Michael Fremer leaves Analog Planet

Most of time I found that the way Michael hears music falls in line with how I hear it.  I agree most of the time with his reviews.  The most intriguing to me was when he compared his 150K+ table to the Technics 1200G.  I could not believe in many ways how the G sounded very close to and in some ways, had more punch than the state of the art table.  A very honest review to say the least.

Fremer doesn't say everything he has to say, you should be able to read between and outside the lines.  Also, he's got $30k speakers cables, this alone counts a lot.

He is alright and he is a very important person to keep analogue alive, especially in the US. I wish him well.

I am generally against criticizing audio components primarily because of their retail cost, but what could there possibly be about a pair of speaker wires that could justify a retail price of $30,000? I think MF has to use such equipment in order to make the reader feel that whatever component he is evaluating, the evaluation has been done with the best possible equipment and auditioned by a train to pair of ears, supposedly, the ears of MF. We have to keep in mind that MF does what he does in order to make a living. For the rest of us, it is a hobby, except for the occasional dealer or manufacturer who chooses to comment here.  Since he is trying to make a living, it is inevitable and unavoidable that he will have to temper his public comments on equipment, especially mega-expensive equipment. Since he has to maintain a very expensive system for the reason I cited, he likewise probably has to depend on the makers of such equipment for loans, at least sometimes for some of the gear. In the old days, Harry Pearson and probably others at absolute sound were notorious for borrowing equipment from manufacturers that they then never returned or perhaps only returned years later when it was out of date. It is not shocking or even all that damning to learn that MF may do some of the same things, although I think he has said in the past that he owns everything in his home system. Perhaps I am incorrect on that. After all, the components in his system are repeatedly mentioned in the course of his reviews, and that is valuable free advertising. I remember when Lloyd Walker told me how happy he was that Jonathan Valin endorsed his proscenium turntable and how apprehensive he was that valin might change his mind. 

He once said regarding those Tara speaker cables that two guys needed two weeks to make one pair of cables. He also said that he did get a discount.

Yeah, he has to maintain reference level system, this includes reference level cables.

@lewm he goes through his rites of ownership in this video. I'm still curious how big of "discounts" he got from the manufacturer. I gotta admire the chaos of his room but how he says it sounds so good. With gear like that how could it not.