Absolute Sound gives Audio by Van Alstine's T8 preamp an Editor's Choice Award!

avahifi · « **on:** 9 Sep 2008, 01:23 am »

Yup, us too. But it wasn't written by Harry I don't think.

Anyway our vacuum tube preamp, the Transcendence Eight, seemed to be listed first in the $1000 to $2000 class.

We offer a 30 day satisfaction guarantee, so try one, it might be your pick too.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

Toka · « **Reply #1 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 02:26 am »

Way to go!

yooper · « **Reply #2 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 02:34 am »

Well deserved, and the added exposure is certainly a wonderful thing.

Mark

JerryM · « **Reply #3 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 03:42 am »

Cool!!!

It's about time. The T8 is one super-musical piece of gear.

Congratulations, Frank!

Oh, and thank you!

Jerry

ArthurDent · « **Reply #4 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 04:56 am »

Congrats Frank & crew.

Well deserved recognition for a fine instrument, crafted by exceptional folks.

Love mine, and fully expect it to outlast me.

JD

martyo · « **Reply #5 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 08:37 am »

Congratulations AVA

gjs_cds · « **Reply #6 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 01:21 pm »

Fantastic news... Common sense to all of us here, on this board--but it's great to hear that the AVA HiFi continues to get the credit they deserve.

Congratulations to Frank and his team...

rustneversleeps · « **Reply #7 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 03:51 pm »

As always, I don't mean to fan any flames, and I think the award is well deserved.

But for years that AVA gear didn't win any award in Stereophile and maybe in some other magazine (AS included), we complaint, we said that the reviewers were unfair, we said that the reviewers had bad hearing, AVA didn't win because AVA didn't spend enough ad money.......and so on.

Now, AVA has won an award, so what's changed? Do the reviewers all of sudden become fair and have better hearing, and the editor doesn't care about ad money anymore? Does AS have better reviewers than Stereophile? Is AS a better magazine that Stereophile now?

The T-8 won the award in the $1,000 to $2,000 class, but the AVA did not win anything in the $2,001 to $3,000 to $10,000 class, so what does that mean? Does it mean that AVA doesn't have anything in that price range (AVA fans would love this answer), or are the $3,000 to $10,000 equipment better sounding? Why didn't the Ultra win anything this year, it's in the $1,000 to $2,000 range? Why didn,t AVA equipment win all the awards, amp, DAC and all?

We are so prejudice in what we have.

oneinthepipe · « **Reply #8 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 04:15 pm »

Frank:

That's great. I hope that the review encourages more listeners to purchase your products, which would hopefully provide increased opportunities for product development and well-deserved benefits for your employees and you.

Rusty likes your equipment, and I don't understand why he chose to imply (or perhaps I incorrectly inferred) that awards are based on payments for advertising. Last time that I read TAS, it was a 6x9 (or so) booklet, and they didn't accept advertising. I know times have changed. When I travel, however, I sometimes refer to the AAA guidebooks. Some of the dumpiest motels advertise heavily in the guidebooks, but AAA doesn't give them 5 diamonds.

I'm delighted with my AVA purchases; your reputation and the listener reviews, rather than the magazine reviews, lead me to your products, and when I corresponded with Dave Ellis the other day, he raved about your DAC, and he is someone who purportedly knows something about audio and acoustics.

Quote from: rustneversleeps on 9 Sep 2008, 03:51 pm

We are so prejudice in what we have.

Oh, and BTW, I don't drink Kool-aid (if that what Rusty was implying).

rustneversleeps · « **Reply #9 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 04:55 pm »

Quote

Rusty likes your equipment, and I don't understand why he chose to imply (or perhaps I incorrectly inferred) that awards are based on payments for advertising. Last time that I read TAS, it was a 6x9 (or so) booklet, and they didn't accept advertising.

That's certainly not what I'm implying, I am merely repeating some of the comments that I read in the past that certain AVA fans complaint about the AVA didn't get review due to the lack of ad fee to the magazine, I believe such posts can still be found in the Stereophile message board somewhere.

I am just curious about how AVA fans view the audio magazines now, do they still have the prior bitter attitude towards them as before the AVA T-8 won the Editior's Choice award, or they will start praising TAS for being such an unbias, fair and balance magazine?

oneinthepipe · « **Reply #10 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 05:05 pm »

My apology to Rusty for my incorrect inference.

TjMV3 · « **Reply #11 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 05:36 pm »

I really couldn't care less about these reviews and what they think.

I'm sure it's a good thing for Frank/AVA, so in those terms I'm happy for Frank and all the guys/gals at AVA; who make these outstanding pieces of gear.

I agree with Rusty, here.

AVA gear has been high quality and outstanding for a long time; without these reviewers and their opinions. Their opinions now, only show how neglegent they have been in exposing their readers to true, high quality, musical equimpent at reasonable prices; in favor of the overly-bloated usual suspects.

AVA gear is right up there with all the big boys.....McIntosh (which I do like a lot), Krell, Linn .....Etc, in terms of sound, design, durability and reliability. And probably more durable and reliable than some of them.

