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In Reply to: RE: Hi, Tom..... posted by Winston Smith on June 21, 2014 at 01:00:50
Your response is perhaps too civil and very well written, but, sorry, I'm not buying any of this. Power cords cannot transform a system, and they do not strip away distortion, ubiquitous or otherwise. There is no audio component, passive or active, that can improve a signal.
I certainly recognize what a well designed and constructed power cord can do to improve the sound of even very good components. True, I am unfamiliar with the product you are describing, but I have heard a broad spectrum of connectors and wire, from extravagantly wrapped, obscenely expensive precious metals to economical homemade conglomerations. Some are good investments, some are overpriced bling, others are worthless or even harmful, a few are excellent value and actually offer better sound. Congratulations if you have discovered one from MSA. However, none of them improves the signal by removing distortion, and none of them transforms bad recordings or systems into good.
I have owned more than a few bad recordings, but not for long. I am not familiar with Midnight Sugar (although no reviews I read mentioned anything about nasty piano distortion, which makes me wonder about other aspects of your system), but I know what overloaded tape sounds like: an unpleasant but normally tolerable distortion which eventually almost becomes part of the music. It cannot be removed or lessened by use of a power cord or any other device unless that device also affects the good parts of the signal. I can accept some distortion in a recording, but certainly not anything that makes me want to cover my ears. I really like loud music, but if it sounded that bad, I guess I'd just turn the damn thing down or off.
I strive to make my system more musical, sometimes at the expense of what others call ultimate detail. I value the emotional content of music, the dynamics, the intonation of vocals. If my system or room had any peaky resonance, I'd change something quick, but probably not power cords! To imply that a power cord can ameliorate such a basic flaw is, um, disingenuous.
Your exaggerations and flattery are pretty transparent. This type of hyperbole is perilously close to snake oil, and gives much of credible audio a bad name. Please stop making these ridiculous claims. We don't want your "heartfelt and honest" apologies; just a modicum of rationality and objectivity would suffice. Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing and should be shared, but no one enjoys BS. Can you understand the distinction? Prove that my criticism means a lot to you. Try to tone this down a little and we might start to believe that MSA makes a decent PC worth $139, perhaps more, but not a million.
Peace,
Tom E
Follow Ups:
Agree, Tom. Strong emotion has no place in reviews. I see that plainly now, and strongly concur. I have no problem admitting when I am wrong. (I would consider a re-write, sans all emotionally charged expressions and narratives, but I am not sure that would be appropriate.)
But in the future, any reviews I do will assiduously avoid all such manners of expression, and will approach the task from the perspective of simply providing as many facts that were observed and learned as possible.
Thank you for your input.
Sorry for riding your ass like this. I appreciate your willingness to change, and see it as a big positive for any future contributions here. You probably have a lot to offer, and you're a decent writer. Glad you're not discouraged.
If you don't want to actually post a rewrite, and I understand why, perhaps you could do one for yourself, just as an exercise to see if you can manage it.
Peace,
Tom E
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