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Mercman's Playback Designs review

Posted by Audio Bling (A) on June 17, 2016 at 20:37:59

Sorry Steve but I have to say it was a poor review. IMO, you need to say up-front why you are reviewing these products from the many products at many price points on the market. From my POV, this product is well out of reach of many $$$-wise so there needs to be something said at the very outset to inspire interest & read on. This didn't happen.

Launching into a lengthy quote so early in the piece (2nd paragraph) is poor style. It's like you have diluted your own authorship by an easy grab for someone else's words; particularly so when the substance of the grab is an elaboration of the nexus between wine & musical experience. The whole call-the-fine-audio-thing-a-fine-wine-thing has been done before e.g. Supratek (now defunct). I thought you would have been savvy to this old idea and would have angled the story toward cutting edge technology & design (presumably) from the get-go but by the end of the second paragraph I'm thinking: this designer is sounding pretty dull..

Anyway, I got as far as "..finished with a brushed aluminum finish. " (4th paragraph). By this time I was thinking the piece was crying out for an editor and I was wasting my time..

I just want to add a few words about Michael Lavorgna & Audiostream more generally. Often I see a flashy pictorial splash & intro on the front page of the A'Stream site with a link to what one assumes to be the follow-on article. However, the follow-on article turns out to be a no-show in that it is only a few words more. It's like I am being offered a drink but am passed an empty glass instead.. Recently, I noted Michael's "piece" on the contents of his bag. Sorry, not interested in facebook audio.. In all, I have the impression that A'stream is desperate for content and that any old thing will do. Consequently, I visit the site as little as possible.

BTW, I do appreciate your contributions on AA & hope the above is constructive in some way. I do understand that we are all too demanding in the modern era where attention spans are brief and the "consumer is king". I am hopeful that A'Stream's game can be lifted because I think they need to be.

P.S. I did want to email you my thoughts rather than post them but you don't accept unsolicited mail.

• Mercman review   (Open in New Window)

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