Julius Futterman.
Marco
Marco
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 ??? : )
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."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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
>
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 ??? : )
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- 58 posts total
It looks like Nighthawk gets the "hot date" as he was the first to post the name of the author. Unfortunately, the only "Hollywood Star" that we could round up was Phyllis Diller. Yes, Phyllis is still alive too : ) As far as "all expenses paid", all we can afford would be a few "sliders" from White Castle and he and Phyllis will have to split a Coke. My suggestion to them is to get easy ice as they'll get more to drink that way... : ) To be fair, honourable mentions go to Ljgj and Ozfly, but believe me, you DO NOT want to know who your dates are with : ) Honestly though, these comments were originally published in literature that Acoustic Research distributed in 1962. Roy Allison was the Chief Engineer of AR at the time and later became the Plant Manager. Excerpts from this book were also published in HiFi/Stereo Review. All of the original content published in 1962 was included with further revisions and additions in the 1965 publication entitled "High Fidelity Systems: A Users Guide" by Roy F. Allison. The revision and update became necessary as systems were switching over from mono to stereo, making the older information somewhat out of date. Given that "stereo" gave loudspeaker manufacturers the ability to sell a customer TWO speakers rather than just the one needed for mono, you can understand why someone in the position of Allison and AR would want to help consumers better understand how this "newfangled" technology worked. Quite honestly though, this book is remarkably non-biased given Allison's business affiliations. There is even pictures of non-AR gear in this book. As a side note, Allison's book was distributed along side of Edgar Villchur's 1962 publication entitled "Reproduction of Sound". For those that want to learn the basics of how & why in audio, i HIGHLY recommend this book. While it is quite old and some of the information dated, this book may be the best "introductory" into audio that was ever written. While Good Sound by Laura Dearborn and Robert Harley's book are worth checking out, Villchur goes FAR more into depth on specific technical subjects. He does so in a manner that is not "TOO technical" and manages to keep the entire book down to 92 pages. Hope this was worth the wait, although i have the feeling most are let down. No "real" movie star's and no real dates. Let's give Nighthawk a round of applause anyhow : ) Sean > |
I KNEW that I had read that before, and now I know why. I've read both of the books that you mention. That's right, my local university library has copies of both, and I enjoy reading very old pieces of audio literature. I especially like flipping through old magazines ads-- so little has changed. Anyway, I've actually read that quote in the book that it was originally printed in. Do I get a cookie? :) |
- 58 posts total