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Mesa Engineering's manual for the Tigris integrated amp had 23 pages of great info. I didn't buy the amp but I kept the manual (PDF download from their site).
The results of last week's "Vote" indicate that audiophiles do indeed read manuals
Selling hi-fi I get to read a fair amount of manuals whether it's curiosity about a new product, setting up a product, or for personal use. The most interesting manual I've read and actually enjoyed to the very last page is any manual that comes with a pair of MartinLogan speakers. Great job guys! good pointers on speaker placement and cables, not to mention the great documentary of the electrostatics speakers and the history of electrostatics and the role they played in MartinLogan's research.
I have a ton of audio equipment and find most manuals rather thin and uninformative or thick as a brick and full of confusing information that just does'nt add up. The last few days I made a custom sub and used a car audio driver (Orion XTR 10") and a Soundstream Granite 110.2 amplifier. The Soundstream manual is second to none I've read. It tells all about the amps' specifications and a host of different hook-ups. It even goes into construction of 6 and 12db cross-overs. And more. So far this manual is my vote.
By far, the best manuals I have come across are Madrigal's Mark Levinson. They are very well presented and explain all of the functions of their equipment, from linking up the communications ports to assigning devices to each input, whether DAC or preamp. A honorable mention would go to Bryston, just because of the final test specs they package with each amplifier. It was nice to see that the amplifiers I bought rated at 500W at 8ohms actually put out 640W at 8ohms before clipping. It brings a tear to my eye.
My first Krell amp manual, because it was extrememly short and to the pointAND it ended with the word "enjoy." I have never encountered the concept of a company using a term such as this in a manual, but they should. It came as a shock to see because it immediately told my mind that someone actually considered the end concept or purpose of this electronic device. By using the term "enjoy," they were inviting me to acknowledge the point of it all: the ineffible pleasure of music.
The assembly and operation manuals that Dynaco and Hafler provided with their kits are among the best manuals I've ever seen. Having schematics and circuit descriptions makes it easier to keep these older components working almost forever.
Components are becoming so sophisticatedyet so unintuitivethat reading a well written manual is almost obligatory. One of the best I've referred to recently is a JVC RX-884VBK Audio/Video Control Receiver home theater manual. This one is comprehensive yet easy to comprehend. It also came with an easy set up diagram best described as a poster. Hard to go wrong with documentation like this.
I haven't seen a well-written manual, especially for high end equiment for the past 15 years. The sad part is 99% of high end electronics manufacturer focus on the design itself but fall short of creating a well-written manual. I believe that a well designed piece of equipment should always come with a well-written user manual.
Martin Logan gets my vote for their manual on setting up ReQuest speakers. Lots of good information about positioning although I would have appreciated something on the max torque one could tighten the 5-way binding post nuts... somewhere around 15 ft-lbs I can now attest to.