audition_audio, that was a well thought out, inoffensive reply, so I will respond further. :)
I am replying to your statement, "
When you add this preconceived notions, personal and professional industry affiliations with the need for ad revenue we have a fundamentally broken model in which true objectivity is illusive."
There are standard presumptions in regard to reviewers, and I see some of these in your statement, and I think it colors your understanding of my article and motives. I have said before, and I'll say again, that I am not paid to write. That changes the ball game entirely imo. I feel zero pressure to conform to some expectation of a publication, aside from integrity at a high level. I doubt seriously that the article would have even made it into print in a physical magazine, frankly, something for which the community should be grateful that I and Dagogo.com had the guts to do so.
I was not assigned the topic, and it's entirely disassociated from anything, quite literally, that happens at Dagogo.com in terms of advertising and income. I have no clue about those aspects of the publication - and I do not wish to! I want to be entirely free of the pressures, politics and associated issues with the public in regard to the business. I wish to write and explore audio. Constantine Soo, Publisher of Dagogo.com has been wonderful in that he has allowed me to explore and has published my work, even if it is not appreciated by all.
I do not know what it is about the community, but no matter how many times I stress that I have zero involvement or interest in the advertising, or any business aspect of the publication, the inferences on up to insinuations keep coming. It seems an unavoidable result, given that there are new eyeballs here regularly. The easy thing is to apply the standard presumption and full bore skepticism in reply.
What, precisely, do "industry affiliations" have to do with this? In a word, nothing. I do my articles such as this out of my interest. No one asks me to do this with their equipment. Some of it I have owned, as in the first article, so I can do as I wish. Some is on loan for review, and frankly, I don't have to tell the company I'm going to do the comparisons. It's a separate article, and it could be done with any components, cables, speakers, etc. In this instance I did tell the amp and cable companies, and they were elated, thinking it would be an interesting project. That gave the opportunity if they were afraid, to block it. I don't think their company would be hurt by it, but some manufacturers are paranoid of community reaction. It's a real treat dealing with them. :( I get zero benefit from the industry or affiliations doing the additional work, aside from my learning and desire to share it. It has no impact on reviews, or industry accommodation.
So, maybe you can dial back some of the skepticism with which you approach me and this topic.
Finally, I will correct you once again; I'm not going to keep doing this, as you seem deaf to it. It is NOT one opinion versus the other; its an opinion (yours) without any attempt to verify, versus informal testing which confirms or falsifies an opinion. Obviously, it's all conducted by listening impressions; you're not making a salient point by continuing to state that. It's convenient for you to discount the testing process and refer to it merely as an opinion, but it's not true. We certainly do have a difference of "opinion", but mine is a conclusion informed by testing/comparision, while yours is not. BIG difference. If you can't accept that reality, and continue to misrepresent it, I'll stop talking to you. I'm not here to waste my breath on people who are resistant to correction on patently clear things. You could make yourself useful, and do a couple comparisons if you wish to have something more important to say. :)
My "model" how I conduct myself and produce such articles, is not broken, and now you know. :)
Actually, your continued skepticism and misjudgments have allowed me to once again clarify for the community the integrity behind the articles. So, there is some benefit to having to explain this all again. Then, there will be the people so jaded they won't believe me. So be it.
