To be fair, I must say I’ve never heard their equipment,
This is what we call a target rich environment. But you caught me in a good mood.
For a while back in the 90’s and 00’s, before I got hooked up and crazy good at figuring out what was what, I would go around to all the shops looking and touching and listening. Well this is an essential stage we all must go through. Assuming you ever do want to get really good at this, I mean. There really is no other reason.
So anyway that’s what I did. And so all the time I would hear variations on the OP. Only they would put it different. They would tell me all about the great build quality. Which at first when you don’t know too much is pretty hard to argue with. Especially when they seem so sure and use a lot of technical sounding terms. Like scroll around, easy to find the same going on here every day, all the time. Word salad. Like iceberg lettuce. You feel good because they tell you you’re supposed to eat it, even though ultimately zero nutritional value.
Okay, okay, I’m getting there. Global pandemic, bear with me, please.
If I’ve laid the groundwork then by now you are anticipating some sort of change is coming. Right, because at first everything seemed fine. After a while though I began to notice there sure seemed to be an awful lot of really expensive stuff chock full of really expensive parts that just did not sound very good at all. And I will get flack for it so no names but anyone been around any time at all can think of plenty of examples, no problem.
The better I got at listening and evaluating the less patience I had for sales blather. At first I would knowingly nod and ymm ahh yes I see good point. But eventually what I settled on was, "Just let me hear it. If it sounds good enough it could be bailing wire and bubble gum for all I care."
Now of course I know enough to just look at a Raven or Prima Luna and know it just about has to sound awesome, even in the absence of reviews. Because I have learned over time and experience exactly what difference quality caps, resistors, diodes, transformers, wire, and connections makes.
So yes it is fair to judge a product by what’s inside. But only to a point. And even then, only when you know what you are looking at.
