Torvin Audio

all I know is torvin is based in chennai but they also have an outlet in bangalore, if I am not mistaken.

manek.

The best thing is for you to check it out yourself !!

Judging from their ads in AVMax they seem more like a HT brand.

In bangalore, they are oppsite the Koramangala BDA complex, near Nilgiris.
you need to climb down from the road to get to them.

rgds

Hi all,
I have auditioned the Torvins (not all models but a few). They are didnt sound bad at all considering the fact that I have been auditioning few other brands e.g Wharfdales, Jamo, Sonodyne, KEF, Corrson etc in the last few weeks. Torvins have almost 15 models for home audio purpose and I liked the phantom9 fairly well. They are 3 way Towers priced at 23k per pair. The bass seemed tight, the treble was crisp and midrange was quite distinct and clear. I am saying this only after I compared few other speakers available in the store. Ok they are available at Audio Planet (behind BDA complex Koramangala) in Bangalore, Phone 25523126, 9845019192. Now, if any one of you have ever auditioned them or even listened to them then please let us know about your opinion.

I remember reading a 2 page article in AV Max some 3-4 years ago, wherein one of the now senior reviewers had enthusiastically “reviewed” Torvin speakers at the Torvin premises. The head honcho at Torvin had called the reviewer in question to proudly show off his flagship creation, a huge 5 foot tower with multiple drivers and 450 watt (!!!) power handling capacity. The amazing thing was, he had only arranged for some receiver and a LD player to pair the behemoths with, for this review!

My mind had boggled at that time. Imagine a speaker designer / manufacturer, calling the only AV magazine in the country to “review” his pride and joy, and having on hand only some weak kneed receiver / LD player to pair it with! And, a star reviewer, going for an audition without even ensuring that proper components were available for the event, and then proudly reporting on that fact!

I remember sending off a letter to the AV Max editor pointing to this major gaffe on part of both Torvin and AV Max, which, of course, was not printed.

I sincerely hope both have come a long way since then….

hee hee....we sure have a long way to go on the AV max front,,thats for sure....somehow their review content just dont match their ratings....they will praise the product highly in the text and rate it 6 out of 10(10 being the max).

Looks like they are almost afraid to call a spade, a spade..anyone else noticed this or is it just me ? i could be wrong, you know.

Manek.

I have read a few AV-MAX magazines (hardly 15 issues) so far, one of the things that I often see is a whole lot of praise for Onkyo products, their HT systems, their recievers etc. Anyone who is very new to hifi and reads this magazine will definitely think that Onkyo is the best brand available in India, whereas it is among the least discussed brands in our forum. Even my small journey in hifi says that Onkyos are highly priced for the products they offer and are yet to come close to the Yamahas for their Value for money stuff and the Denons for their clarity. But AV-MAX seems to be so biased towards them. One more thing is that AVMAX doesnt seem to evaluate products like audiophiles, though I guess they will be having experienced audiophiles in their company but the stuffs they write are very mass-market kinds and even many of the terminologies they use to praise a product seems very mass-market types. Frankly I couldnt decide on one of the products (an HK reciever) even though they had mentioned so many praises about it...........

In the issue I mentioned above, they also did a "review" of a 100 WPC Yamaha integrated, paired with some bookshelves. The reviewer found the amp was "gasping for power" whatever that means! And, that very year, both Hifi Choice and What Hifi had actually commended that particular Yamaha for its reserves of power!!

Although I have largely avoided AV Max after this experience, a couple of issues I have had the opportunity of leafing through at some friend's house suggest that they are pretty good at cut and paste publication.

i've listened to torvin speakers for more than once. the SQ is good but i hapened to witness a broken driver in one of the speakers during the audition. Mr.Palani is a good friend of mine. bought my JBL monoblock amp and pioneer subwoofers from him for my dad's car. i especially liked a pair of monitors with 12" LF drivers. the drivers were the same as the ones used by Palesha in their Soomoka subwoofers.
I agree with Krish that most of their models are targeted at the HT segment.
BTW had been to PROFX yesterday, listened to the Coda90.
it sounded pretty good, but i think the diamond 8.4s have better bass. besides, the build quality was cheap and the grill uhh! even worse than my diamonds(and that's saying something). they are being offered for 32.5k(as a special offer)
ask for Alex.
i should point out that they sounded much better than their high end counterparts, Q7(67k). the mid and high were sounding very bad(could'nt seperatre tehm properly).

Two things are to be noticed.
First, you will find Onkyo in all the back covers of the magazine since it's inception.
Second, you will find Mr.Dhandapani (Onkyo) gets a lot of coverage with his interviews and pics.
That sums it all.
Cadence has done the right thing in disassociating with this phoney magazine.
I wonder who runs this establishment, Mr. Tata or Mr. Dhandapani

i completely agree with you. their magazine is in effect a advert for onkyo. calling themselves the audio magazine of the country in face of no competetion is relatively easy. the same things happen in most motoring magazines too.
the onkyo name is so bloated in india that they have been able to push some mediocre stuff as audiophile equipment. they have such huge demand that one only has to look at the stock lying around the showroom in bangalore.
you stick around for an hour and u'll see many people who just come there and say do u have this model which is auditioned in the avmax magazine or even those who just make up their mind without knowing that their is beter stuff out there for the same moolah.
i have nothing against onkyo, in fact i reccomend them highly but they are simply not worth their prices(especially the speakers and subwoofers).

Guy's,

He who pay's the piper call's the tune.

