Do you really think the reviewer bought the review unit at 50% off retail? Mark-ups on some of these uber priced gear can be unbelievable. When I was importing Kondo gear (Audio Note Japan) and selling Ongaku amps they had a retail of $89,000. I sold them to customers for 24-26k depending on the value of the Yen and still made a profit! I bet the reviewer didn't pay more than 20k for the pre-amp.
That may be accurate in this case. I'm not going to question any reviewer's ethics or practices since I do not know them personally or follow their work. I know some reviewers in major stereo rags purchase equipment as well.
Do you think reviewers should disclose their "discount"? I know that would not look good for a company that is selling a $100,000 piece of gear for $20,000 to the reviewer. However, knowing that huge discount is available, could that have influence the review itself? A reviewer is not going to "pretend" to like a component and shell over $20k. However, a reviewer could be "over" excited about talking up the value of the equipment at MSRP (knowing he's going to get at 25% of the price). Without directly saying, the reviewer of the preamp in this thread does give the impression that he is paying full price (at least to me).
