Reviews of $10k plus ics, speaker wires, and pcs

I have said it many times here on Audiogon audio needs to be more transparent. It needs to change to get a better quality to consumers in general.

I know a few writers in audio. They got a lot of stuff for free. So these articles are worth nothing. It is not objective anymore.

There are still good cables on the markt ( also in the expensive price ranges) but there are a lot more average or worse. This is the thing I hate most in the 16 years of time I am in this business.

It got my attention when I visited different people with highend sets. I was really surprised about the low level in the endresult of sound many had. There are many things what goes wrong. It is caused by 2 important reasons. Many people who have audio as a hobby want to do things by themselves. They don't know often the different properties of the stuff they own. On the other hand I see a lot of mismatch in components and cables. This is also caused by the low level in knowledge of the people who work in this business.

Bo1972, the internet has made the world a lot smaller and basically killed off most dealers. When I was just having some money to spend on audio and living in Tallahassee, Florida which was not a big city, we have three audio dealers and all had some top lines. Once in a while I was in Chicago and knew a dealer in the loop. And I had lived in the LA area for one semester. So I had some ability to hear demonstrations. I have not had a dealer within a hundred and fifty miles in probably 15 to 20 years. What few who are left struggle to survive as many distributors and manufacturers sell direct over the internet.

I don't think there is any prospect for better quality consumers and frankly I don't think there are good prospects for dealer remaining.

But there are now groups spread around the country and even abroad that give heads up for new things. There still are many who "show" their audio systems as expressions of their success.

Internet has changed it a lot, but not in a better endresult for the consumers. People do not have there favorite shop anymore. They go to different places as well. And they buy things on the internet as well.

The level of mismatch is getting bigger. I can see it on the websites were people show there sets. Often I have to laugh and see that people don't know what they are doing.

They will constandly change there set and keep on tweaking. Often they are not satisfied at the end.

And this has a reason......

Bo1972, since there is no agreement on what is good, I don't understand how you make the judgment that many don't know what they are doing.

That is very easy to explain. Since I started working in this business I started to test. So I learned the differences between many different amps, sources, cables and speakers etc. After time you can give these tools the different properties they own.

These different properties have effect on the overwhole sound. Togheter they create the image, how much depth, wide, resolution, sound realism ( you want all the colours of an instrument as in real), level of blacks and how big instruments and voices are and there level of papable image ( as I told many times instruments and voices are extreme small in dimension and easy to point out. I learned it during classical acoustic concerts. So you want a realistic sense of scale in your set).

Audio is all about making the perfect combination of tools . ( amps, sources, conditioners, cables and speakers togheter). This is what I call the art of sound.

Last year I became aware how much higher level in endresult I can create to all other distributers on the show. There were far over 50 rooms with audio sets. I was called the absolute sound of the show. Why? Because I created what I call total sound. The blueprint of the absolute sound. This creates a very convincing overwhole sound.

I want all parts which need to be there for the absolute sound in every system. This makes it more complete and convincing.

Many of the other sets were incomplete. I have done many blind test for clients. As you know I only focus on 3 dimensional sound. For every single person it is very easy to understand the big difference between 2 and 3 dimensional sound.

When you are not aware of the exact properties of every single tool you use in your set, It is a lot more difficult to understand what you are doing.

I am Always looking for properties. I Judge every single part for the properties they can give. I don't sell a brand or box. I sell my sound, what I call Total sound.

The main focus is on the quality and level a tool can give to me. It is a different approach. But is extreme effective. It is a very addictive sound were you want to listen for hours at one time. This is what people want. A sound to die for!