It is an established and accepted modus operandi in print and publishing for the editorial to be under the control of marketing. Simply put advertisers have a major say in the leanings of any publiction.

If you look closely at the TOI in Mumbai most suppliments will have ads and write up's about products advertised right next to them. They don't even try to hide it anymore. A news report in the latest Businesswrold suggest that TOI even takes shares in advertisers Co., in lieu of money, for AD space!!

AV MAX as the name suggests tries to "max"imise their revenue by flogging the "AV" products of the advertisers. That's their business and we have to respect that.

It's up to sucker's like us to keep our guards up.

Caveat emptor- buyer beware!!!!

Roshan.

Sad, but true.

And, going by the letters to the editor of AV Max, there seems to be no dearth of suckers. But, especially galling is pride with which the mag prints the paeans sung by these novices.

Pretty cloying, to say the least.

AV MAX not only is a mag bad in shape , but the people who work for it...i have had some funny experiences and blasted them left n right.ya ONKYO is the best hi-end available in India according to AV MAX then why they shot down the price from 1,14,000 to 72,000 within a matter of minutes of my conversation on phone.imagine the margin guys.... they give u outright discounts of 30 to 40% the moment you walk in.....why not HK or Denon.....coz they are buyin their ad space...it's not AVMAX it's danapani maxxx n thats my opinion.....

Yesterday I saw a program on NDTV, gadget guru(??).

They were covering the AV show in Delhi. Again most of the time was spent on ONKYO. Perhaps, as the host mentioned, Onkyo is th only brand that has it's own dedicated Company here are is not dependent on dealer's etc.. or words to that effect. Maybe that's why they are more in-your-face!!

Roshan.

ya roshan and the problem is not too many people who buy HT's buy for the sound quality but to add style to their room..many customers as I've seen walk into a showroom an buy a plasma and look at Onkyo .....give out a wow and get drawn away by the looks.....and decide for themselves that Onkyo is the best and buy it...........the rest of word of mouth communication...is done by his wife in Mahila samaj..or her kitty party community..whrer she praises the sound effects she just experienced in a Abhishek and a aishwarya starrer flop flick.no wonder it gained a premium status in a common man's mind and the moment you mention Onkyo he utters out words of praise ( he would've never ever auditioned.yup sorry heard it)This is the state of hifi in our town.........as manek suggested stay away from them

See but thats the problem, a lot of people, over 90% buy lifestyle products as they look good and the fact that they also emitt sound is a bonus.

Thats the way the cookie crumbles all over the world.....!Guys like us are few and far between.

Manek.

Just saw this thread and thank my lucky stars that I quit ONKYO as their GM- MKTG & TECHNICAL 10 years back. Worked for them, for over 1.5 years. They used to make 300% profit margins guys.

Amen
Prithvi

Hi,
Just joined forum today.
Have almost decided on Onkyo HTS 570S 5.1 av receiver with 5 speakers and subwoofer home theater...for use with my DVD

Now, seeing the experts views, i am thinking twice.

I have budget of 30k only now.
Have inclination to Denon AVR 1404 AVReciever..But i also saw that service was problem with some users at Bangalore.

I dont know where to get Yamaha..which i have heard is good..

Not an expert and hence all your advice will be taken..

Hey,

Based on your budjet. Try the Sondyne and the Lithos. Great sound and VFM.

Roshan.

Hi anilkool,

Onkyo is good but not really worth the money.if you go in for sonodyne you will have to spend much more and for AVR+speakers Yamaha.........you might try it with some HTP speaker packages. bargain lil more and if you are happy with Onkyo go in for the same atleast it comes with prematched speakers and decent features.Juts pickin Denon 1404 or even a 1604 is no big deal or harmon Kardon for 17 or 20K...but finding matching speakers will easily bump the 45-50K limit.

Did any one get a chance to look at this Months AV Max. Mr Dhandapani has got the maximum awards at AV Max awards 2004

Best regards
Deepu

What a co-oincidence!!!!!!!

Roshan.

heh heh...

he didin't win those awards..that's the momento given by AVMAX for the continued back page funding by ONKYO....I better suggest ONKYO bigwigs to use a better platform it's like skatin on shit

300% margin 10 years back would have been common to all high end players that time, due to smaller market share and less competition. Onkyo is very competative now some of their ranges are priced on par with Yamaha gray prices now. Check out Onkyo TXSR502=6.1ch AV Receiver 130W/ch at 6ohms with universal remote control is available for Rs20K!! not to forget the 1 support. HTS570 5.1ch home theater is also great value @ Rs30K. at zero percent interest finance+ free installation and home delivery!!!

0% interest is not given as a favour to us anil.he sells more of his products and if i may correct you the price of 502 is 30k...and if those guys have dropped it to 20k.they are desperate for business as a 70yr vamp is.talking about free home delivery and installation is a must.....he cannot and shouldn't charge you......except you go for hi-end ones which need professional help....yup i told you HT570 is good at 30k asyou might need to spend more in case you plan to buy a diffrent brand....but never ever let anyone tell you that 0% finance is a nice gesture.....even sonodyne offers you 0% finance.....we need more discounts pal and not finance.......pressurise Vishwas to give you more discounts.....more n more.and ofcourse ask for a better sub 2 the same price and extended warranty.

i checked it out last week. 502 has become 20K. now you can get one of their 7.1 ones for 30K.

holy cow.i called up today and they quoted me 38k for TXSR502 6.1 and 45k for TXSR602 - 7.1.what are these buggers upto........get into serious trouble... BTW had you been to the showroon in Cunningham road??. did you check the prices there???