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In Reply to: Re: I realize that Valin is a fiction writer of some note posted by john curl on March 6, 2007 at 21:45:51:
<< Jonathan Valin do something personal to you? >>John, let me ask you a question. How would you feel if a loaner Blowtorch review unit showed up for sale on Audiogon?
Would it ease the pain if you were given some cockamamie story about moving, and a box full of equipment with your preamp as a "reward" for a friend, and the "friend" that is such a nice guy that he decides to sell the Blowtorch on Audiogon?
(And though it might or might not ease the pain of the situation, I am curious whether the "friend" was such a good "friend" that he split the proceeds with Valin, or just decided to pocket the money all for himself. I guess that may have depended on how the "friend" valued his time. Some people might think that $10,000 or $20,000 would be fair compensation for helping someone move, I don't know.)
But to answer your question, no, Valin never did anything personally to me. And I don't know the guys at Nordost and only briefly met them once at a dinner party ten years ago. But to me some things are right and some things just aren't right. I'm just one of those guys that sticks up for the things that I believe are right.
(And, by the way, if it *had* been you that got shafted, I would be making an even bigger stink about all this, because I do consider you my friend.)
Follow Ups:
policy that would effectively eliminate the possibility of such events from happening... however you sure as hell seem interested in seeing a little blood flow!By the way do you think that Nordost's pain was eased by being compensated for the cables? That they were is almost comical given we have it from multiple Stereophile writers that the cables manufacturers are generally reluctant to have their stuff back... and given Art Dudley's continuous 4-5 year (at least) use of Nordost loaner cables it would seem they (Nordost) are representative.
Charles, we are still good friends. I just take this cable thing with a grain of salt, because it happens all the time in some way. For example, a few years ago, a former 'Stereophile' reviewer refused to return the line cords or cables that my former business partner, Bob Crump sent in for review. Bob tried over and over, and was quite ticked off by the situation. I talked to that very guy at the 'Stereophile' party at CES. Should I have jumped all over him about it, or just let it go, as I have seen other examples like this over the years?
What really gets me is when the editors get really in denial about this sort of thing, although it might not be considered ethical by the magazine itself.
For the record, no magazine has ever personally taken one of my preamps or power amps for free, but I can't vouch for my employers over the decades. I just can't afford to anything away for free, and Bob Crump was in that position also, with his cables.
"because it happens all the time in some way"So does this mean you are simply resigned to let it happen? I have to say I am with Charles on this one. The story simply doesn't wash and smells really fishy. Those cables had a street value about what one of your top preamps goes for so it is a valid argument.
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