Manufacturers pushing their products and agenda in the forums.

Just read Mr. Green post above and I must agree on the quality of the low end products. I am shopping again now for a system and almost everything I hear sounds great. The low cost stuff is amazing compared to 20 years ago.

yyzsantabarbara
I propose that the regular Audiogon site become a SAFE ZONE and a new area is created on the site called the audio DARK ZONE. A place where manufacturers, dealers, and anybody else can participate without worry. You enter the DARK ZONE at your peril but you can always feels safe in the regular SAFE ZONE.

>>>That was tried already over on Audio Asylum when they created Isolation Ward for discussion of “controversial tweaks and controversial subjects.” It was in fact intended to be a clever way to isolate your humble scribe and Peter and May Belt and perhaps others from the General population, as it were. That was the year the Intelligent Chip dominated the discussion on Audio Asylum for around 9 straight months 24/7. If you take a look at what has happened over on Audio Asylum, no offense, there is a peculiar lack of content and longer. Next stop, the ventilator. Of course others might disagree, and good luck to you. Please, no angry emails. The same thing happened to Stereophile Forum, too, sadly, which has become a vast wasteland.

He not busy being born is busy dying.

Please, let's not denigrate a line from a Dylan tune. I'm quite sure he would want no part of these discussions. 

Just to recap, what is disturbing are the frequent threads that are slipped into the forum by people feigning enthusiasm for particular products. It's OK, once in a while, to believe that some audiophile is so excited about their recent purchase that they want to share their experience. However, lately we get a steady diet of threads on the same product (i.e. Tekton). I find the enthusiastic exclamations to be disingenuous ("I had goosebumps"). They are simply being initiated to spark interest in an obscure product. Rightly or wrongly, I firmly believe that these threads (ads) are being placed by the manufacturers, dealers or friends of the company owner. Of course they are excited by the product...they sell it!

     How about absolutely no changes are made and we just informally refer to regular forums here as "Danger Zones" just because it sounds more exciting and cool. 
     Do you have what it takes to enter the Danger Zone?  Don't even think of entering if you're a whining little crybaby blue-green lizard like creature from the planet Virid (sorry viridian) or any other creature from one of those other planets in the infamous Whining Reptilian Belt. 
     Entrance requirements are ice in your veins, balls of steel ( elizabeth, you don't qualify literally but you do figuratively.), the ability to think for yourself and the ability to distinguish those manufacturers/retailers providing useful information and opinions based on their vast knowledge and years of experience from those manufacturers/retailers just engaged in unwanted 'shilliness' or salesmanship.
     Caveat Emptor is the motto in the Danger Zone.

Tim