If you haven't lived it, it's hard to convey the madness of the first few weeks after releasing a new audio product to in-house manufacture. No matter what's gone before, you're cutting a fresh new unfamiliar trail that one day will be well worn and easy but for the moment each new step is just plain hard work. You sweat all the details and despite all the planning there's always something overlooked that has to figured out and resolved. You have to. And you do. And it does.
In the midst of this crunch time, stopping to smell the roses is a distant notion. But last night after yet another unit had been built, boxed and shipped, I sat down with a glass of wine and took the time to really listen to the next LDRx preamp sitting on the test bench waiting for final checkout. This one had the optional Neotech silver hookup wire in the audio path.
Keep in mind that I listen to every preamp we produce before it ships so I'm quite familiar with how they generally sound. But it quickly became apparent after a few minutes of critical listening to this new LDRx that we'd truly managed to raise the bar with this model. Imaging, sound stage, clarity, detail and bass never sounded so good. The whole had indeed become greater than the sum of its parts. As an audio designer and music lover, that's a moment to savor.
This morning it's back to digging out from under our backlog of orders. But I take great comfort in knowing that our customers are getting a great product. For those of you still waiting for your unit to ship, I beg your continued patience. Over the next 2 weeks we expect to be totally caught up.
Enjoy!
Morten
