[Psychicanimal]

When Dan Wright started to take off with his modding business he was being harassed by one *particular* modder (yes, THAT dude).  It was like this modder was on the cold war arms race!  The details I'm not at liberty to discuss, but, coming from audio video sales I took care of my home boy.  I told him:  "Dan, to be the best modder you don't have to be the best modder.  You have to be.....( I won't tell )".  And he did...

Dusty's approach is based on quality, reliability and value.  He's not aiming to be the 'absolute best' (whatever that means) but to deliver a performance & reliability level that audiophiles worldwide previously could not afford.  The majority of the high end market is not domestic sales, but foreign.  Since shipping accounts for a big chunk of a component's price smaller units like the Channel Islands/Monolithic Sound tilt the balance in favor of performance to price ratio.  Think about it.

In my particular case, these components do the trick and like Danny Boy told me years ago, I would reach the equivalent of $25K sound on a much lower budget by having him mod my Swans M-1 mini monitors and using Dusty's stuff.  That's why I have the DAC, Monolithic phono stage and passive pre. Their small footprints allow me to use non resonant, Caribbean Moca wood boards under each piece and outboard power supply (and smaller cones/footers. too!).  About their sonic signature, the CI/MS components are designed to be clean, fast and neutral.  Live music is harsh, so if you can't handle that fact get tubes and lots of copper wires to make it sweet and smooth.  What is not sweet, but salty and sticky?   

Hey, that's life!

[TONEPUB]

The review process is always difficult.

When we approached Dusty about reviewing his amplifiers a while back, one of the first things he told us was " I don't advertise with anyone!"  Even though we do not require advertising to review anyone's products, I still had to ask because, hey we need to keep our staff fed.

However, we used the D-100's for a while in a couple of different systems and found them to be very good and for the money, really good.  It just isn't fair to compare a pair of $1600 amps to the really expensive stuff.  I know everyone wants to find that "giant killer" out there that is the best sounding amp in the world, but it doesn't exist.

Dusty makes a great amp that is well built for a very reasonable price.  I think that's a pretty major achievement.

At TONE, while we like to get our hands on some of the mega expensive gear, I really think the average audiophile is buying a system somewhere between $2 - $10,000.  At least that's what our research shows.  At that price point, the CI amps are a good cornerstone for that kind of system.  Obviously, if you want a bit more of the tubey sound, they won't be your cup of tea, that's a given. 

Either way, we were extremely impressed with his amplifiers!

[JEaton]

The review process is always difficult.

When we approached..

Took me a bit of googling to figure out what mag you were talking about - I'd never heard of it.  Is this also published in print and sold in newsstands?  If not, it's a weird format choice for an online magazine.  Tough as hell to read (actually, enough of a pain in the butt that I never got past the first article, no matter how interesting the later ones might have looked.)

[CIAudio]

The fact that all the other reputable mags have praised many Class D offerings (including ours) definitely puts TAS in the minority. Their opinion doesn't seem to matter much to the audiophile buying public as our demand for D series amplifiers continues to increase.
The majority of these customers are replacing more expensive tube and conventional SS designs. Maybe this is why the only two amplifiers in the $2000-$3000 given an Editors' Choice Award are Class D. 

[Kevin Haskins]

unfortunately, we won't be exhibiting at the RMAF this year. The days of this years show conflict with our vacation/anniversary, so I'll be in Maui instead.

Congrats....good reason to miss a show.   How many years? 

[CIAudio]

Thanks Kevin

This will be our 5th, and we haven't had a real vacation for a couple years, so I'm looking forward to it. Kurt (who runs assembly) and his wife are also going and celebrating their 4th.

I'll miss being at RMAF, but not a bad reason to miss it. It should be a great show, I really enjoyed doing it last year.

We'll be thinking about all you guys while we sip mai tai's and pina coladas in the nice warm sun 

[Psychicanimal]

...and while Dusty likes Hawaii, the worldwide pound for pound amplification champions await the digital contenders here in the Caribbean:

my Marantz Esotec Ma-5 30W class A monoblocks!!! aa

 

[Kevin Haskins]

Thanks Kevin

This will be our 5th, and we haven't had a real vacation for a couple years, so I'm looking forward to it. Kurt (who runs assembly) and his wife are also going and celebrating their 4th.

I'll miss being at RMAF, but not a bad reason to miss it. It should be a great show, I really enjoyed doing it last year.

We'll be thinking about all you guys while we sip mai tai's and pina coladas in the nice warm sun 

Five is good... I have you beat though we are coming up on the 10th.   I'm trying to make plans for a week of sailing around the San Juans or something romantic without kids involved for long periods of time.    The key part is long periods of time without kids.   

Have a good time... and don't drink too many.

[richidoo]

The key part is long periods of time without kids.   

That's why I'm going to RMAF. 4 nights in a silent hotel room. Yeeha!

Thanks everybody for the great thread. I am back in the saddle again.
Rich

[warnerwh]

Looks like the replies I'd been looking for in another forum are here. You guys are right about the issue being a bunch of B.S.

The bottom line is that the magazine is wrought with inconsistencies.  Regardless of the Class D amps reviews or the Roundtable discussion I feel that what they've done is an injustice to themselves and to their subscribers. Maybe I'm biased because I've pretty much had it with Stereophile and Absolute Sound. I've tried to support them by subscribing over the years but they spew so much nonsense that I can hardly stomach them any more.

Anybody in Portland, Oregon that would like a bunch of these mags dating back to the early 90's can have them. Soon they will be recycled. It's unfortunate they didn't print them on toilet paper.

I'm neither defending or condemning switching amps, I've heard two and the sound had been very good. At this point I'm not ready to try one but there's people who's opinion I respect and they very much like them. The information I get from other people on this forum and others though I've found to be more valuable than the magazines could hope to be.

[kbuzz3]

Although ive been a subscriber for about 15 years, only from the last few TAS issues have I finally admitted that the mag is that I once cherished is gone. The recent reguritation of prior reviews smacks of stereophileism and lazy journalism at best.  Whats next a monthly homage to triangle and sonus faber speakers - which i like for the record.

The class d "roundtable" was really a non event. My impression and opinion is reads that minds were made up before real listening tests were conducted.

In evidence I note the failure to "review" a few "class d" designs which undoubltly sound different than average, such as the flying mole and red wine. Love them or not they are not tweaked modules....I apoligize but i have not heard dusty's models....

D'agastino's statements seemed more like a political agenda to support/advance his traditional technology over anything else.  Reminds me of the other stupid roundtables TAS had with SACD v. DVD A proponents. It wasnt so much as a roundtable but a soapbox for each format's supporters. 

Ill stick to getting real advise from this forum and AC in general.

Im also really glad that Dusty had the integrity to not only to tell TAS that he does not advertise but to let us know on this board that he he had a conversation (s) with TAS about advertising.

While im on my soapbox let me also say for the record that I really enjoy having women reviewers. I think that women hear better and different then men. however, I lost sue kraft at her coincindent partial eclipse review last year....

[warnerwh]

I'm pretty sure that banning professional audio reviewers from our lives permanently would be a good idea.