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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: When does a better mouse trap turn distasteful carboncopy cloning? posted by Srajan Ebaen (R) on July 8, 2003 at 08:59:14:
Thanks to one and all who have responded.With due respect, I believe my colleague Steve Rochlin is wrong. Like ETM, Sakura Systems, the US importer for 47Lab, was an ad supporter on my site. Rather than "protecting" them from the competition, I elected to review this "clone" for the reasons already given here as well as in the review. And yes, it did cost me an advertiser.
There is no patent on the GainCard, simple as that. Let's look at Tripath and Bel Canto. BCD was the first High-End firm to embrace this module in a bona fide High-End product. By now, they're in their nth iteration of this technology and have continuously advanced their implementation to "Stay ahead of the curve". Plenty of other companies have embraced this idea since. Bel Canto never grumbles or whines but rather applauds the "more is merrier" math as open endorsement and growing cred for this particular version of digital amplifiers.
47Lab had the engineering advantages on implementing an IC for an output device in a High-End audio product, at a time when ICs were snuffed at as suitable only for headphone outputs and low-fi applications. As with Tripath, the engineering work on the actual chip had been done by the IC manufacturer as one poster properly reminds us.
Rather than staying atop their #1 position in this "IC field", I suggest 47Lab has wasted time to push the envelope into lower-priced products that don't suffer the ergonomic or visual complaints of their current Shigaraki line.
The AMP-1 is manufactured in Canada, includes a dealer margin for an eventual dealer network and is built not by a large corporation with deep pockets but a specialty dealer of antique audio. If Audio Zone can do this in Canada, with top-notch parts, the Japanese should be able to remain competitive and, in fact, have done this years ago.
As noted in my Shigaraki 4717 review, their lower-priced version doesn't conform to typical US customer expectations for construction quality. While there liably are sonic tweak reasons, one could also argue that the Canadians have addressed these issues head-on, to make a great-sounding product better by removing the "visual" edges, adding functionality (the 31-step rather than 12-step attenuators) and selling it for a very attractive price.
In the end, the one area where AMP-1 might step over the imaginary line is in what one party here called 'trade dress', an area of the law I'm just not familiar enough with to know whether the AMP-1 infringes. If a "regular" amp based on typical Class A/B Mosfet technology launched sporting this particular look (incidentally, also "copied" by HeadRoom in their "supermax" dual-mono amp), I think this particular issue of "too close for comfort" wouldn't even be raised.
The fact that it's IC-based, dual-mono, with two miniature boxes connected via front- and back panel, with dual attenuators and an outboard power supply makes the cloning aspect very obvious.
I'm certainly very sympathetic toward 47Lab but, like someone else also pointed out, I'm first and foremost writing for the consumer. If I find a better Krell for 1/2 the money (or one within 90% of its performance) readers deserve to know about it. Same here.
I'm still mulling things over but all this feedback is not only welcome but also helpful to "add data to the upstair machine process".
Gracias.
Srajan
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Follow Ups
- Re: thanks for your commentary thus far - Srajan Ebaen (R) 12:24:23 07/08/03 (2)
- Re: thanks for your commentary thus far - Steven R. Rochlin 16:01:53 07/08/03 (1)
- Nelson Pass' design - marksmith@sympatico.ca 07:46:03 07/09/03 (0)
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