But daveyf, now you have a grievance with the amplifier's designer too? It seems like you're arguing for hand holding for a potentially uninformed consumer. While I agree it may be nice if such education is readily provided by reviewers and HiFi mags in general, I don't feel a reviewer is being negligent if they don't caution the naive buyer on this sort of consideration. You obviously know better. Who do you imagine is the consumer who'd get suckered here? It seems to me the onus is on the buyer, especially with a high dollar niche product such as this. With so much to learn in the world of HiFi, wouldn't it be really dumb and irresponsible to throw that kind of money around without knowing what you're doing or being savvy enough to get proper guidance (and not necessarily from a review in a mag)? I think reviewers have other objectives.
What is missing here?
In this months Absolute Sound magazine there is a nice review of an amp that many of us would probably consider based not only on the review but on the topology utilized with the amp. The amp in question is the new Air Tight ATM 300R. This amp utilizes the 300B tube and according to Dick Olsher " The Air tight ATM300-R wowed me with countless hours of listening pleasure. It consistently brought to life the full sonic promise of the 300B". Sounds amazing right??
Except, nowhere ( except in the specs section) does it mention that this amp is limited to 9Watts/Ch!! And at that it is putting out about 10% distortion! So not only is the amp severely limited to which speakers one can match it to, but those speakers had better be ULTRA high efficiency. While most experienced a’philes will expect the extremely severe limitations of this kind of max output, how many casual listeners who read this article will realize the extreme limitations that this amp comes with? Certainly none of that is mentioned in the review, which brings up the question...why not??? How many even somewhat seasoned a’philes have made the mistake of matching a flea powered amp with a less than favorable speaker load? Let’s hear about it....
Except, nowhere ( except in the specs section) does it mention that this amp is limited to 9Watts/Ch!! And at that it is putting out about 10% distortion! So not only is the amp severely limited to which speakers one can match it to, but those speakers had better be ULTRA high efficiency. While most experienced a’philes will expect the extremely severe limitations of this kind of max output, how many casual listeners who read this article will realize the extreme limitations that this amp comes with? Certainly none of that is mentioned in the review, which brings up the question...why not??? How many even somewhat seasoned a’philes have made the mistake of matching a flea powered amp with a less than favorable speaker load? Let’s hear about it....
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- 51 posts total
- 51 posts total