rmeyer52 wrote:

Stereophile would be better served to have more real life reviews...

We actually review quite a lot of reasonably priced components. See www.stereophile.com/category/budget-component-reviews. As much care goes into the preparation of those reviews as it does to the expensive stuff.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

I kind of like reading reviews of five-figure components sometimes. The subjective prose about the sound quality is very imaginative and inventive. Like I speculate about what a phrase like "timbral warmth", or "tonal balance" or "a fully fleshed-out brilliance range"(this is a direct quote from TAS) can possibly mean.
Its particularly entertaining when, at the end, the reviewer says something like"only in comparison with the (six-figure)super jerkoff reference system,( the reviewers system at home), do the subtle flaws of the component under review become apparent. TAS ends nearly every high-end review this way. This is what I love about stereo.If I win the lotto, you bet I'm buying the super jerkoff reference system. After I've donated a chunk of it to charity,of course.

unless electronics and speakers have been extensively broken in prior to exhibit at CES or any show there is little chance that the sound quality can be what would pass as high end sound or even decent sound. Well, maybe on Day 4, you know, after the show is over. Besides, these things can be rigged rather easily. Almost anyone could rig the demonstration so an inexpensive system will ALWAYS beat a very expensive system. It's not rocket science. And furthermore, no self respecting audiophile would sit in on a multiple speaker demo or visit a store with multiple systems set up in the same room. Any system you listen to in such a case will sound like junk.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

OP-

(3) things matter to any system;
Room/Listening space, Gear and Power conditioning.

Allen Fant wrote:

OP-

(3) things matter to any system;
Room/Listening space, Gear and Power conditioning.

You might as well say the sky is blue. It would be somewhat helpful if you described in a litle more detail what you mean by room/space. Besides I think you're wrong. There actually doesn't have to be room/listening space. I prove that everyday with my portable CD and portable cassette system. I do not require room/listening space. As for power conditioning, again, i have circumvented the whole issue of house AC power and having to worry about conditioning it in ANY way! I do not have ANY issues with voltage! EMI/RFI, noise on the AC lines, wall outlets issues, wall outlet cover issues, power cord issues, any of that. As for gear, I have 15 ounces of gear. Thus, in one swell foop I bipassed all of your requirements. Pretty cool, eh? This is the difference between an ordinary audiophile and an advanced audiophile.

"An ordinary man has no means of deliverance." Old audiophile expression

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

rmeyer52 wrote:

The demo I was talking about was at CES and the audience consisted of audiophile store owners as well as members of the press. At the time we were trying to better understand the relationship between price and perceived sound quality to warrant more investment in high end audio development. There is, I believe, a ceiling between the correlation between price and sound quality. Can anyone, for example, really justify a ser of $14,000 speaker cables? Speakers are always going to be subjective. People who paid a lot for their equip are always going to feel it was justified.

Actually I think people CAN justify $14,000 speaker cables. Just like they can justify $100,000 turntables, $15,000 cartridges, $100,000 speakers, or what have you. Certainly if you had a system with $100,000 speakers and a $15,000 cartridge it's not unreasonable to spend $14,000 on speaker cables. One of my customers now spends ALL his money on cables. He had an epiphany in this regard after auditioning the new High Fidelity Cables power cord. This is not to say, of course, that many folks cannot be happy with inexpensive systems. On the contrary, my current system - my entire system! - costs a total of $20. And I am a very happy camper.

As I intimated there are quite a few reasons why it's difficult to correctly compare cables, especially at CES.

"The deeper you go the higher you fly."

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica