Latest Absolute Sound

I have no problem with TAS reviewing expensive gear.  It pushes engineers to keep designing better and better products.  The technology they put in the high end gear today is in tomorrows affordable gear. 

The price of high end equipment these days are outrageous. I don't think the sound are much better than 80' & 90' class A and B components, but the price is easily 5 to 10 times more expensive. So, I always bought used and happy.

I think the business plan of ultra expensive stuff is great…Bugatti already has 100 orders for the not yet available new supercar, 200 grand for audio components with no (or few) moving parts are common, and hey…exclusivity worked for Bernie Madoff, so why not? I feel a self satisfied smirk coming on when I think about my relatively inexpensive hifi rig (lots of used but geekily vetted items), and recently a friend commented on my great sounding Linn turntable (bought used and re-wired) by saying, "Most people would consider 500 bucks a LOT for a turntable"…and he's right.

Throwing tons of money into a product does not necessarily make it work any better, Often it ends up on the outside as window dressing. They have to justify the cost somehow. Those manufactures are simply testing the limits of what they can get and having you pay more for the extreme art of how they box their circuitry. They need to spend that money on their circuits.

That's where the real enjoyment of music lives. 

Roger

I wasn't too pleased, either, with the current issue.

I'm sorry but it looks like the Japanese equipment makers are trying to invade the High End again -- Sony speakers, Yamaha separates and $53K amps from Technics!

The last straw was a good review for the $4K "revised" Technics SL-1200 direct drive with the "refinements" that 40 years brings. I'm sorry, but ever since I heard a direct A-B between the Linn LP12 and the same Technics back in 1974, I'm NOT going the direct-drive route no matter what TAS or other reviewers are saying.