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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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In Reply to: RE: False assumptions lead to false conclusions posted by jamesgarvin on November 4, 2017 at 19:25:34:
> > A little backstory would be nice. < <
When submitting products for review to Stereophile, manufacturers are not allowed to pick the reviewer. That is the decision of the editor. We had no idea who would review the DPS turntable. It turned out to be Art Dudley, who reviews a fair number of turntables, although less so in recent years, perhaps as he has made it very clear that his preference is for 50 year old idler driver products.
It was only well after the review appeared that Fremer told me that he felt that all acrylic plattered products were inherently colored and flawed. As I am paralyzed, this was likely via a private e-mail exchange. He dared me to prove that the DPS was as good as Dudley said it was, but I declined knowing that the chances of MF confirming his own bias was greater than the chances of him admitting he had been wrong. It's a perfectly normal human trait that we all exhibit to some degree or another, and in my experience is very strong in MF.
> > Makes me wonder why all speaker manufacturers would not want to demo with Ayre gear. < <
Purely politics. Let's use Wilson as an example. If you notice in the past Wilson began by demonstrating with Rowland electronics. Once Rowland acquired an interest in Avalon speakers, Wilson dropped them. Then they normally exhibited with Levinson. As soon as Madrigal formed Revel to make loudspeakers, that was the end of that. Then Wilson exhibited with Krell, which lasted until Dan D'Agostino decided he knew how to design loudspeakers (which by the way, were never generally acknowledged as sounding anywhere close to being worth the asking price). Wilson has made cautious inquiries about exhibiting with Ayre, but only upon the condition that we promise to never, ever make loudspeakers (I was the co-founder and designer for Avalon). As Ayre wouldn't promise to never, ever make loudspeakers, this went nowhere. For many years now Wilson has generally exhibited with VTL.
When a loudspeaker manufacturer is choosing brands to exhibit with, their priorities are generally:
1) Make sure that the electronics shows off the strengths of the speakers.
2) Personal friendships with the other manufacturers.
3) Common overlap with the distribution channels. Nobody wants to have their potential customers have to deal with a competing dealer or distributor to hear the combination.
A good example of this last point was when B&W debuted their generation 3 Nautilus (the current ones with the "Continuum" midrange cones) in Japan. Obviously they used Classe electronics (this was about a year ago, long before there was an inkling that Classe would be shut down as a money losing enterprise). Many of the attendees, including salespeople from Ayre's Japanese distributor, were very underwhelmed and thought the loudspeakers to be little improved over the previous generation.
Once these same people heard the same loudspeakers connected to Ayre electronics in dealer's showrooms, they realized that the generation 3 was perhaps the most significant improvement in the entire history of the 801 and its "Nautilus" descendants. All of the previous improvements had been to the tweeter and the woofer, but they continued using their patented woven-Kevlar-impregnated-with-damping-goo midrange the entire time. As JGH used to say, "music lives in the midrange". So it is unsurprising that when they finally improved their midrange driver that it made a huge improvement in the sound of their speakers.
Hope this helps.
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Follow Ups
- RE: False assumptions lead to false conclusions - Charles Hansen 11/4/1720:43:58 11/4/17 (3)
- RE: False assumptions lead to false conclusions - jamesgarvin 07:38:39 11/7/17 (2)
- RE: False assumptions lead to false conclusions - Charles Hansen 02:47:59 11/8/17 (1)
- RE: False assumptions lead to false conclusions - stehno 12:41:57 11/25/17 (0)
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