sure, dave, the t2's work in your system cuz of those lousy paradigm speakers! ;~) seriously, detlof's right in the fact that a few bad apples can spoil the bunch. sure did for ezmeralda11! ;~) ezmeralda's definitely outta line in just about every category, imo. while there certainly are worthless product in each category, it does *not* mean that they're all bad. in fact, wasn't the point of this thread to name specific product that you feel *is* bad??? instead of just condemning the whole hi-end genre? i bought a pair of bose 901's back in 1970. what did i know, snot-nosed li'l kid that i was? but, w/that *monster* pioneer 60wpc sx828, & that dual 1229, i was in heaven! that rig lasted me thru hi-school, college, and my 1st working years. i din't ditch those speakers until ~1987, & then, when auditioning comparably-priced speakers, i realized how truly awful they were. only thing that made 'em tolerable near the end, was that cheezy equalizer/spectrum analyzer i used 'em with, for maybe four years or so. to get flat frequency response, the eq controls looked kinda like a "w" - i figured it was the room. but, every room i put 'em in (i was moving a lot, in those days!), same shape on the eq. it really *did* make a big improvement to the 901's sound - who cared about phase anomalies introduced w/a cheap equalizer - like it mattered w/those 901's! ;~) don't let some bad apples spoil *your* bunch, doug s. |
seandtaylor, perhaps i shouldn't speak for maxgain, but i'm sure his feelings closely mirror mine: you are sticking up for someone who, in condemning things he doesn't like about the hi-end, uses the word "ALL" an awful lot. personally, i can only agree w/esmeralda's item #'s 6 & 10: w/item #6, specific components are named. whether or not one agrees w/the judgment of these specific components, is another matter - at least the item gives his feelings about specific product, & how he feels about it. as for item #10, i, too, hate compressed digital recordings. (don't much care for compressed analog recordings, either, for that matter!) :>) but, this doesn't mean *all* digital recordings are compressed. ymmv, doug s. ps - i'm sure esmeralda is correct about the shame of all the etc, etc, etc, in the high-end, too, eh? ;~) |
will, ya have a point... *EXCEPT* for the small fact that ezmeralda rejects out of hand almost "ALL" of what the hi-end is all about. what's the point of that? what's he wasting his time (and ours?) here for? ie: another big hobby of mine is cars. but, i don't like american ones. so, i do *not* frequent any american car sites, or participate in any forums about them. instead, i spend time on the alfa digest, & the pantera digest... sure, the subject of american (and other) cars comes up once in a while, but it's not the main scope of the forum. and very few folks are presumptuous enough to make blanket statements that they're *ALL* bad... and, if/when it (rarely) happens, even all us italian-car lovers give 'em a boatload of you-know-what, too. cuz there's room for everyone at the party. but does *everyone* mean also room for those like esmeralda, who seems to want to *stop* the party? ymmv, doug s. |
sure, paul, there's room for folks who may agree w/some of esmeralda's views. but *all* of them? designers of low-efficiency speakers may have no use for lo-power tube amps, but, surely they have use for solid-state amps, both pure class-a, & class a/b? and horn speaker mfr's may not have room for solid/state amps, but surely they have room for lo-power set amps? and, everyone surely has their favorite pet-peeve *snake-oil* tweek, but does that mean it's *all* snake oil? just as surely: everyone also has their weird little tweaks that they *like* too... even john dunlavy, who insists that all wire more expensive than zipcord is snake oil, sells expensive wire. what does *that* mean? again, i think there's a diference between taking exception to things ya may not like, based upon your experience, & categorically putting ALL class a/b amps, ALL expensive wire, ALL tube electronics, ALL vibration controlling devices, aLL etc, etc, etc into a *hall of shame* regards, doug s. |
makersmark, i think you're *close* w/your comment about cd-players, but i'd up the ante to, say $200, mebbe a bit more if ya want a cd *changer*... of course, this is only accurate if you're using a modded art d/io dac, which will set you back $300-$500, depending on whether you can weild a soldering iron, or have to pay someone else to do the mods... ;~) doug s. |
makersmark & killerpiggie, twas *i* who mentioned the art d/io (yup, that's "io", not "10" - it stands for in-out, as the device is actually an adc as well as dac.) as a matter of fact, i even posted a thread about it, where more info can be had: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ymisc&1011197293&openfrom&15&4#15 also, do a search on the forums here for dio, or d/io. also search the audio asylum's digital forum for *lotsa* information...as a matter of fact, i ordered my d/io after reading *this* thread: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1003098758&openfrom&2&4#2 regards to all, even those who are *wrong*! ;~) doug s. btw, my personal belief is that any decent $300 cd player will offer 95% of the best redbook cd has to offer, from what i think is basically a flawed medium - i'm w/ya on this, makersmark, really! :>) that said, i also believe a modded art di/o will get ya at least to 99.5% - why spend more? :>) for the 1st time, i can actually really enjoy redbook cd playback. but, i think a tubed preamp (or amp?) is really a requisite to make cd's listenable... |
vdub, i *have* to laugh!!! this *exact* thing happened to me just yesterday! *EXACTLY* the way ya describe it! :>) i was pumping gas, when this van pulls up; two guys lean out & say "we just finished this job & have some speakers left over, & the boss said to sell 'em for whatever we could get." i told 'em "sorry, i have a *real* stereo at home already... ;~) oh, there was *one* thing different - the van was champagne metallic, not white - to look more profesional?!? it even had some bs sound-type company logo on it!!! doug s. |
