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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Groan... posted by rupertdacat on February 23, 2006 at 21:12:14:
...and I want to be clear that neither I nor Positive Feedback Online have any canine in this dust-up, either.I don't know George Louis from Adam, and only took on this project because of my good friend Clark Johnsen's initial enthusiasm for the possibilities, and because I had already heard CD-Rs 2-3 years ago from PFO's Rick Gardner that were better than their sources. (Not hard to do with Red Book CDs. ;-) )
As a matter of fact, *I* haven't endorsed anything or anyone associated with the RealityCheckCD process yet. You are apparently unaware of the fact that I do not knowingly endorse anyone in fine audio whose ethics are of concern to me. I don't play "audio police" in that case...PFO is not, and will never be an audio ombudsman...but I certainly won't endorse their product(s). Clark Johnsen has already expressed some of his concerns and questions about what's happening behind the scenes with the RealityCheckCD process; frankly, I think he's been pretty open and very ethical about that.
I have some notes about my *listening* impressions of this device. They will be published soon at PFO. They do not include comparisons with other devices for the reasons that I pointed out to you earlier. Personally...and as an information technology professional in my "other life"...I can tell you that there are a *lot* of alternatives to this unit. I listed some of them. I'm sure that a SCSI-based tower would be even better than IDE devices...much better I/O handling...and a hard disk buffering source would assuredly sound even better.
Setting aside those technical and practical considerations and looking at the ethical side, I have to say that I cannot act *ethically* on hearsay. You shouldn't, either, in my humble opinion. You yourself say that you are "suspicious" of his packaging, but you also say that you are uncertain.
Me, I'm *certain* that OEM repackaging and clone building happens all the time...that's the way that an awful lot of work in IT (including CD/DVD duplicators) happens. Ditto for A/V. If George is charging too much for his unit, he happens to be competing in a market where he'll be undercut significantly, and quickly. As a matter of fact, a CD/DVD duplicating tower is almost absurdly easy to source, or to build. No soldering gun required...a computerist could DIY this inside of a few hours. *And* could do some really cool tweaking like, say, some Walker Audio Extreme SST Contact Enhancer on the IEC and the leads (CAREFULLY!)...and finding high quality drives...and running as low as 1x as an experiment...and sourcing different varieties of CD-Rs...and different CD-R treatments...and different power cables...and upgraded IDE cables...etc., etc.
Unlike many types of audio devicery, rupe, this is a game that no one would want to play if they're just selling off the shelf with highly inflated margins as a way to sell solutions. If George is simply re-selling generic gear, instead of something special, he'll find that his moment will come and go very quickly. It may already be passing....
We'll see.
Meanwhile, I can tell you that I've heard other gear several years ago (Sony duplicators) that produced CD-Rs that are better than their sources. I don't think that this is hard to do.
Me, I remain far more interested in SACD, which...in disagreement with some...I find to be superior to any Red Book playback, source or CD-R'ed.
Best wishes to you on your audio voyage...
david
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Follow Ups
- You make some good points, rupe... - David W. Robinson 02/23/0622:03:53 02/23/06 (0)
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