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Re: No news here

Soundmind, you should really stick to violins. Perhaps you can get a large manufacturer to mass produce them, and get really good results. As you know, your simple attitude toward hi fi equipment, won't work with qualitiy musical instruments, not that people have not tried.
I purchased my first classical guitar in 1960. I already had a very good electric guitar, but when I went to the music store to get strings for it, I casually picked up a classical guitar that was displayed on the wall. I fell in love, and though I couldn't afford it, I purchased it anyway. This guitar was made in Sweden and was called an 'Espania' I loved playing this guitar and took it everywhere. Unfortunately, someone stole it out of my car in 1962, and I was at a great loss. I tried to buy another 'Espania' guitar, but it didn't sound the same. I then tried to buy a Goya (made in Sweden also) but I turned it back in to the music store, because I could not live with it. I then bought the best guitar that I could find in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1963, but I ultimately traded it for a voltmeter.
So where does this lead? Well, every guitar that I had purchased at that time was hand made and cost real money, and each had a different personalty. Being fussy at the time, and finding a 12 string Mexican guitar that I came to love, I stopped looking for my classical guitar replacement for several years.
Now to my point:
However, in 1970, I found a bargain classical guitar in a music store that cost retail for about $50. It looked perfect, played in tune, and in every way that I could see, and even first hear, it was acceptable. I bought it, hoping that it would sound even better after a few months or years of playing. Well it was not to be! It just sounded barely OK, and stayed that way. I finally just gave it away in disappointment. How did the Japanese do it? How did they make a beautiful guitar, yet a mediocre one? Was it the wood, the varnish, the glue, the bracing? I couldn't SEE any difference. Still, it was there! I had bought a MIDFI guitar and I came to dislike it.
It is the same between midfi and hi end.
It is very difficult to make the best stuff possible.
It is like making a race car, rather than a family sedan. If you want to compete with the others, you have to use the BEST connectors, wire, parts, topologies.
Where a mid fi manufacturer will use connectors that look good, they are just gold flashed potmetal. That's how we can tell the difference sometimes. We just use a magnet. Visually, they can be perfect, and even better looking than the 'good' connectors. How embarrassing! This is true with wire, circuit boards, parts, everything!
What about something in-between like the equivalent of an expensive Honda, BMW, Mercedes? Well they are limited production, just like Parasound, where I usually design products. Are there sonic compromises for having to use limited mass production, instead of hand crafting? Of course, and I know them well. Yet, the retail price can be 1/3 what an equivalent amp might cost that is truly hand made. This is NOT the fault of the craftspeople who make the custom amps, but the cost of 'keeping the lights on' when you can make only a few components a week or month and the REAL COST of quality passive and active parts. This is hi end, folks!


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