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I admit I've been slow regarding tours and reviews. It's nothing personal and I apologize if it seemed that way. I wanted a retail line for review- and the amps are ready. Preamps are next. The amps were not ready until last month cosmetically.
Nope--lots of folks spend $$$$$$$$ trying to get that last 5%,,it's all about price/performance,,synergy and what sounds good to you.
For some price is an issue. For others it is not. In my case as an example we have tried numerous DACs and CDPs that cost anywhere a pittance compared to our reference CDP. in the end some were very close in sonic merrits most were not. Was the sound worth the expenditure ? For us it was. Better is better. Was it twice as good according to price ? NO no and no. However for us that little bit is what did it. We are talking $3300 [ now $5500] for our reference CDP a Lector CDP7TL. Examples of lessor players such as the Bryston, PS Audio, Altman, Audio Note, Oritek, OppoSE, modded Art DIO, Arcam and several others. We would purchase the newer one for $5500 but the Mk1 with the older chip sounds better to us. Go figure. C'mon guys if you could afford the world class gear you would have it. I believe it is just that simple. Just like anything else in life. Money talks BS walks. BTW we are not millionaires just the average Joe.charles
Robbery implies you don't have a choice, something is forcefully taken away from you and you get nothing in return.With audio, while some things may be extremely expensive and their may be great or minimal differences between the least expensive vs. the most expensive item. You still have a choice and you walk a way with an item of your choosing.Your perceived value dictates to you what is an acceptable price point for you, others may or may not agree with the point you don't want to go beyond but that doesn't mean other are wrong for doing it or they're not getting a value going beyond that point. They may want that additional sound that can only be gotten by purchase the more expensive piece. It's their choice and there spending more doesn't make it wrong for them.
My $57,000 dCS easily sounds twice as good as my $32,000 Naim CD555 did, in addition to playing SACD's and functioning as an upsampling DAC as well. When I bought the Naim, it sounded more than twice as good as the $16,000 Meridian 808 I was using (though I did lose DVD-a capability). The Meridan sounded worlds better than the Modwright Denon I was using at the time, and the Modwright Denon sounded light years better than the Ah! Toejb player before it.And just for laughs, I borrowed an Ah! Tjoeb player from a friend to compare to the dCS, it sounded like a transistor radio in comparison. However, listening to the Ah! Tjoeb on his Marantz 2275 and JBL L100's, it sounds pretty darn good.So, I'd say going from a $1,000 player to almost a $60,000 player has yielded pretty linear results. Granted most people aren't this obsessed, but there's a lot of performance out there. Your call whether you'd like to spend the money on something else.
Just curious how one could even attempt to put a multiplication factor on better sound, as in "sounds twice as good" or "sounds more than twice as good". Better I can understand. Steve
Let's say a significant enough jump that you feel the trade is worth the money...Whether you're going from a 300 dollar player to a 600 dollar player or there's anotherzero or two on the end. I think no matter what level you're listening, it's hard to thinkabout writing the check unless you're getting a lot more music.
And no offense, but there have really been a disproportionate level of posts on the Niteshade threads that are against spending money on higher end gear....
Hi Rollo.Even if I had a truck load of money to buy the 10,000 USD+ interconnects, I would not do it, because to me, it does not make sense to buy something that is just a little better than... Well, let say : than a 500 USD interconnects.I call it common sense... You call it whatever you want !Guy 13
People can be opposed to something because of a lack of information. Some people believe that if something costs over a certain amount it has to be bogus, the claims are hot air. On the other hand, we have the other crowd that believes if something doesn't cost enough that it just HAS to be garbage. Reason: As stated earlier: A lack of understanding, information.On the flip side: We have a third group who knows precisely what they want and why. They're not out there to just get rid of their cash, they know what it will take to the the job properly. As far as people congregating here that oppose high priced gear, it's not because of me- at least I don't believe so. Our equipment has a broad range of prices and abilities and our median price is about the same as the other manufacturers on AC. What would it mean if folks congregated here or anywhere to say low priced gear is junk? It's as broad and meaningless an assumption as saying all high end gear is superior.
Hmm. That's one of the biggest drawbacks I've see with Niteshade. Sorry Blair but it's true. Your timeframe is always very long. I've heard about a demo tour for probably almost a year now....
Most small (micro) manufacturers have lower prices because they sell direct, with no distributor and dealer markups, not because they skip on servicing their customers - on the contrary, thanks to low marketing budzet, happy customers are critical to making a small company succeed...
More $$$$ doesn't guarantee that you'll have better sounding gear. I'd much rather patronize cottage industry audio gear manufactures thereby bypassing retail outlets. The overhead dollars that might have been wasted on a storefront can be used for the development and manufacture of the gear. You get more for the money. But better value isn't the only reason, I also like the opportunity to actually talk to the designer/builder. Retail outlets offer only the salesman whom I often find heavy handed and irritating. Even on AC, I'm put off by used car salesman type pitches. In addition, just like in the corporate world, the smaller more nimble businesses can change more quickly to new ideas and are quite often the incubators cutting edge ideas. -Roy
Hi.Each person is entitle to his own opinion, based on his own or other experience.May I say that I don't agree with you.But, that's my opinion for what's it's worth.Guy 13.
I can sum up why 6-digit price high end gear can sound so very,very good: Designing amplifier circuits that are transparent, low noise and extremely high resolution is difficult. After a while physical constants such as thermal noise become an issue as well as many other things. Precision is costly and justifiably so. The important thing when purchasing high end electronics is to find out why it costs so much. Does it entail special circuitry and components? How well can it resolve signals accurately?Many audio enthusiasts are not technical and manufacturers want to avoid the 'deer in the headlights' syndrome. Information required to make a well informed purchasing decision is lost. As a result, dupes come into the picture radiating eye candy and expensive components that do not always operate as anticipated, throwing the high end market into the snake oil category.
Fortunately, there's room for everyone. If you just want performance and nothing else, there are a handfulof manufacturers that offer the no frills approach as well as going the DIY route.
