www.high-endaudio.com & Arthur Salvatore


I just stumbled on this web site while googling and surfing. He has some interesting things to say, and I examined his "Recommended Components" list with interest.

Question: Accepting the premise that one man's opinion is exactly that, has anyone here confirmed or disagreed with 1) his equipment observations, 2) his views on the state of audio journalism?
timwat
He's a bit over the top, but anybody who's ever so much as thought about buying a component on the basis of a review really ought to read his take on the audio press (as well as Rich Hardesty's at www.audioperfectionist.com).
In read his site many times and I like his kind of writing.
It is so different to the useless blah, blah in Stereophile or most other magazines.
His combination : dealer + knowledge + honesty is ultra rare in my opinion.
I own or listend to quite a few units he recommends ( cartridges, amps ...) or write about, so I know these really very well and he is right.
Same is for his reports about the press, this one I like very much , too.
What I respect much, he never says that something is the best ever, he only writes about units he or his friends personally know.
And he is not afraid to write about very unpopular facts ( overpriced crap, press ...).
Overall I have the same opinion TWL has, you should see it as a good information source but you can only really understand him, when you made your own thoughts before.
I own a pair of his recommended amps- rebuilt/highly modded Altec Lansing 1570BT monoblocks (165 wpc in triode using only a pair of 811's per channel). They are superb from top to bottom of the frequency spectrum. I also owned another pair of his class 'A' modded Golden Tube Audio amps, but had to sell because not enough power for my application- they were incredible though- utmost grainless purity... so yes- in my opinion, many of his recommendations are excellent (including Coincident cabling, which I also use and speak highly of).
Honest and informed - two adjectives I can think of when I think of Arthur Salvatore. There is a major void in Toronto, in audiophile circles, since he returned to U.S. of A.. I trusted his opinions, (almost) exclusively.
I have read and re-read his website many times, and, based on his recommendations, purchased many of the LPs and some of the equipment he recommends.
I have found that he has never steered me wrong as far as audio goes. I stopped buying certain record labels, and started purchasing certain other labels, and never have I heard better sound. I also bought a denon cart, and like it. I can't afford many of the other products, but if I could I would likely purchase the recommended components before any other brands. The exception I made recently was a pair of Axiom M80Ti's, which had recommendations from just about everyone. I was not disappointed, fortunately.