Musings from a new SGL member

[JonF]

As well as astronomy (or barking at the moon as my wife puts it) I also play sax. I was thinking about the similarities between the two hobbies. Sounds a bit far fetched, but bear with me.

When you buy a sax, even quite a good one, the quality of the supplied mouthpiece, the critical, human/instrument interface is often poor. A dramatic improvement can be had without massive expense.

Although spending a lot (£1,500 plus) pretty much guarentees a decent sax, if you shop carefully, you can get something which performs very well for a modest price.

The rapidly improving quality of Chinese manufacture has had a radical impact on the quality at the lower end of the market. It's a more affordable passtime than ever.

Similar situation with astronomy? Eyepieces (the ones which came with my Skywatcher are ****), budget shopping (my Skywatcher scope is good and was cheap) and Chinese manufacture (pretty much everything.

Jon

[barkis]

I guess that old familiar saying has some meaning Jon. "You get what you pay for."

If cheap equipment was always satisfactory, there would be no need for the higher quality manufactured stuff.

The differences drive the market.

People will always be looking to improve on their equipment, be it Astronomy hardware\ software, or a musicians instruments, or whatever else.

Mind you, some folks are quite happy to make the best of what they can afford.

Ron.

[JamesM]

When I bought my tenor sax (Yamaha) I was pleasantly surprised at the quality compared with a Selmer etc and although it was not as expensive as the french brand (thank goodness!) I still needed to pay 'good' money to lift it above the budget brands that also glimmered brightly behind the glass cabinet. Mind you, I did have my eye on resell value should I have decided to give it up and that's where perhaps the cheaper versions can prove more costly. I accept your point though and as a recent thread on here regarding TeleVue eyepieces revealed, whereby some members felt that they couldn't justify the significant cost of some of these eyepieces which proportionately offered less advantages when compared to mid priced equivalents. However like my own example above, I needed to spend a reasonable sum to at least avoid some of the quality control issues that so often undermine cheaper kit. Astronomy equipment in general has in real terms become a lot cheaper and more accessible and for that the Chinese have to be given credit. However, very good scopes (like instruments) do hold their price well, whose precision can make demands on less tolerant additions but which can at times yield that extra performance that justifies the extra expense, though we have to be truthful and account a smidgeon of the cost towards vanity.

James

[sbooder]

It is the same with all instruments, if I was rich enough I would have a Luthier built Classical Guitar and not a cheap one and that would improve my sound…I hope!