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The Absolute Sound Review of Sony SCD-XA777ES ???


Just received the new TAS. Seems the mag. is going through some changes...starting to look a bit "mainstream". Anyway, in Robert Harley's review of the multi-channel Sony SACD player...there is no listing of associated equipment. The same thing is true of Cordesman's comments.

Don't mean to be nasty..but I am a bit of a multi channel for music skeptic(vs. movies), and thought this review might be a good insight, but without the listing of gear used to review the player...the review is nearly worthless.

With two channels it's good to know what else their using to evaluate something...but my god, 5 speakers, 5 channels of amplification, many more cables and wires...and were just left in the dark... Again, sorry, but the review is worthless without knowing what else was being used.

Yes there are some listings of associated gear in other reviews in the mag...but those are always changing from issue to issue and review to review...so it doesn't seem we should just try to add up what was being used.

Any comments?
whatjd
asa
662 posts
 
Clueless: I don't think our audio world is quite ready to hear that the King has no clothes.

The hi-end is an incestuous marriage of art and commerce - or the search for "beauty" and the search for money - where, invariably, the considerations of art take a back seat to an individual's greed. At the apex of these organizations are individuals whose identity structure (who they tell themselves they are and project to other people) must include an image of the guru, making unassailed, Platonic pronouncements from on high, as if they were Zeus. Of course, to keep this illusion going the acolytes must be willing - need it somehow - to accept the "guru's" projection. Its a symbiotic dynamic.

Oh my God, I just realized that I've said something "Bad".

Quick, everyone, stone the Witch!!!!

Oh well...
bishopwill
369 posts
 
Hey, Whatjd,

I hope you didn't hear my remarks as a personal put-down. I, too, miss the equipment list and wonder why Miss WhatsHerFace can't find three column inches to include it now that TAS is fat and sassy again.

I'm inclined to believe that it all comes down to (1) whether the reviewer has any ears and (2) how similar his taste is to my own. Over the years I have learned that my own ears/taste are so different from Cordesman's that his reviews are pretty much worthless to me. Harley I do better with. And HP's (all genuflect before the celestial throne!), too, once one learns to read beyond his incredible pomposity.
whatjd OP
1,139 posts
 
Bishopwill, not a concern. I find value in all of the posts to this thread.

I found it a poor choice to have associated gear listings with other reviews, but not with the review that was both their cover photo...and a bit of a tabloid title "Multi-Channel Magic" or something like that.

Anyway, I enjoy this site a great deal, and the forum threads are always a good way to increase the social skills of communications and the ability to not always agree..but remain open to other thoughts.
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