Err... Lou, are you aware that you're coming off as being more than a bit pretentious? Why do you say that these amps are going into low-fi systems?
Hi John,
I really am not politically correct and I tend to distain those who are, as it is both disingenuous and antiintellectual at best. These amps are going to be purchased far more by those who cannot afford a Pass Labs Aleph or an X 350 than by those who can.
That being the case, they are far more likely to be using inexpensive, or older speakers which generally have bad crossover parts, so-so drivers and lower resolution. Sure, there will be large numbers of exceptions, but not a large percentage of exceptions.
Furthermore, Chris told me that the general consensis on this board is that black gate caps do not make a tremendous difference. How can that be? No less than 6 people heard a tremendous difference last night in my system, and the BG caps were not even broken in fully. So how can it be, it can be because most people do not have a high resolution system, that is how.
I am not going to be politically correct here, I have been into audio for 25+ years. Till recently I was unable to obtain good gear. This was so not only because it was expensive, but also because reviewers lie in their reviews, or are clueless to begin with, with rare exceptions like Cordsman and Holt, but till you know more, how can you know that they are honest and good?
Furthermore, there never were many good audio salons/stores. Most loved upgradeitis, so they would gladly sell you junk and call it a gem.
Then there are/were the speaker manufactures. Many are clueless, they sell hype but if you pin them down, they know nearly nothing of crossover designs etc., they may farm that out, which is fine, but if they are clueless, who is to say that the designer is any better? Drivers have just recently improved to the point that there are some really awesome speakers out there now. Problem is, who is, and who is not properly implimenting these drivers?
I believe 3 companies use the Dynaudio Esotar, competent sources assure me that only 1 of the 3 really has competently implimented that tweeter. So, even given good speakers, one can still drop the ball.
Furthermore, I have heard systems that cost well over $15,000 that sound absolutely horrid! So even money will not necessarily buy you a good system.
Furthermore, read some of the reviews of gear on AudioReview, if it did not break, no one is giving less than 4 stars to speak of, since most of it is junk, you figure it out.
No, I am not being pretentious in the least, I am simply calling a spade a spade. Furthermore, I have been no less guilty than anyone else in thinking I had a reasonably nice system when in fact it sucked. I know because I have been there, and I see and hear it all the time. I'd be shocked if more than 2-5% of all systems are really listenable over time.
Lastly, it is not about having "golden ears" either, I have an 80 year old Uncle, a former Marine that landed on every beach in the Pacific in WWII except one, he was down with malaria for that one. He wears a hearing aid, and he can here the differences I am talking about, sometimes he catches things even before I do! So this is not pretentious snobbery, but mere truth. Perhaps you cannot handle the truth? Most do not seem to have much of a stomach for it these days, you'd think they were reared in France or something, who knows?
