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Thanks Jim (and John)

I thought your editorial was one of the best pieces on high end audio I have read for many years. It was well written, thoughtful and balanced.

While I didn't agree with everything in the piece, I found it very interesting and thought provoking. I was surprised by the extreme reactions it has received here, but, well, this is the Audio Asylum, and sometimes it doesn't take much to start the inmates howling -- and it is damned near impossible to quiet them down once they get going.

I say the above as an enthusiast for over 40 years who has owned and used a wide variety of audio equipment and software (tube and transistor, analogue and digital), who is not afraid to try out new equipment and media, including tweaks (so long as they are somewhat plausible and aren't too expensive or onerous), and who has also been disappointed by more than one audiophile product that failed to live up to its hype.

For perspective, my current interests extend to mechanical reproducers (e.g., Victors and Victrolas), pre-WWII radios, a system that uses both the latest version of Amarra Mini and a 24 bit Copland DRC 205 digital room correction device to drive Pass XA60.5 amps, a system that uses a triode amp to drive Lowther speakers, and a home theater that uses an Onkyo receiver supplemented by Onkyo amps. I like restored classic equipment, including speakers such as Quad 57s and Bozak Concert Grands, but I have been developing lustful thoughts about Wilson speakers based on Art Dudley's recent reviews. And I just bought a Soundsmith strain gauge cartridge (before Michael Fremer's review in Stereophile came out). And . . . I like to listen to all of this stuff (maybe not the mechanical 78s and Edison cylinders so much). The point is that while I profess to no particular expertise in the technical aspects of audio, I have spent most of my life enjoying a wide variety of music on a lot of different kinds of equipment. So I don't think I have an audio agenda.

John Atkinson, thanks for publishing the piece -- I suspect that most of your actual subscribers will find the piece as interesting and thought provoking as I did.

For those who really didn't like the piece, especially those who are in "the business," I suggest that a well written, thoughtful and balanced response of 500-1000 words would be more effective than the (to put it kindly) intemperate postings below.

If you have the chops, maybe you could get John to edit it and publish it, at least as a letter to the editor.

Regards, James


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