How's this for a dose of reality???
"Dealers in high-fidelity components, like all dealers, are highly variable in their fidelity to customers' interests. Many are not only well versed in the good and bad features of the equipment they sell, but are honestly concerned to see that customers get the best products for their needs. Others, on the other hand, have a tendency to steer customers to components whose manufacturers have the biggest dealer discounts or offer special sales incentives, whether or not these components represent good value to a customer.
Unless you are certain that you have a dealer of the first kind, you should look with a suspicion on insistent attempts to steer you towards one brand or to switch you away from the brand you ask for. You should look for an unhurried, impartial demonstration of the components in which you are interested and in competing brands if you ask to hear them. And when listening comparitively, insist that the loudness be adjusted to equal levels for the comparison tests.
If the dealer will cooperate in permitting you to listen in your home to the units you have tentatively chosen ( some dealers will do so ), you can then be sure that they will be satisfactory before actually making a final choice."
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Few paragraphs editied out making specific recommendations as to what recordings to use for auditioning gear and what to listen for. This continues on:
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"Magazines which specialize in music and audio subjects publish reports of tests on various high-fidelity components. Despite their best efforts to be honest and impartial in such reports, however, it is extremely awkward for magazines to be openly critical of their advertisers' products. The result is that the reports are often helpful, but to a limited degree; the temptation to rate all components as "best yet" ( or at least to gloss over serious imperfections ) is very powerful.
The reports of general testing organizations whose publications do not carry advertising usually can be relied on to be free of bias. But even these reports vary in reliability according to the skill of the engineers who obtain and interpret test data on which the reports are based. Such variation exists in reports of the same organization.
Audio shows which are held in large cities offer an opportunity to see and hear new products, and to make a preliminary screening of possible choices. Often the rooms or booths at these shows are crowded and do not even come close in acoustic character to a home listening room. Further, the manufacturers of some quite good high-fidelity products conduct deplorable demonstrations, so that their products sound no better at audio shows than do inferior products. Consequently it is unwise to make a final decision for or against any component simply on the basis of what you hear at an audio show."
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Anybody wanna guess who wrote this, when it was written and what it came from? I think it will be interesting to see some of the responses : ) Sean
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PS... If you are CERTAIN that you know the answer, PLEASE DO NOT POST IT. Email it to me and i'll tell you if you're right or wrong. I'd like to see how many different responses / guesses we can get and the different comments that arise from each guess. Those that email me with the correct answer will be "acknowledged" after we've had some fun with this thread. Regardless of who, when and where it was written, it's pretty good, huh ??? : )
