Your fav online resource for high end gear is....

The best currently is HIFICRITIC. In theory I agree with Kurt, in practice the last thing I bought on personal audition was a pair of Fisher XP 10 speakers in the early 60s. Even when I lived in Chicago and New York in the 60s and 70s and later in DC I can't remember hearing a demo at a dealers that impressed me. I hope things are better now. In the years I have spent as a dealer I bought on reviews and reputation of the company or after trying samples at home. I attended the Chicago show every year for over a decade but it was very hard to make judgements about sound as the rooms were generally difficult to work with. I did buy all 17 pairs that Monitor Audio brought over the first year they exhibited at Chicago but it was more because of the obvious build quality and the reputation of the designer than the sound at the show. There really is no subistute for having a product at home where you can listen long term and make adjustments in associated equipment. I have a considerable amount of experience and trust my ears and it still takes me a very long time to evaluate GOOD equipment. I purchased a pair of Mini Utopias last spring as a proxy for the development that had taken place during the 14 odd years that I had been inactive in high end and I still haven't decided how I feel about them compared to my long time references. I find the constant questions about which is the best --- at a certain price point to be equally amusing and horrifying. I am currently listening occasionally to the systems of five of my friends, they do not sound alike nor do they sound like mine. All are good but they were chosen to maximize the aspects the owner feels most important. All of us hear in a different manner and critical thing is to recognize this and try to become familiar with your own taste; the thing that drove me crazy as a dealer was trying to help someone with a system who was constantly changing from one component to another with a completely different sound. Krell and Audio Research are equivalent in quality but sound quite different. Just assembling a group of highly rated components is not the same as putting together a complementary system.

Somewhat like Mapman above, I look at everything I can, and look for patterns, especially negative comments. Equipment owners often speak glowingly about whatever it is they own, manufacturers print only good comments about their products, magazines of necessity hide behind the log; but it's the occasional negative comment which is often most meaningful. I personally think most pro reviewers are acting with as much integrity as they can, under the circumstances, and they can be entertaining and knowledgable, but their references, preferences and biases often render their perspective useless. You really have to drill down in the forums, sometimes, to find one or two comments that really tell you what you need to know. Here on Audiogon, there are truly knowledgable and helpful members, but it can take a while to identify which ones know what they are talking about, and what their biases are.

Hi Blindjim,
Thanks for the kind words. My answers to your questions and thoughts may not be THE ANSWER but they are mine.

How many does it take to get a feel that there is some objectivity? Depends to a degree on who is providing the review or opinion. There are some on Audiogon whose opinions have definitely earned my respect. Some like Art Dudley who when he likes a piece enough says he bought it or thought seriously about doing so. Get enough of these to more or less agree on a product and given their differences in music, musical emphasis, tube or transistor camp, etc., a view begins to emerge that says this is a good or not so good or crap or outstanding piece. A number really doesn't work 5+ maybe but if two or three that have gained my respect say the same thing then that could also sway me. Not trying to be wishy washy but it matters who says what and how much they have said and on what for me to consider their opinions worthy of more or less weight.

On home demos: when it was time for a better phono preamp went through six or eight in home demos. Found a number of wonderful dealers all over the US from Colorado west, I am in California, who were willing to send them out to me for two weeks to a month, shipping both ways on me, with no restock fee, and allow me to think about what I heard and what I didn't. As long as it got back to them ok, in the same shape they shipped it out there was never a problem. The one time one came up, was with Thor Audio, great company, had either a 30 or 60 watt tube amp, that would not bias, but played wonderful music. Paul sent out some new tubes, being a former electronic tech we were able to work through some things and finally decided it was the shippers fault and had no problem from there on out.

No doubt there are classes in buying, where the demarcations are will vary but agree entirely. With speakers it is more, at least to me, as to wheather someone wants more of a bass boast, midrange clarity, etc., and certain speakers play to those biases. that doesn't make them wrong just wrong for me.

Reviews depend heavily on have I read enough of this or that person to have a feeling for what they are saying or is it just a puff piece. With some, such as Johnathan Valin, Art Dudley, Michael Fremer, and others I have an idea based on reading their reviews over time and here and there actually having had the opportunity to listen to the product to decide for myself how near they came. So it is not the review nearly so much as the reviewer and where do we agree or disagree so that their faults(?) can be seen by me and adjusted for.

As for musical choices, Michael Fremer tends to emphasize rock, and jazz. Others do classical, do I know all the pieces, of course not, so what. Massed strings in an orchestra are massed strings. A trombone or horn is just that. It is either reproduced correctly or not.

Do not have a lot of upgrading that I have done, things tend to hang around a long time, but now and again things come my way and for me it is a no brainer. Like the time I was offered a Conrad-Johnson Premier 16 LSII for 30% of, a store demo, because the store was moving, so raided my IRA and never looked back, taxes be damned. When I hear something that says, get this, don't think twice, I do it, just am not particularly motivated just because something is heard. Inertia can be a great thing.

As always, enjoy the music.
Michael

Thanks Stan… Mike

I agree with that time factor… and limiting changes within the context of the system… save to gain better from the proposed piece.

I have found myself in agreement with Johnston, Dudley, Donnally, and a couple others given I have bought the item later on which they had previously written about. A few times. I also much prefer to hear the truth with regard to the previewed components return or continued lodging by way of things like “I’d sure like to have it” or “if the wife says…” Rather than those seemingly predisposed done deals of “This one isn’t going back” As the latter claims more to the improvement of the system and it’s needs perhaps, over that of the pieces virtues. Maybe it’s as Mike said.. A no brainer. I’m good with those items too, yet tend more to the what does my rig need perhaps more so.

I would have loved nothing better than to do a pair of Paul’s monos… biasing them however wasn’t within my scope, as I found out later… and then there was Paul’s exodus. Till the preamp dies or I do, I’ll keep the TA 1000 MK II.

From what I’ve heard at dealers over the past few years I have to agree with Stan, I’ve not been bowled over but once, again, with a 100% Thor power train. Of TA1000 + PA 30’s. So much for that. In home is indeed THE no brainer.

My aims usually adhere to the thread of likewise commentary, set against the personality of those who have said it and I’m more dismissive of the accounts from those who have switched in & out pieces with great regularity as a rule… though not 100% Everybody has something to offer.

I suspect no slam dunk or crystal ball for upcoming pieces is out there. A preponderance of available info and a ‘feel’ of it’s whole still serves. Well, that and my predisposed ‘class’ segregation of components.

Speakers seem the biggest black hole with regard to other devices… and likely one of my future moves. Having a pair of Wolcotts or Musician III with all the upgrades MIGHT make that an easier step… but I doubt it. Probably Wolcotts though. I can’t fade the optioned out Musicians… and the ‘cotts will be tuff enough, if…. As I’m pondering wooden Quattro’s with them. Maybe. Of lcourse, none of that might happen either. lol

The real irony of this debate is that when a certain piece is finally acquired at long last, other items (power cabling primarily) then needs to be reset or added. Lol. Amazing. It truly is amazing.

That really is the truth; set up is up to half of the sound of a system. Since last fall I have made several changes to my system, new [used] amp, 2nd sub, and a newer version of the speakers I was using. Most of the improvement I have made, which according to friends was considerable, was not due to these but to new interconnects, isolation systems, speaker and power cables and room treatment. Just finding the best placement for speakers takes a long time; haven't tried the computer programs yet.