Japanese Audio???

[Feanor]

... Feaner and E-Stat won't because for them there is NOTHING ELSE except panels - NOTHING. Feaner is obviously a shill for Magnepan correct - after all he recommends them for people seeking rock - so he is either completely deaf or is on their payroll right?

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This is factually untrue. I always qualify Magneplanar recommendations by saying they are best suited to acoustic music, and I also mention positioning restrictions.

I have mentioned that Magneplanars can be used with particular subwoofer arrangements to deliver adequate rock sound, but I never recommended them for gut-punch music.

Your own statements are full of implication that any & every serious audiophile ought to prefer SET + high efficiency speakers: this is ridiculous, and insulting. As Mr. P suggests, it's made only more tedious by the relentless insistance that AN is necessarily the best of the best.

[Ajani]

Your own statements are full of implication that any & every serious audiophile ought to prefer SET + high efficiency speakers: this is ridiculous, and insulting. As Mr. P suggests, it's made only more tedious by the relentless insistance that AN is necessarily the best of the best.

Problem is that MANY audiophiles suffer from that same type of arrogance & self-delusion... Which is why there are so many never-ending quarrels about brand and technology superiority on HiFi sites...

I can't just prefer the sound of Solid State to Tubes... it has to be that SS is Technically Superior...

I can't just prefer the sound of Vinyl to CD.... It must be that Vinyl is more like real music than digital....

I can't just prefer the sound of Planars to Box Speakers.... It must be that removing the box, results in the sound no longer being colored...

I can't just prefer the sound or cost of headphones.... It must be that anyone who buys traditional speakers is a fool for spending that much, when I could have achieved better sound for a tenth of the price....

In 10 years on this site, I still see the exact same quarrels and same type of quarrels... Whether it was Flo talking about the superiority of his Apogees or Peruvian claiming that PSB speakers were better than anything else for about double the price, the same failure to comprehend that we all have different tastes and sonic priorities is apparent... There is no best brand in HiFi... There is only the brand you like the best.... And you don't need to prove to anyone else that your brand is better than theirs... If I like Marantz or any other Japanese Brand, then who cares whether other persons on this forum think that European or American brands are better or are SOTA???

We can choose to spend our time fighting about what brands are better, like children on the playground debating whether Batman is more awesome than Spiderman, or we can accept that we all have different tastes and move on...

[Feanor]

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We can choose to spend our time fighting about what brands are better, like children on the playground debating whether Batman is more awesome than Spiderman ...

But this is much of the fun, is it not?

[RGA]

This is factually untrue. I always qualify Magneplanar recommendations by saying they are best suited to acoustic music, and I also mention positioning restrictions.

I have mentioned that Magneplanars can be used with particular subwoofer arrangements to deliver adequate rock sound, but I never recommended them for gut-punch music.

Your own statements are full of implication that any & every serious audiophile ought to prefer SET + high efficiency speakers: this is ridiculous, and insulting. As Mr. P suggests, it's made only more tedious by the relentless insistance that AN is necessarily the best of the best.

Yes but then people who get insulted usually are the people that have never bothered to listen to any of it. Rather than get all defensive about it why not hear a few elite samples of it for a period of time. But I get it the guys on AA several years back got on me for not trying such systems and I ate my words and sold my speakers.

[RGA]

This is factually untrue. I always qualify Magneplanar recommendations by saying they are best suited to acoustic music, and I also mention positioning restrictions.

I have mentioned that Magneplanars can be used with particular subwoofer arrangements to deliver adequate rock sound, but I never recommended them for gut-punch music.

Your own statements are full of implication that any & every serious audiophile ought to prefer SET + high efficiency speakers: this is ridiculous, and insulting. As Mr. P suggests, it's made only more tedious by the relentless insistance that AN is necessarily the best of the best.

I Have never said it is the best of the best - though I have said that they have made the best system that I have heard - that's not the same thing is it. Or is English not your first language? If this is the case I am sorry.

I use my OTO amp as an example. As a reviewer and I have reviewed it - I note several drawbacks. Hi-Fi choice gave the amp 4/5 and I agree with the assessment because such products are simply too finicky for a mass audience. Sure they said it sounded the best in their shootout but it is woefully hampered by a lack of power, no features, heat and I would have added good but not great build quality. So as good as it sounds in the right system I would still agree that it would be a 4/5 or a class B product because I view it as an idiosyncratic product. I don't recommend the preamps - they simply don't work with much stuff - I chose a Rotel Preamp for review purposes because it's quite neutral for the money and is friendly over a wide spectrum of power amps - the AN M1 IMO sounds miles and miles better - but it only sounds miles and miles better with select power amps. So you don't see me suggest people buy an M3 too often - sometimes but not often.

You do NOT see me recommending the OTO very often - I have probably recommended people look into SS Odyssey amps more and certainly I have recommended the SS Sugden more than any Audio Note amps - I do not own a Sugden and while I did own a Sugden I usually recommended the one I didn't own. Why? Because the A21a would be a better fit with most people's speakers.

I recommend SET/HE a lot however - no question about it but that does not contain the words Audio Note - you simply "assume" and "read into" it that I must be talking about AN. I can't help it that you read things into posts. Tri, Antique Sound Labs, Trends Audio, aesthetix, KR Audio, Grant Fidelity, Cary, Lamm, Jolida, Mystere, Rogue Audio among others are tube amps that I like and could recommend and have recommended.

I think the single biggest thing I recommend from Audio Note and I am pretty sure if you look you will agree are the loudspeakers and the idea of the complete system be considered at the outset is the best approach. But over the last couple of years more and more speakers have been added to my recommendation list.

You will be surprised at which ones I recommend most strenuously at CES. But the $7600 AN E/SPE HE at $7600 IMO hung in with everything at the show and bettered most of them. Can you really blame me if I audition $20k, $30k, $40k and $375K loudspeakers and I say umm yeah but the $7,600 speaker is easily in that same class and betters most of them in actually just sounding like the instrument is in the room and not a woofer in a box or a string in the air vibrating.

So if you were in my shoes you'd want to be recommending that to people as well. And still I mention the Tannoy Kensington, King Sound's Prince II and Gallo and Studio Electric and Teresonic - if you have not seen me recommending them much you will see them more often in my recommendations from this point forward.

[Feanor]

I Have never said it is the best of the best - though I have said that they have made the best system that I have heard - that's not the same thing is it. Or is English not your first language? If this is the case I am sorry.

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Calm down, Rich. "Best of the best" and "best system that I have heard" sound pretty close to me. Pardon my broken English.

Admittedly I'm looking forward to reading your future reviews.