213cobra,
Phil, your observations are spot on. Sometimes it may seem insensitive to call a spade a spade but in this hobby, where value is paramount before we part with our hard-earned money for an outright purchase, we just need to call it as it is. Benefitting the whole community is indeed the aim of such a forum and you have done so very well.
Every component will have its pros and cons and a balanced view is what all of us here need. I wince whenever I hear pure gushing without a single caveat. When Larry gives not a single caveat, it is only understandable, given his capacity as CEO of bsg tech. But dealers of the product would want to be balanced and more circumspect in their views because it is very unlikely they would want to sell anything else in their store without saying to a potential client, "Oh, by the way, you should take this box home too or else, whatever you are buying WON'T let you hear everything that you should." If a dealer says that with every source, pre-amp, power amp or speaker component that he is trying to sell, then his integrity does come into question a fair bit or worse, he might lose the sale altogether.
A good thing I observed from my local dealer of the qol is that at an audio show, he merely displayed it but did not hook it up with the other components on active display. I guess he did not want the qol to detract the listener from the intrinsic qualities of the separate components that he was exhibiting.
Regards. Jon.
