Right on Art! You are a "voice crying in the wilderness". But nobody is listening! A certain purveyor of High End products has introduced a $350K mono-pair of amps weighing a back-straining 485 lbs. each! Sure, it is great to have 6000 watts at 2 ohms for those hard-to-drive Apogee Scintilla's - but seriously folks, what does something like this mean to the average middle-class audiophile? Nothing! For the rich, no problem! Just sell that second Rolls and the weekend Bentley! This illustrates that old problem in Economics: better to sell one item for a million than a million things for $1 each? So Mr.D, go for it! We know whose side you are on!
Art Dudley Calls B.S. but without naming names - PLEASE DO!
Hey all,
As someone who hasn't been reading the audiophile press for all that long, I stumbled upon this article that I'm sure it lit up these airwaves when it was first published: https://www.stereophile.com/content/skin-deep
It's a great article and one that any knowledgeable person would most likely agree with, but hey, spending your own hard-earned (or inherited) money is a right and a privilege. Art does call out some brands that he perceives to give great value: AMVR, VPL, Conrad-Johnson, DeVore and Harbeth and Kimber and Peachtree and Quicksilver and Rega and Rogue and Spendor and Wavelength. Shouldn't NAD be on this list?
But what he doesn't do and I think is warranted, is name the companies that are most egregious in selling high-end products where the performance is far below the cost.
I, for one, would love to see a list of those manufacturers from the people who read this forum. You can group them by what they manufacture or just put them in order as you see fit. I think it would be most helpful in calling b.s. but with "added-value", which is what this whole article was all about. Right?
As someone who hasn't been reading the audiophile press for all that long, I stumbled upon this article that I'm sure it lit up these airwaves when it was first published: https://www.stereophile.com/content/skin-deep
It's a great article and one that any knowledgeable person would most likely agree with, but hey, spending your own hard-earned (or inherited) money is a right and a privilege. Art does call out some brands that he perceives to give great value: AMVR, VPL, Conrad-Johnson, DeVore and Harbeth and Kimber and Peachtree and Quicksilver and Rega and Rogue and Spendor and Wavelength. Shouldn't NAD be on this list?
But what he doesn't do and I think is warranted, is name the companies that are most egregious in selling high-end products where the performance is far below the cost.
I, for one, would love to see a list of those manufacturers from the people who read this forum. You can group them by what they manufacture or just put them in order as you see fit. I think it would be most helpful in calling b.s. but with "added-value", which is what this whole article was all about. Right?

