Sjofen The Clue speakers

Onhwy61- Your posts here are not always mainstream but you seem like a reasonable, rational guy. Therefore, I was stunned to read

If a product is that demanding in setup and/or system matching, then maybe the manufacturer should be a little proactive in ensuring its optimal use.

Isn't that exactly what the manufacturer did when he offered to come set them up? And didn't the reviewer flat out refuse his offer. I love Richard V's speakers and I even got a minute of his time (and bit of his famed prickliness) when I had a technical question. But can you imagine him publicly offering to spend as much phone and email time as was necessary, with any consumer, to get his speakers sounding their best. I'm w Soix and Rebbi- I think this stinks. We often get all over an anonymous poster here for sending out negative comments on our little corner of the internet w/o spending some time and effort letting the seller/dealer/designer/distributor try to make things right. Here we have the biggest media outlet in the high end game crapping all over a little guy, refusing him the opportunity to set things right, while bending over (notice I didn't say backward) to let the big guys set things right. Using their personal favorite cables and ics. How's that for a niche product that requires unusual set-up? Only sounds right with these $10K wiring loom, which, by the way, I'll have to leave here on "loan, wink wink" while you complete the review. And the next. and the next. As my mother used to say "that stinks on ice".

All the hand-wringing about how hard it is to be successful in this industry, and then someone comes out w what many people thought was a ground-breaking product, and they crap all over it. Shame on you, JA!

That's why the only the only rags reviews I have any faith in at all are the German ones.

If it had been a major advertiser (like Magnepan or Thiel) they (stereophile) would have worked with them. Smaller companies are discarded. The way of the world; especially the audio world. jmho

Some good points here - especially insofar as small companies like Sofjan could potentially be devastated by a review like this in a major publication. How many potential buyers will take the reviewer's word, see the manufacturer's rebuttal as simple desperation, and move on to more fawned-over products?

I enjoy Stereophile, but JA has gotten much more ivory tower-ish and smug over the years in his position as an audiophile guru of sorts. And I can see his defending his staff, but when that staff is new and botches a quality control aspect as simple as this one, it's time to come off the pedestal.

THese remind me so much from what I see and read of my Triangle Titus, even more so their bigger brothers, the Cometes.

I'd be willing to bet that if in the review the speakers were set up More like this on low isolating stands closer to the floor as well as walls for bass reinforcement rather than the more conventional stand mount the manufacturer recommends, the issues cited would be resolved.