Dennis Moore wrote:

Good point JA, you had the integrity to publish the review and
the tests that showed the real performance.Â*

I think you're setting the bar awfully low here. See my comments below.

And such is about
all that has been keeping me a reader of Stereophile the last
couple of years.

Dennis

"John Atkinson" wrote in message
news:9vMGc.36713$%_6.6021@attbi_s01...
"DennisÂ* Moore" wrote in message
...
I just wonder if JA still owned the magazine rather than working
for a large publishing owner, would he have said differently?

No. I said what I had to say just the way I intended to say it, both
in the review and in my "As We See It." With respect, I believe you all
need to remember just how it was you learned this ridiculous amplifier
had such poor measured performance.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

I don't question the right of Stereophile to published unrestrained
praise--or even restrained praise--of anything they want. A large contingent
of Stereophile's readers want to know about the latest and greatest--and
they do not want to know that it is junk. So Atkinson was merely giving his
public what it wants.

The message those readers got, however, was, "This amp may not measure so
well, but it sounds great!" If John Atkinson thinks this amp is
"ridiculous," as he says here on RAHE, the message he sent to his readers
was something else entirely. He pulled his punches in the magazine; we can
only speculate as to why.

There's also a larger issue. This amp is perhaps the most sublime
manifestation ever conceived of what is wrong with high-end audio--the
triumph of marketing, glitz, and pseudo-technical bull**** over quality and
value, and the anointing of "golden-eared" reviewers whose judgment, if they
ever had any, goes south at the sight of a pricetag. Has there ever been a
better example of why high-end audio is the laughingstock of EE departments
from coast to coast?

Stereophile fashions itself a champion of the high end. Running a positive
review of an amp like this champions nothing but decadent excess. It's an
insult to the entire field, and to everyone who's ever tried to design a
quality component. It's also a disservice to every consumer who's out there
trying to find those quality components. Too bad the field doesn't have a
visible champion to stand up and say so.

bob

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