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In Reply to: RE: TAS Spencer Holbert's Shameful Admission. posted by RGA on April 07, 2014 at 18:20:53
You can't be serious referencing a 14 year old DAC review as a "no holds barred" comparison.Maybe we could go back and look at pager vs beepers while we are at it.
If you would like to read a few DAC comparison reviews then check out the John Darko DAC index.
........I was a vegetarian for 15 minutes... until the main course.
Edits: 04/10/14 04/10/14Follow Ups:
The point of the article I linked was not about the DACs in question but about reviewers "NAMING" a product nearly double the price from a "big name" DAC company (MSB) and ripping it to shreds while raving about a DAC with inferior technical numbers as for nearly half the price as being a lot better. The DACs themselves were completely irrelevant to the point I was making or the point the OP raised about the TAS review "not naming" the inferior DAC.And sorry I don't read every review that has ever been written on every audio product. Perhaps there are newer examples where the reviewer basically calls a twice the price DAC an unlistenable pile of poop and the other DAC the bees knees. But the old AN/MSB stands out because I happen to own several AN pieces.
The negative verbiage hardly hurt MSB who now sells DACs at vastly higher price tags. I liked what I heard from them at CES (2010).
Reviewers and review magazines seem to me to walk on eggshells to "protect" the manufacturers.
Steven Rochlin was attacked for being a "rich guy" but when you have deep pockets and you can run a magazine from spare change then you don't have to be a bootlicker. Which is not to say his reviews are always correct or that we will all agree but he doesn't have to worry about advertising.
UHF magazine ripped a few companies way back in the early 1980s those companies no longer send them anything for review. The distributor that carries other lines won't send them any of the other companies to review either. Some companies will only send stuff if they are absolutely sure they will get a rave. For them it is pure advertising (and it only costs them shipping). When you have a reputation of doling out negative reviews then other companies (that pay attention) will avoid the magazine as well.
I was at a dealer in Ontario and felt they did a shabby job of customer service. I wrote about it on the Canadian forum it went back and forth - not too argumentative but I told them what I thought. This dealer is also a distributor. A year or so later after hearing really good sound from both a speaker maker and an amp maker I contacted them a few times for a review as the carry both lines. No reply. So I burned a bridge. Understandably, if I am critical of the dealer publicly then maybe I will be critical of the product.
Even when you ask most reviewers on websites for actual no holds barred opinions you rarely get a straight answer.
Edits: 04/09/14
Rochlin runs a magazine? Lol. News to me. More like a third rate website complete with 80s style graphics.
Show me where Rochlin trashed a product In the last ten years.
Rochlin is a marginal character at best, and a mildly amusing clown.
I do give him credit however for publicly calling the over hyped "DSD revolution" for what it is....bunk.
Distributors and importers did not return your calls? Shocking!!! Cause RGA is a market maker! Your incessant shilling for Audio Note has gotten them into a position of world domination!
--Rochlin runs a magazine? Lol. News to me. More like a third rate website complete with 80s style graphics.--Well the heads of other magazines obviously feel differently
"Enjoy the Music.com is the only site that is partners with respected leading and authoritative print publications including The Absolute Sound, Australian Hi-Fi Magazine, CANADA HiFi, Hi-Fi+, HIFICRITIC, HiFi Media, Hi-Fi World, Sound Practices and VALVE Magazine."
--Rochlin is a marginal character at best, and a mildly amusing clown.--
"Steven R. Rochlin is also, or at one time was, a Member of the Consumer Electronics Association's Citizen Action Network (CEA CAN), the Boston Audio Society (BAS), has a Masters Degree from of the Academy Advancing High Performance Audio & Video (AAHPAV), plus an International Auto Sound Challenge Association (IASCA) certified judge. He was also a Member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (Grammy Award organization). His work has been recognized by many authorities within the industry including the President of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and is a member to help guide CEA's high-end audio division. Side projects by Steven R. Rochlin include being a recording engineer and solo artist with a recent release of his reference-quality drum/percussion album"
--Show me where Rochlin trashed a product In the last ten years. AND do give him credit however for publicly calling the over hyped "DSD revolution" for what it is....bunk.--If what you say is true then he just gave a negative review to EVERY single product and EVERY single manufacturer that makes a DSD DAC. That means he just called all of them snake oil crooks. Sounds like a negative review and indictment to me.
--Distributors and importers did not return your calls? Shocking!!! Cause RGA is a market maker! Your incessant shilling for Audio Note has gotten them into a position of world domination!--
You know that no one with actual money reads these forums right? The people who buy AN will buy them without any need to read forums. Indeed, 5% of their market is the U.S. So it's the non English as first language world that buys their stuff - largely because unlike the west's instant gratification culture they are prepared to wait 14 months to get their product delivered.
My enthusiastic recommendations of Audio Note over the years are what they are. I have no problem being lumped in as an Audio Note fanboy. I am not going to hide from my view that they make some of the best sounding music reproduction in the audio industry and in my recent Audio Note I Zero amplifier review I put the bias up front.
"Many of us who live on things called budgets view $100,000+ components as crazy toys for the rich. However, over the years I have come to the conclusion that if I came across the bucks to spend such dollars the first company I would look to would be Audio Note UK." http://dagogo.com/audio-note-uk-izero-integrated-amplifier-tube-amplifier-review
I refuse to PRETEND to be objective and that "EVERYTHING" is equally wonderful and equally well designed and uses equal quality parts just to placate the audio business at large. I suppose I have found that Sturgeon's Law that "ninety percent of everything is crap" is largely true.
My most recent purchases have been Line Magnetic Amplifier, Audio Space integrated Amplifier, Line Magnetic CD player and DAC, KEF LS-50 loudspeakers.
There are other things I quite like - the dealer who didn't get back to me has his reasons. I stopped in to look around on the pretext of getting out of the heat. I looked around and asked to hear something (no one was in the store). Not busy. His reply was if I wasn't planning to buy something then why bother. I understand they deal with tire kickers all the time but it's a stereo store - it's not terribly difficult to open CD drawer stick a CD on and push play. Who knows maybe the stereo would be so amazing that it would impress the tire kickers to return and want to hear more and then maybe 6 months later said person comes back and drops $50,000.
I compared that store to Soundhounds who has big couches - you sit and listen and they'll put stuff on (it's usually always on) - even tubes. If you hit Soundhounds at the right time they'll make you a cappuccino - and it will be one of the best you've ever had. And they actually have real music not just 50 tester discs. And they don't blather in your ear why something is great and your stereo sucks.
I can't help if one dealer has a clue and the other doesn't. I can't help it if they want to be petty about it. I extended the olive branch that everyone has a bad day yadda yadda.
Companies don't send reviewers products for the heck of it. We get enough hits to make it worthwhile.
Edits: 04/10/14
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