The big difference is AVA's prices aren't overly-bloated and jacked-up.

gjs_cds · « **Reply #12 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 07:57 pm »

Quote from: rustneversleeps on 9 Sep 2008, 03:51 pm

We are so prejudice in what we have.

Your reference as to why the Ultra didn't win, but the T8 did... I think you're right--prejudice. I suggest there's a tube bias. And the reviewer, knowing (and believing) that all-tube is all-better... those kinds of confounds play a big part of the game. (Even though there's every indication that the more complex hybrid design is better.) Tube-bias, folks.

And in the end, a pre-amp that barely breaks the $1k mark won the league. That says a lot.

In any event, I'm glad to see that Frank and his team are getting the recognition that I think they deserve.

If Stereo-pile or AS want to do this right, they should have a blinded (if not double-blinded) review. Price is no object. What's the best out there, based on user experience alone. (Provided that all the pre-amps are set w/in 0.15 dB from one to another.) But that won't happen--as it won't allow for reviewer biases.

pardales · « **Reply #13 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 08:12 pm »

Congratulations, indeed!

mark funk · « **Reply #14 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 09:37 pm »

Well what do we have here, The Golden Ear and the Editor's Choice what's next? I'm happy Frank and his family are getting a little press, it's only been 40 years!

Toka · « **Reply #15 on:** 9 Sep 2008, 11:21 pm »

Were they even sent an Ultra to review? Or a (then) OmegaStar? If all they had was a T-8 then I don't see what the problem could be.

avahifi · « **Reply #16 on:** 10 Sep 2008, 11:49 am »

Given that there are a lot more decent and interesting audio products out there than there are pages in TAS for reviews, we could only hope for a write up maybe once a year or so. TAS has been very fair with us over the years. I am going to suggest an Insight DAC review to them one of these days soon,

Stereophile in contrast, a year ago devoted lots of space raving about one of my client's Legacy Whisper speakers and his triamped setup using six of our OmegaStar 500 amplifiers run bridged, Ultra preamp, Ultra DAC, and several Ultra bridges to provide a six thousand watt plus system! Unfortunately, the editor described all the electronics as stock old Hafler equipment, snubbing us completely! I wrote to Stereophile pointing out that if their readers tried to duplicate the performace of my client's system by purchasing a bunch of old stock Hafler stuff, their misinformation would sorrily disappoint them. No answer or correction ever happened.

Politics is politics of course, but I expected better than Karl Rove treatment from Stereophile.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

Zheeeem · « **Reply #17 on:** 10 Sep 2008, 01:51 pm »

Congrats, Frank.

I agree that TAS is both a better magazine and has been kinder to AVA than $tereophile. In fact, my first AVA (Jensen's actually) product was a very nice FET-5 Mark 2 that drew a rave review in TAS. I can't recall the exact year, but it must have been at least 30 years ago. The unit is still in daily use in the HT, but it's been upgraded to "Superfet". (Yeah, a 25 year old unit that runs on average 4-5 hours a day every and still works as well as the day I bought it. Go figure.)

Anyhow, I owe Harry a big wet kiss for pointing me in your direction.

So far, in the past 30+ years, I've gotten no useful information from $tereophile.

[It's funny, really. Our HT consists of the PAT-5 Superfet, a MOSFET 250 of the same vintage (which gets the same daily workout!) a pair of Tympani 1(u)s (rebuilt) a REL Strata 3 to compensate for the anemic bass of the maggies) and an early all-in-one AVA modified phillips CDP (and our concession to modernity - an OPPO DVD player). Despite being pretty much 20+ years old (the plus being closer to 40 in the case of the maggies), it holds its own against most of the "state of the art" high end stuff out there today.]

rustneversleeps · « **Reply #18 on:** 10 Sep 2008, 04:35 pm »

The relationship between AVA and Stereophile reminds me of the classic management world in real life. You don't want to piss off the people at, or the people who relate to the management level. If you piss the management off, you piss them off for life, management has long memory. If you must piss them off, then prepare for battle.

Stereophile once said AVA were in the business of modifying old equipment, if they manufactured their own, Stereophile would be happy to review them. Many time after the Stereophile review, it would be immediately followed by a full page Ad of the equipment that they had just reviewed, go figure that one out. For instance, Stereophile is in bed with that Upscale Audio, and they reviewed Upscale's import shit left and right. And Upscale usually had three full page color ad in that magazine. Once in a blue moon, Stereophile may review something that doesn't have an Ad, but I suspect they just want to make the numbers look better.

So Frank, what did you do to piss Stereophile off aa?

avahifi · « **Reply #19 on:** 10 Sep 2008, 07:25 pm »

Maybe not advertise there because their rates are way higher than The Absolute Sound's rates?

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

P.S. Oh yes, when my Super Pas Three rebuild of the old Dyna Pas-3 preamp dropped off their recommended list years ago, because, "they had not listened to it recently", I wrote them and reminded them that I had given them the unit when it was rebuild and suggested that they simply dig it out of the closet and listen to it again (no response). That's the most nasty thing I can ever remember saying to them. I do try to keep it a bit cleaner than Karl Rove these days.