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RE: Funny I think I see just the opposite of you....

I've been watching this thread develop, and I admit I've been rubbernecking at the wreck. At the risk of regret, much like drinking way too much the night before knowing I will pay for my folly the next day, I have no issue with Mr. Hanson expressing his opinions. And I'm not about to put my Ayre cd player up for auction on Ebay.

But this is where I am a little lost. Mr. Hanson has dusted off the cobwebs of Stereophile reviews and reviewers, said some not very nice things about Fremer (who has been at Stereophile, for, what twenty plus years,) tube electronics (and, I would argue, implicitly about their designers and engineers), Mark Levinson the company (maybe even the man, though he did get some nice trim, so maybe that adds points, I dunno), Wilson Loudspeakers, Jim Austin, Larry Greenhill, Bob Stuart (who I don't know, never met, will likely never meet, but who has been in the business for years,) JA, Stereophile been goin' downhill for 12 years or so, and, in my best Gene Wilder impression of Willy Wonka, etc., etc., etc.,

But here is my problem. Ayre and Wilson, I believe, were demonstrated together at various audio shows. Was Wilson less than a great brand then? I believe Fremer positively reviewed an Ayre sourced turntable. Was Fremer less than credible then? Does not Ayre advertise in Stereophile? Why be professionally associated with such a train wreck? Was Stereophile on the downward spiral when they not only positively reviewed a variety of Ayre products, but also branded some a Products of the Year? I'm too busy to do the research, but my recollection is that Art Dudley has formally reviewed an Ayre product, but JA has done the lion share of evaluating Ayre products. I don't know the answer to the question whether Mr. Hanson has requested that other reviewers at Stereophile review Ayre products, but if JA is less than whatever, I would think Mr. Hanson would not want JA touching an Ayre product with a ten foot ear drum.

At the end of the day, I am wondering why Mr. Hanson has not published (that I've seen, anyway) these litany of negative opinions regarding Stereophile for the last twelve years that it has been in decline. Maybe that is not important to you. Perhaps as long as someone in the industry throws their barbs at Stereophile, the need for a pound of flesh is satisfied. But the reason is imporant to me, for it tells me whether the opinions expressed are honest, or are they out of anger. I could conjecture that the reason these criticisms were not made before is (was) because so long as his products were being very positively reviewed, he was willing to overlook all those problems, and kept them to himself. Then along came this MQA debacle, and, like the gods, screamed Release the Kracken.

Does silence lend credibility to them? You decide. In any event, I'm not sure it speaks well for anyone here.

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