Again a great thread you are starting. The amp you mention, was it the Rapaport? If the audio writers would not "discover" new stuff to rave over, their rags would bore us stiff, no one would read them anymore, no more advertising. Finito. All this does not have to be bogus. They need new blood to stay alive. I suppose its in the system. Besides, I think its tough for a new design to really reach the market over a longer strech of time. A bright young designer starting from a garage might with luck get rave review somewhere and then be swamped with orders, which he cannot fulfill. So he has to go in search of capital to start his small business in some industrial park and mostly he is heavily into debt. Now he should advertise, what he probably cannot afford, dealers are mostly overstocked, might take in a unit or two, but tend to pay him only, when they have sold them and soon there is a new king, the press is raving over and our friend, disillusioned, is back in his garage, probably cleaning it out, because he has to sell his house to pay his bank. These days, I feel, you need to have a lot of financial backing to start a new line on the market. Sad but true.
Classics and Cults. Bogus Journalism?
Classics endure, it seems, even as technology improves. Regardless of the new stuff, people still seem to agree that the AR SP-11 is a very good pre amp, that VPI TNT turntables are wonderful, that the Levinson 30/31 combination is a great CD player etc. Some, gear however, bursts onto the high end scene in a flash of glory, only to disappear off the face of the earth and never be mentioned again. What's going on here? I was thinking recently of the Crown Macro Reference, an amp that I never heard but I recall that it was briefly the best thing in the world with the high end audio press, only to never be mentioned again and presumably trade at deep discounts. There was another amp -- made in a garage somewhere -- maybe some of you recall the name -- that despite its low cost and simple SS design, was possibly the best amp EVER in the world. It was back ordered forever, only to disappear and never be mentioned again. Can anyone else think of products like this? Are these just spurious reviews or were the writers drinking Krug and Chateau Lafite courtesy of the manufacturers before sitting down at their keyboards?
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- 17 posts total
- 17 posts total