Classics and Cults. Bogus Journalism?

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.

Lesson 101 in marketing.Well at least we understand what factors /and how they contribute to the selling price.No wonder they(mfgs) have to do the major "suck-up" to the audio press.You may have the greatest mousetrap in the world,but people have to know about it.

CW,dont be too hard anybody drinking Krug(i prefer Bollinger Grand Anne 83)or Chateau LaFite.If somebody bought me a bottle,i write whatever they wish.

I like wine, too, but I am not so concerned about drinking by the label. I do remember the Rappoport pre amp. There was a used one in my local dealer circa 1980 ish. The amp I was thinking of, however, was a power amp -- more like 1990 -- solid state, I think about 200 WPC, and relatively inexpensive, maybe $2-3000. I think I remember a dealer in New Canaan CT or Bedford NY stocking it and the absolute sound just raved and raved, even though you couldn't seem to buy it anywhere. Greatest thing in life. And then, no one ever mentioned it again. (Doea anyone remember.) I have loved the absolute sound for years and have read it since I was 15 and think some of the people were very smart. Very smart, and very full of sh*t. Fascinating. Any other ideas on over promoted, one hit wonder cult companies?

You're not thinking of the BEL (Brown Electronics Labs) amplifier that TOM raved about in TAS, are you? They are still made and popular, so I wouldn't call them a one hit wonder. The Crown Macro got hit with a controversial Lewis Lipnick pan in Stereophile in late 1993 ("no music") that was probably more a reflection on his listening room and system than the amp but still hurt its sales badly, although they are still big in professional circles, I believe. I guess one product that comes to mind for me is the Don Cochran Delta Mode amplifier, which was an interesting and good sounding design, well received by the audio critics, that may have fallen prey to the market forces that Detlof describes (although for some reason I think I may have seen something indicating that the amps are still being made). Interesting thread, I'll try to think of some others.