[Bob Reynolds]

With the majority of audio magazines and e-zines being purely subjective, JA's measurements are the saving grace in high-end audio at this point in time.

Not sure what exactly it's saving. I mean, if at the end of the day you like the sound, what's to argue?

se

The saving is in the knowledge -- less chance of fooling ourselves.

[Dennis M. Clark]

   Cut through the crap gentlemen!  40,ooo $ for a player that is average at best!  Ridiculous!  Spend your time researching more important music makers, at reasonible prices!  Fools Gold!  I find it surprising this was even brought up.  Who cares!  Best wishes.  Dennis M. Clark

[Bob Reynolds]

Any thoughts on the Follow-Up in the recent issue?

[ZooDog]

Any thoughts on the Follow-Up in the recent issue?

It looks like the frequency response issue was taken care of, but it still has high levels of jitter and HF IM distortion.  A $99 DVD player probably measures better.  What a joke.

[tomjtx]

It looks like the frequency response issue was taken care of, but it still has high levels of jitter and HF IM distortion.  A $99 DVD player probably measures better.  What a joke.
[/quote]

M Fremer should be a joke after that review also. How could anyone take him seriously at this point?

[Brian Cheney]

A question in my mind is that is there some justification for the price point, other than sound quality?  Is this just inexpensive parts elaborately packaged?  Can the same performance be achieved for substantially less outlay? 

Or is this another example of "The Price is the Product!"

[Daygloworange]

A question in my mind is that is there some justification for the price point, other than sound quality?  Is this just inexpensive parts elaborately packaged?  Can the same performance be achieved for substantially less outlay? 

Or is this another example of "The Price is the Product!"

At 40k, you could argue that exclusivity would be one of the allures of wanting to own such a product. But at that price point one would hope that it would contain above average specified parts, hand assembled, and sound good.

Cheers

[dado5]

It looks like the frequency response issue was taken care of, but it still has high levels of jitter and HF IM distortion.  A $99 DVD player probably measures better.  What a joke.

M Fremer should be a joke after that review also. How could anyone take him seriously at this point?
[/quote]

I am not so quick to dismiss him. As has been pointed out, the audibility of jitter is debatable and noticing the roll-off would depend entirely on program material and the speaker/room interface.  Fremer has been exposed to more gear than most of us combined. I think this casts more doubt on the ability of certain metrics to be predictors of good sound than it does on Fremer's credibility.

Of course the revelation of poor QC creates a huge marketing problem for Zanden to overcome. Customer perception of extreme attention to detail is the raison d'etre boutique makers are able to fetch high prices and Zanden has effectively laid to rest any notion that they are meticulous artisans.