Hi All,
I am the miserable SOB who wrote the first PFO review. First of all, I would like you to know that I appreciate your comments even if I don't agree with most of them.
Secondly, I should hope it came through loud and clear that I liked the Clari-T a lot, because I did.
I did not use $800 dollar interconnects--I paid $250 dollars for the most expensive of the lot. I did believe I had a reasonably paired system for the review (Three very different speakers, all $1K retail or less, of 88,90, and 95db sensitivities. A Blue Circle CS Integrated, two Almarro integrated tube amps, and an Audio Note Dac). Perhaps this is "budget" gear by some lofty standards, but appropriate in both price and sound quality to partner and contrast with the Clari-T.
I do regret the statement about not "trying" to break the unit in. I did play the unit as much as I could and may have had over 100 hours on it, but I did not leave it playing 24/7 as I might with other amps so it may not have fully broken in. My comment was really in reference to the difficulty of breaking in the amp due to the battery and the timeframe in which I had to do it. I was being honest, but my meaning was most definitely unclear and came across badly in print.
Another thing I regret is that I did not make any comments about the very short length of time I had the amplifier in my possession and how that affected my review. Prior to receiving the Clari-T from Vinnie, we had many, many email exchanges. I discussed my desire to review budget components in a minimalist fashion (sans preamp) and that I was in the midst of building a new system after having sold off nearly all of my gear. Vinnie was extremely happy to have someone--even me, God love him--giving the Clari-T a little press. Unfortunately, I allowed his obvious desire and excitement to see a review quickly published to rush me. In retrospect I should have kept the amp another few weeks at least. Mea Culpa.
Most PFO reviewers are just regular guys who love audio. We don't all have constant access to myriad of gear like some audio writers. I am another voice, another experience for others to draw upon. If you don't agree with that experience so be it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion...as long as they agree with me.
If I have learned one thing about audio it is this: Nothing is perfect. Not a McCormack SS amp, a VAC 300B P-P, or a Clari-T. Perhaps the newer Reali-T version with the Blackgate caps would have the quali-T's
that I felt were missing in the Clari-T. No matter how harshly you judged my review, in the end, it was extremely positive and I have trouble understanding why people can't glean that fact from what I wrote.
I want to publicly thank Vinnie for allowing me some ear-time with his first terrific product. He is certainly an asset to the audiophile community and I have enjoyed our correspondence. Together we have had an interesting and stressful (somewhat unpleasant for me as well) learning experience with respect to the reviewing of a new and unusual product.
Cheers,
gb
