It has been found that it is best when reviewers go out of their way to be polite to manufacturers in print, yet show the 'problems' that they find.
I did NOT design the input section, but it should have 2SK170's at the input, that is the standard part that Constellation uses.
Any manufacturer has plenty of time to present a cherry picked pristine product to be reviewed. If the product hasn't been thoroughly checked out before hand and it's shown as having faults then how can the consumer have confidence in receiving a quality product? Common sense isn't so common it seems.
Many products have problems at their first introduction. I had a problem 20 years ago with Stereophile when we submitted the first HCA2200. I had to re-do the input stage to make it successful in a second attempt. Ticked my boss off, but I trusted that I had made the right design decision, without seriously listening to the product or letting my peers independendently evaluate it (my best input) and allowing it to be submitted to Stereophile. They were nice enough to not take me apart, in print.
They really liked my next submission: The HCA2200 MK2, a very successful product for Parasound. I use a variant of it myself at the moment, the HCA2500.
They really liked my next submission: The HCA2200 MK2, a very successful product for Parasound. I use a variant of it myself at the moment, the HCA2500.
I've been racking my brains trying to think of any other industry or area of human endeavour which contains such a massive amount of snake oil, Bull S**t and exaggeration as hifi. I have totally failed.
It's the reason I stopped bothering about hifi for many years, settled for the mediocre system I had and just enjoyed the music.
I can feel myself drifting off that way again, loosing faith, whatever you want to call it. Most days I can laugh at it all but when I see the enormous sums of money being wasted on audio by the gullible wealthy, in a world of increasing poverty, it sometimes gets me down.
Maybe i'll feel better about it all again tomorrow, maybe I just need to get drunk.
It's the reason I stopped bothering about hifi for many years, settled for the mediocre system I had and just enjoyed the music.
I can feel myself drifting off that way again, loosing faith, whatever you want to call it. Most days I can laugh at it all but when I see the enormous sums of money being wasted on audio by the gullible wealthy, in a world of increasing poverty, it sometimes gets me down.
Maybe i'll feel better about it all again tomorrow, maybe I just need to get drunk.
No but I wish I had. Would be great to have on my resume working for one of the most honest reviewers around unlike most of what is out there today.
I already talked about why that shouldn't be so but I guess it went over your head.
Contrary to a lot of advice given online, it doesn't take a lot of money to obtain a very good sounding system. No reason to have a "mediocre" one 🙂 yep you can enjoy the music instead of worrying what the snobby neighbors will think about your less than $100,000 system.
Yes a lot of the wealthy got their money by being greedy and not caring to help anyone. That's life and to be expected from those types but when it comes down to either actually saving a life or buying that $27,000 amp then I too cringe and lose faith in humanity. Maybe they listen to AC/DC Highway to Hell 24/7 😕 Would be appropriate.
Quack medicine. Even major ethical pharmacies carry magnetic shoe inserts, homeopathic "remedies," copper bracelets, and so-called dietary supplements.
I did consider that one and yes, in terms of how much total profit they make globally, they do win.
I don't think even they can sell placebo/snake oil or vastly overpriced products for many multiple thousands of £,$,? which either do nothing at all, or the exact same thing as a well researched, properly implemented and reasonably priced alternative.
Not even the perfume industry can pull that one off to the same degree and they are famous for imaginative pricing.
Anyway I feel a bit better now having got that off my chest, still fancy a nice bottle of red wine though. To hell with it, i'm off to my local village shop (for local people) 😀
I don't think even they can sell placebo/snake oil or vastly overpriced products for many multiple thousands of £,$,? which either do nothing at all, or the exact same thing as a well researched, properly implemented and reasonably priced alternative.
Not even the perfume industry can pull that one off to the same degree and they are famous for imaginative pricing.
Anyway I feel a bit better now having got that off my chest, still fancy a nice bottle of red wine though. To hell with it, i'm off to my local village shop (for local people) 😀
Red wine is always a good option, but a bit early here. I'm heading downstairs to the lab to work on my latest phono stage. After that, the wine. 😀
Well, for me tonight its Pear cider and lots of it...
Steinmusic DE3 Demagnetizer - Audiocom
Ant experts in polymers around here who could explain how the magnetized pigment used in LP (carbon black?) could in any possible way affect the sound quality...🙂 I wont ask how it becomes magnetized, there are things in this world that should remain a mystery.
I was actually looking at clock upgrades, as these are currently bugging me somewhat, and looking at the circuitry logic used etc and the haphazard way these things are attached I cant see them making much difference and in lots of cases I think the implementation would be detrimental, but then I am a cloth eared objectivist.
Steinmusic DE3 Demagnetizer - Audiocom
Ant experts in polymers around here who could explain how the magnetized pigment used in LP (carbon black?) could in any possible way affect the sound quality...🙂 I wont ask how it becomes magnetized, there are things in this world that should remain a mystery.
I was actually looking at clock upgrades, as these are currently bugging me somewhat, and looking at the circuitry logic used etc and the haphazard way these things are attached I cant see them making much difference and in lots of cases I think the implementation would be detrimental, but then I am a cloth eared objectivist.
I'm sorry for you guys. You can't just leave it alone, you just have to attack hi end audio. The only thing that I maintain, is that with a few exceptions, there isn't much real profit in hi end audio. Many occupations pay better and have higher mark-ups.
"Hi end" or "high cost"? Yeah all those poor manufacturers barely scraping by that are at those hifi shows every year boo hoo 
Maybe if they made cost effective good products and didn't spew out rubbish pseudo-science terms trying to fool the gullible for big prices, then they would find themselves selling lots more.
Sorry for us? Don't be we are very happy enjoying the music on perfectly good systems instead of wasting time and money on uber priced hogwash.
So why is the $27,000 amp going to be hard to fix?
Maybe if they made cost effective good products and didn't spew out rubbish pseudo-science terms trying to fool the gullible for big prices, then they would find themselves selling lots more.Sorry for us? Don't be we are very happy enjoying the music on perfectly good systems instead of wasting time and money on uber priced hogwash.
So why is the $27,000 amp going to be hard to fix?
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Mystery solved. 😀
se
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