Jim:
About the Silk Monitors: there's the "review" on Audio Amici which seems to be a moribund blog; and the references in Audioholics, but have there been any "professional" type reviews of the Silks that talk about all the parameters that a full "Stereophile" type review would entail? I can't find anything. Is that one of the challenges of an exclusively on-line direct sales arrangement? You don't get that much industry coverage?
Joe
Joe -
Web sites and magazines tend to cover larger companies with large ad budgets. I don't blame them since they are in business to make money as well.
I noticed Frank Van Alstine had reviews in a popular audio magazine after I was told by their editor that they only covered products sold at retail. Of course, Frank's products aren't. He told me that the reason they reviewed his products is that he advertised with them.
We could do that as well. But we would have to drastically increase our prices to do that. And that would kind of defeat what we set out to do - sell direct at the lowest possible prices.
I once had a reviewer write an extremely positive review of one of our more expensive models. He sent me a copy to review before submitting it. When it was eventually published on the web site, the editor changed much of it and it was no longer a useful review for us. I asked why the changes were made and the answer was that they didn't want to give us a better review than their paying manufacturer customers, as those customers would not be happy. And so it goes...
That is one down-side of being a small manufacturer.
I have often wondered if our approach was correct. But our customers seem to be very happy.
- Jim