Kyrill,
You ask a very interesting question. No, I don't want one..... I have other fish to fry right at present.
I am constantly searching new ideas, new sounds, new components, new layouts, etc. I'm also trying very hard to bring a new amp to market. The designs you see, as the end user, are the result of many iterations to reach the destination. Every pcb is the result of two or three prototypes, and then finally, agonisingly, I go firm on a design and that's the basis of a new product.
Down the road from me about ten minutes lives a good friend, aka LM on this forum, who has a wonderful system with enormous Vandersteen speakers in a dedicated room. If I want to hear my system at its best, I visit him, and we enjoy a coffee together. He is an accomplished military aircraft pilot, with helicopter, STOL, transport plane and vintage plane licences, and he tells me fascinating stories of his long military career, which I love because I'm a frustrated pilot myself (I can fly a glider!!). And you should know that whenever there is a chance for socialising, I always take it!!
My own GK1 is absolutely stock. It should remain so for local buyers to audition it. It would not be fair to have it tricked to the nines because then people would suffer sticker shock when they paid for it!! So I tell them they get the base version from me, and refer them to the forum for any approved updates.
The Nirvana, N+ update cycle was an eye opener for me all those years back. It revealed a market I never realised existed. But this market is risky. I have a guy right now wants to buy a LF100 with S102 Vishays, and all film/foil caps right through, and Rubycon ZLH electros. To offer these 'updates' is extremely expensive in stock, and already my shelving is creaking under the weight of thousands of components, so I'm trying to reduce my exposure to this sort of specialty buying; it's dangerous, because the market is flightly, and next week all interest could disappear. Slowly, I'm learning......
There really are enough excesses in my life; one daughter living in London, the other intending to live permanently in NYC in six months; matching late model Toyota Cressidas, both in immaculate condition, for HIS and HER; a old 1986 Ford Falcon sedan on LPG; a ZRX1200 Kawasaki naked bike; and large numbers of prototype and traded amps taking up valuable space - so I'm confident you would understand!
I also have a trailer piled high with junk, including two very old air conditioners which have passed their green use by dates. Problem is I will have to rewire the trailer lights to actually get it all to the garbage tip!
So, this is the reason; I know what all this sounds like, but I'm constantly moving on. Ask Ron Russell the same question - he knows what I mean......
I've just listened to an amusing segment on breakfast radio. Apparently Australia's Funeral Directors are gearing up for a very busy decade as the Baby Boomers, my generation, start to fall off their twigs! Apparently from age 65 lots of people start to die off, and since there was a huge population surge in the Allied countries directly after the War, lots of funerals are coming up. The problem is, how to make it green? It's 160Kg of greenhouse gases for a cremation, and only 39Kg for a natural decay in a coffin. BUT, a coffin needs a big plot, with lots of grass, and it has to be mowed with an infernal combustion engine, and that makes it more carbon friendly to cremate. Ah, what to do? This is SOOOOOO difficult!!
Cheers,
Hugh
