Lotus340r, absolutely true what you are saying. Of course it is a different issue for the beginner, the mid term fidelty guy or the one who already has arrived in heaven. the first group is just feeling a bit unsecure dealing with all the different opinions & special advises ending up usally in dealer or brand oriented hands. The later species you can differentiate in the ones not doing anything at their system since 10-15 years or longer and the specialists finding & working on tiny improvement issues. Both are usally engaging more on platforms than listening to their music. How should it work listening to music when your sitting 8 hours the day in front of your computer and serving 5-8 audio platforms and maybe 40-80 threads (extreme!).
Anyhow the mid term fidelity guy might be the happiest man as he is not really political, not running a church approach and only sometimes relying on brand authority. All enjoy the insight into sometimes complex topics. It's good that we have all groups and without our 'platform-guys' we would not have that kind of exchange.
In a world full of business interests we will be not able retreating only to theoretical exchanges. It is also about products, here about Micro Seikis and TW Acoustic. The MS-problem is that they are no longer in production (comparable to EMT and others). But there is a community loving these units and some are trying to improve and sell. In the case of TW there is a company and sales forces behind it trying to raise interest in the products and there is also a community of afficinados. If I would run an audio company I would be interested in good reviews, good consumer base and good feedback. Nothing bad about this.
You are right the problem is people do not listen to the units in their own chains rather relying on 2nd or 3rd hand opinions, which is okay for getting a basic opinion. Maybe we have changed over the years, too. 20 years ago we would not have invested 20k or more into one turntable without having compared it with the contenders. Hopefully this thread helps also to motivate folks doing (!) the listening and find out what is best for them.
Anyhow the mid term fidelity guy might be the happiest man as he is not really political, not running a church approach and only sometimes relying on brand authority. All enjoy the insight into sometimes complex topics. It's good that we have all groups and without our 'platform-guys' we would not have that kind of exchange.
In a world full of business interests we will be not able retreating only to theoretical exchanges. It is also about products, here about Micro Seikis and TW Acoustic. The MS-problem is that they are no longer in production (comparable to EMT and others). But there is a community loving these units and some are trying to improve and sell. In the case of TW there is a company and sales forces behind it trying to raise interest in the products and there is also a community of afficinados. If I would run an audio company I would be interested in good reviews, good consumer base and good feedback. Nothing bad about this.
You are right the problem is people do not listen to the units in their own chains rather relying on 2nd or 3rd hand opinions, which is okay for getting a basic opinion. Maybe we have changed over the years, too. 20 years ago we would not have invested 20k or more into one turntable without having compared it with the contenders. Hopefully this thread helps also to motivate folks doing (!) the listening and find out what is best for them.