Is this ludicrous or not?


Did any of you GON members happen to read Six Moon's review,written by Six Moon's creator and resident audiophile guru Srajan Ebaen,regarding Red Rock Audio's Renaissance monoblock amps that sell for $38,750.00/pr? Ebaen,stopped his formal review when he couldn't elminate in his words,"a very belligerent ground loop". However even before this stated problem, he described the sound of these amps as,"berefit of tension,energy,color,communicativeness,or any true sense of music". Ebaen, also stated that a,"$999.00 Onix/Melody SP3 amp was superior". Now here's the fun part.By applying Walker's Extreme SST to all the tube pins the "veil" was removed and the energy emerged and unfolded.Walker is quoted as saying by using his Extreme SST that,"the amps went from being mediocre to bonafide super-amp magic".Now,I want to be totally fair,I use this product my self and find it to be quite good at adding that final resolution to my system. I also accept that a world class amp can be tweaked out to its ultimate performance with power cords and isolation devices.But would you spend $38,750.00 for a pair of amps that first sound inferior to an amp that costs less than $1000.00, and only after you use this tweak they become world class contenders! What does this say about the over all design flaws that are still there.I found this to be one of the most ludicrous reviews I have ever read. Notice I'm not attacking the statement that the amps improved after the tweak,but the ridiculous notion that anyone,in their right mind ,would spend close to 40 grand for a pair of amps and than be dependent on a $200.00 tweak to make them sound right! Thank goodness for that,"very belligerent ground loop",otherwise Srajan might have completed his review and loved these amps.It would be great if you GON members would share your opinions on this review,maybe I'm the crazy one.
teajay

Showing 1 response by rkeman

The idea of spending $37,500 on any amplifier is insane. There are quite a few manufacturers producing great amplifiers and other components at a small fraction of this price, and there is no reason to spend more in the vast majority of cases. Good stereo equipment has become more expensive over the past decade because the market for it has become much smaller and more specialized. The audio press has also had a considerable impact by consistently showcasing exotic products that have a very poor cost-to-performance ratio and extremely limited availability. The inexpensive gems can still be had, but now it takes much more effort to find them!