Wayner, I wouldn't bring Julian Hirsch into the picture. When I was a young lad (I'm not that old, by the way), Julian Hirsch misled me into thinking the silver oriental stuff were high end. Every last statement of his review was always "this whatever piece sounded as good as it measured for it's price." Whatever the hell it was supposed to mean.The guy was deaf in my opinion.
But I am sure that he was just doing his job, and he had the chance to play with all those gear, I wish I had his job.