Reactions to HP's review of Antique Sound Lab amp?

What's not to like about the TAS review. It's an outright, unequivocal rave. Furthermore the product seems to be an "honest" product. No bold innovations, fancy CNC cases, no silly acronyms -- it's just a simple circuit executed right. Furthermore, while the price is not real world, at least by audiophile standards it's relatively cheap. 200 watts of tube power for under $5k. That's something to get excited about! Whether the ASL is the world's best amp (whatever that phrase means), or whether it's simply a very fine sounding amp is really beside the point. Last month Stereophile raved about the Parasound monoblocks and now TAS is triumphing the ASL. It's seems that it's a good moment in history to be into high powered amps.

Everytime you swap out a piece of equipment there is some element of risk. Whether you've devoted 60 hours of comparative in-home listening or simply took the plunge within 10 minutes of just looking at the product there's a roughly equal chance that within 2 or 3 years you'll want to upgrade again. Barring some technical mismatch (impedance, i/o sensitivity, etc.) I would hope that any product with audiophile aspirations would reach 80-85% of its performance level when matched with virtually any other audiophile product. With these thoughts in mind I argue that buying based upon a magazine review is as valid as any other method of equipment selection. Harry Pearson has a long track record of stating his equipment preferences. If someone has preferences that coincide with Pearson's, then they'd probably be quite happy with any product he raves about. The worst that can happen is within a few months from now when Pearson proclaims another amp as the best, the owner of the ASL will have to survive with the "second best" amplifier on the planet.

Talking about the last issue of TAS, what I actually found even more interesting is Valin's comment towards the start of the Kharma speaker review. He talks about how his recent review of the Rockport Hyperion and addresses why he is not using it as his personal reference. One of his reasons is costs, but then he comes right out and says he could do it if the manufacturer sells him a "demo" pair. Big name reviewer in big name audio magazine will tout component as his reference if manufacturer gives reviewer pair at favorable price. I think this is outrageous. I know that reviewer pricing is common place, but the audacity of putting it in print is astonishing.