2. amps-preamps
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Is this ludicrous or not?

Did any of you GON members happen to read Six Moon's review,written by Six Moon's creator and resident audiophile guru Srajan Ebaen,regarding Red Rock Audio's Renaissance monoblock amps that sell for $38,750.00/pr? Ebaen,stopped his formal review when he couldn't elminate in his words,"a very belligerent ground loop". However even before this stated problem, he described the sound of these amps as,"berefit of tension,energy,color,communicativeness,or any true sense of music". Ebaen, also stated that a,"$999.00 Onix/Melody SP3 amp was superior". Now here's the fun part.By applying Walker's Extreme SST to all the tube pins the "veil" was removed and the energy emerged and unfolded.Walker is quoted as saying by using his Extreme SST that,"the amps went from being mediocre to bonafide super-amp magic".Now,I want to be totally fair,I use this product my self and find it to be quite good at adding that final resolution to my system. I also accept that a world class amp can be tweaked out to its ultimate performance with power cords and isolation devices.But would you spend $38,750.00 for a pair of amps that first sound inferior to an amp that costs less than $1000.00, and only after you use this tweak they become world class contenders! What does this say about the over all design flaws that are still there.I found this to be one of the most ludicrous reviews I have ever read. Notice I'm not attacking the statement that the amps improved after the tweak,but the ridiculous notion that anyone,in their right mind ,would spend close to 40 grand for a pair of amps and than be dependent on a $200.00 tweak to make them sound right! Thank goodness for that,"very belligerent ground loop",otherwise Srajan might have completed his review and loved these amps.It would be great if you GON members would share your opinions on this review,maybe I'm the crazy one.
teajay
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
It's possible that there was a bad connection at one tube and that pulling it out and reinserting it fixed it. It may have nothing to do with the Walker SST.

But you are right that there is a lot of bullshit in high-end audio. There's a lot of bullshit in high end anything (cars, watches, houses) because it is a scientifically proven fact that bullshit sells.
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,771 posts
 
Teajay:

So you know already you are not crazy. Without getting distracted by all the obvious stuff that you mentioned in your post ($40K amps, removing the "veil", etc.), the reviewer, in this case, is acting like a dope ... with a capital "D" plain and simple. Expecting someone willing to spend $40K on an amp to then have to tweak the amp to get it to sound its best, is sheer and utter stupidity. The reviewer either was having a bad day or he is totally caught up in the insanity of this hobby.

Renaissance should not be left off the hook either. At $20K a pop, the monoblocks should have a world class design and operate perfectly ... and perhaps make and serve breakfast

'Nuff said.

Regards, Rich

aball
2,016 posts
 
I read audio reviews for entertainment. In this sense, it is a blast! I only trust my ears for the rest. Arthur
loonytunz's avatar
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loonytunz
164 posts
 
I'm cynical by nature and spend precious little time reading reviews, especially those where there is likely an axe available for the grinding.

In the 'professional' reviews I have taken time to peruse, it often seems there is a game of one-uppmanship in play where the comparisons to other gear gets increasing multiples of monetary consideration; "blows away XXX costing (insert multiple here, 2, 5, 10, 100!) times the price." I've seen a few reviews where the gear in question was only able to reach it's 'potential' when coupled with certain other ancillary tweaks and baubles.

In order to extract the most sales potential from a written review, the law of diminishing returns dictates that the content become more and more outlandish and 'over-the-top' than previous reviews. Otherwise, how do you convince readers that they should go out and drop dime on the new stuff? With each step, they seem to further stretch the limits of credibility.

It's a sales pitch and I resent how the honest written evaluation has been bastardized for the sake of a buck.

By the way, this is ludicrous to the extreme, in my cynical opinion... sorry for the rant.
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