How well respected our EAR products

EAR's Tim de Paravicini is sort of England's Roger Modjeski (Music Reference). They are both circuit and tube experts, old-world electronic engineers with a distain for high-end tweaks like boutique parts and after-market power cords. Both companies are relatively small operations with a few select U.S. dealers.

EAR owners tend to keep the pieces they install in their systems for years, and are "I'm done" (a Michael Fremer expression I rather like) purchases. Meaning they sound so musically satisfying that cases of upgraditis amongst owners of EAR products are more rare than with many other brands. One tends to forget about the sound for it's own sake, and listen rather to the music itself. EAR products are also fully developed before they are put into production, with very few Mk.2's of any given model, the models staying in the EAR line-up for years without the frequent, expensive updates to the products of some of the larger companies.

EAR makes excellent gear if looking for a neutral and transparent sound.

Only trouble I had was an 890 amp fuse blew that took out the fuse holder. Dealer was long gone and US importer wasn't much help so I ended up repairing it myself.

I no longer own EAR gear but highly recommended!

Paravicini personally oversaw and custom designed many of the electronics for David Gilmour's floating studio, Astoria. If it's good enough for Gilmour, I'd say he's pretty much a badass.

Correction: didn't oversee, but did design components.

Interesting that GSM 18439 should mention an EAR cd player that would not read cd's.My EAR Acute spent several stays with the talented EAR tech Mitch Singerman.The player would not read certain discs,usually imports.Mitch lost some brain cells trying to figure out why it was not reading these discs,but he could not crack it.No satisfaction from EAR on an exchange.Pretty creepy people with no integrity.
The problem went unresolved,so naturally I'm more than curious if this has finally been solved.I still have my unit,the Acute,and play it often because it sounds sooooo good.It has an amazing warm sound an the uncanny ability to soundstage like vinyl.This whole episode was very frustrating and I came out of this with less respect for EAR,their choice,of dealers with questionable practices as their retail affiliates in the L.A. area and more respect for the tech.As for "demo" stock folks,there is a difference between broken in and broken.