Latest Absolute Sound

I still subscribe to TAS and Stereophile. It has become apparent to me that it's about advertising. Want a great review? .... take out a few full page ads and the review will appear. Still fun to read though. I stopped buying the music they review. Most of it sucks big time. I keep thinking ... if they evaluate gear based upon recordings that are drenched in digital reverb ... then how accurate can their reviews be? 

How many  of you remember when Stereophile was a flimsy little rag? That was when it was at its best.

^^ Gordon Holt was a really good reviewer. His reviews guided me to buy a pair of Acoustat III's and then a pair of Acoustat IV's. Amazing speakers when driven with tons of power. 

^^ Nah ... you just have to wait for their discount offers. 

bdp24  ... 

I discovered Stereophile and Gordon Hold while visiting a friend in Santa Fe. While he was at work, I went downtown for a look-around. Well, I discovered a stereo store and went in to see what they had to offer. While there, I saw a stack of the magazine, including back issues for sale. I bought all of them for something to pass the time with. I couldn't believe that there was a magazine where the reviewers actually punched holes into sacred cows. That was a great  magazine back then ... just flimsy and put together with staples.Even though it has been upgraded over time with fancy glossy paper, and nice color photos,  it's been downhill ever since. 

Gordon Holt loved the Acoustat speakers. Oddly enough, he claimed to hear a "credit card" coloration in the Acoustats. Hard as I tried, I never heard that effect on the speakers.

I drove my Acoustat IV's with a variety of amps over the years, including modified Dyna 70's converted to mono-blocks with outboard power supplies, an ARC Classic 60, Atmosphere 60 watt mono-blocks, and the most impressive of all were two of Van Alstine's big solid state stereo amps bridged for mono-blocks. Those bridged Van Alstine amps produced around 800 wpc.  Wanna talk about room filling sound? Those things filled the entire neighborhood.

There  have been many times that I've wished I still had them. But let's face it, those big Acoustat panels with the grill cloths removed definitely wouldn't pass the wife test. 

Melbguy1 ...

Be sure you talk to taters before you pop on that 53 thousand dollar amp. Taters knows where you can get 30% off. *lol*

^^^ Taters ...

I've found that most dealers will give a substantial discount in order to get the cash flow moving. So many of the high-end products have a markup of 40 to 50% ... so a dealer that still has old stock when a new model is coming out, or a dealer who needs to make the rent/payroll/light bill at the end of the month would look favorably toward an offer that still makes him/her a profit. Especially for a good repeat customer.

Also, I agree with you about high end audio equipment in multi-million dollar homes. My business has taken me into a lot of those homes over the years. As you said, other than dedicated theater rooms, you just don't see what we're interested in here. Conversely, about six months ago, I was in a moderately priced home that a middle class family was selling ... and lo and behold ... a pair of Martin Logans driven by Krell amps. No turntable .. all digital. 

Just another comment on the high-end homes ... its not unusual to see a nice sized flat screen TV in every bedroom with DVR's and gaming equipment at the ready. Also common in these homes are full-house sound systems pumping  background music through wall speakers. 

Final observation: Over the past 38 years because of my business I have been inside of thousands and thousands of homes. Over this time it has been amazing to me that the large percentage of homes that I go into have no books and no music. None. Go figure. 

Take care ...

One thing to keep in mind is, these high end manufacturers are selling to a world market. I know of one who told me  his best customers are in Brazil. Take a look at Magnepan's ads in the magazines ... "Made in America, sold in China." With emerging economies comes disposable income. Then there are the ultra-wealthy oligarchs in Russia, China ... and more.