[John Stone]

On 9/29/15, 9:15 AM, in article ,
" wrote:

On Monday, September 28, 2015 at 11:27:30 PM UTC-4, John Stone wrote:


What exactly does "eyewash" mean? First of all, B & O stopped making
cartridges a long time ago. But when they did make them, they were
considered very good, contrary to what you might think.

John:

B&O makes (and made) all kinds of equipment that was eye-catching, sounded
reasonably good, but was (and is) essentially unserviceable. Yes, their
cartridges were considered "very good", but any company that limits its users
to proprietary parts (as if a car maker were to require a buyer to use only
*their* tires, *their* oil and so forth) is simply wrong. That is a matter of
opinion, of course. But that level of decision-making has obsoleted thousands
of B&) TTs if the owner does not wish to invest in a Soundsmith cartridge. The
cost of that part will exceed the value of the TT by a large margin.

But, for a definiton of eyewash: insert "nonsense" and you would be close.
Soothing to the eyes, not a lot of substance.

Peter
I was the technical manager of B & O of America for over 5 years, I feel
confident in telling you that your take on their serviceability is way off
the mark. If their products were so unserviceable, then why was I hired to
train technicians how to service them? Why did we have excellent service
manuals for everything and a well stocked parts department? I spent 3 months
out of each year conducting service seminars on all new product releases. As
for the turntables, yes they had proprietary cartridges and did so because
they wanted the lowest possible moving mass in the arm. They never hid that
fact, and they supplied replacement cartridges at least 15 yrs after they
produced the last turntables and then licensed the cartridge manufacture to
a third party. Companies discontinue parts all the time, Peter. Get over it.
Try finding a new headshell or an idler for a Dual, Miracord, or Garrard.
Try getting arm components or a new drive motor for a Pioneer or Sony. Yes
the replacements are expensive for B & O cartridges. But they're available.
Ask Shure if they've got any replacement styli for their V15 series.
As for substance, you've got a lot of nerve making such a statement, while
obviously knowing nothing about the company and its history. They've got a
huge portfolio of patents, invented technologies like Dolby HX Pro and line
contact styli, were the earliest to make an electronic servo driven linear
tracking arm (again patented) have done a lot of basic research into
loudspeaker technology, etc. And in Europe, they did a lot of breakthrough
work on the video side as well.