be right more than 50% of the time.
Not even close I'm afraid. I've demo'd lot's of different bits and some I heard a big difference, some a small difference, most naff all difference.

Since I wasn't paying for it, I can assure you I had no interest in hearing a result.

The big difference for me was when a mate was playing with it on his system and I was sitting working and not paying attention at all. I had no idea what he was doing and yet I reacted instantly to the change in the sound. It was really wierd and the engineer in me has no bloody idea how this stuff works, but some of it seems to. Not all, but some.

Seriously, unless you've tried it yourself, then your opinion isn't valid. I thought it was all utter nonsense until I tried it and the vast majority of the Russ Andrews stuff is exactly that, but some of the things do make a difference.

Give it a go. Then call it nonsense.

JustinP1

13,357 posts

253 months

Tuesday 30th October 2012
quotequote all
MissChief said:
more likely you subconciously wanted to hear a difference so you did. if you did 9 blind listening tests I doubt you'd be right more than 50% of the time.
Quite possibly.

However, blind listening tests are notoriously difficult to obtain positive data on.

I would go further than what you've said and would state that if you did a blind listening test on something much more significant such changing AV amps from the £200 one in the range and the £500 one in the range, and the £500 in the range and the £1000 model, in blind listening tests even the best listeners may not gain statistically significant positive results.

Does that mean that Onkyo are shysters?

Or does it mean that blind tests are difficult?

I have two Sky HD boxes, different makes and ages, and they perform quite differently. I wouldn't put it past the realms of possibility that an upgraded Sky box could obtain better performance - in fact I would say that it would be likely.

The question is whether it is worth is as the compression on a lot of Sky HD stuff makes much more a marked difference in quality than a box will ever impart.

PJ S

10,842 posts

250 months

Tuesday 30th October 2012
quotequote all
Tycho said:
Surely any company selling a kettle lead for £100 has to be taking the piss?
Boiling it surely?

dave_s13

13,979 posts

292 months

Tuesday 30th October 2012
quotequote all
We live in a strange world when you can buy a kettle lead for over 3 grand

http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?lookup=1&am...

On the face of it that site seems to sell snake oil by the bucket load. £611 for a fckukin freesat box! £17.30 for some little bits of wood to "elevate" your cables lol.

Saying that though I'd love to actually hear something that high end in action, maybe if I won the euromillions I'd have a go at it but to a mere mortal, like me, absolutely ridiculous.

PJ S

10,842 posts

250 months

Tuesday 30th October 2012
quotequote all
Just don't go looking for Shun Mook stuff - you'll blow a fuse!

Sparky137

935 posts

204 months

Friday 2nd November 2012
quotequote all
The problem is that 99% of the material broadcast is of a technical quality that doesn't justify spending on anything more than a standard Sky HD box. Freeview generally gives a far better quality. Sky squeezes bandwidth so that they can transmit more channels and make more money whereas Freeview transmits to a standard, not a revenue!!

And as for most of the program content................. what is the point!!

Sparky137

935 posts

204 months

Saturday 3rd November 2012
quotequote all
Sky Sports and Sky News probably have the best quality of all the Sky channels anyway. In fact Sky News can be brutal to some of the presenters!!!