Scott Dolan

Yeah, and to a lesser extent you could also throw Pioneer and JBL in that conversation. Before getting into car audio, with huge contracts, they were pretty reputable quasi high end companies. My buddy still has a set of 30 some year old JBL studio monitors in his digital studio to this day, and they're some of the cleanest speakers I've ever heard.

Sure, I hear you loud and clear.

Dynaudio builds the speakers for the Bughatti Veyron. Is that a bad thing?

Allen, check out some of the Canadian companies. PSB Speakers and Axiom Audio are pretty highly regarded for building the most accurate budget speakers on the market. Aperion Audio out of Portland, Oregon is another you might look into.

Don't have time to check it out right this minute, but as I've stated before, we have an innate ability to bullshit ourselves. That's why I was really glad when Allen Lowe picked up my challenge to tell the difference between a tune on CD and a 256kbps VBR AAC. He admitted that he really couldn't call one over another. Which of course is a signal to the snotterati that he was someone with tin ears and a shitty sound system. Which is bullshit, but some folks just don't have the capacity to shake off the trance. It's one of the reason's why ABX tests are verboten in much of the audiophile world. When it comes to audio and music I have developed an exceptional bullshit-o-meter. Unfortunately, it was developed the hard way, but at least I can now benefit from too many prior mistakes. Now, if I could just stretch that 6th sense out into other things in life...

I have over an inch of hard ice on my driveway... Bent my steel shovel last night trying to remove it.

Ornette didn't need acid. Ornette was Ornette before acid was around. The rest of the world needed something to get to where he already was. I think they were driven to taken acid after listening to Eric Dolphy.

And Emotiva, and Parasound, and Rotel, and Outlaw, the list could go on. All I was saying was that in my experience there is far more sub-par solid state products than tube products. Tube entusiasts tend to have higher standards. And this really applies to the lower end stuff from both sides. Say, the $300-$2,000 range.

Yeah, that's no shit. But, with that said, I think you tend to get better value with tubes than with solid state in most cases. Sub-par solid state is far easier to market. The sub-$1,000 receiver market is loaded with garbage. But, the people in that market really aren't all that concerned with quality. Conversely, most folks who use tubes tend to be far more serious hobbyists with a greater knowledge base. So, even with them being far more expensive "per watt", for example, the quality tends to be much higher. So at least all those $$$ have a higher "you get what you pay for" ratio.

Very succinct, Paul. And I agree with your summation 100%. As soon as I started reading the first post, those were the thoughts that immediately came to mind.

Or, as I recently saw it put on another audiophile website: " If the sound you desire is "musical" then go with the tubes but if you want the detail and slam then go SS."

That's cool. Hope it makes the changes you are looking for. Though "high precision valve amp" is a rather amusing term. Tubes aren't precise by design. They add distortion. Now, it's a distortion that is pleasant to the human ear, but is still actually subtracts from the music being precisely presented. It's a subjective call as to whether that is good or bad.

Ah...I don't entirely understand what that means, since I haven't done a turntable in over a decade (which I honestly miss), but thanks for explaining. Looks like an interesting piece, though. Is it costly?

What does that do, exactly? I've never heard of an air plug.

Good lord! That looks like a serious piece of equipment!

If something sounds "thin" or "boomy" it can also easily be taken care of with an audio analizer and parametric EQ. And down to the single Hz if necessary. Far more precisely than any gain control will accomplish. Tubes are a lot of fun, and sound awesome. But for accuracy, solid state has no peer. And while I love the tube sound, and all the warmth they provide, I can't help but laugh when I hear them referred to "highly resolving". Yes, they sound incredible. Unique. But taken literally, there is nothing actually "highly resolving" about them. There is simply too much harmonic distortion involved. Good, or bad.

All great points. It's not as though these are a bunch of TMZ-style gotcha pics. They were all tastefully and respectfully done. And yes, watching cats like The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney still get out there and kick ass on a nightly basis is pretty astonishing. Hell, I'm only 43 and wish I had their energy level now!

Ah, but you'd be missing out on that magical snake oil that makes your CD's sound better! I'm currently working on demagnetized acoustically suspended sand bags that will take the place of the common cable elevator. They'll actually speed the signal up through your cables, as well as remove any unwanted skin effect that effects those high frequencies that were previously undetectable to the human ear. They will now give even the most tin-eared human the ability to fully enjoy frequencies as high as 192kHz! Imagine that! I'm thinking $699 for a set of ten. Does that strike you as a fair price? It only gives me about a $10 profit per set, but the most important part is getting the product out there.

How quaint. You need to get with the program, Chuck. Markers are out. You need a demagnetizer! And cable elevators!

Most of the pictures are posed, professionally shot photographs. So those involved didn't seem to mind. At what age should we stop taking pictures of people?

Well, that is the bigger part of the problem. And it doesn't even have to be a large company. There are smaller companies that price the hell out of their relatively mundane products. Yet, if one chooses to spend an outrageous fortune on those products, they are already fooled into thinking they're getting something superior. It's one of the reasons why I'd never sink five figures into an audio rig. Diminishing returns come on quickly, and when you get into that price range there is an awful lot of chaff amongst the wheat.

Too many people fall for the "you get what you pay for" thing in the audio world. It's unfortunate because in audio equipment it applies probably less than any other product world.

Suggestion: put me on ignore as you stated you were going to a couple of weeks ago. This will be our final communication.

Hee hee... "Inconceivable!" And I don't think I know what that word means!

Okey dokey.