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Is this ludicrous or not?

Did any of you GON members happen to read Six Moon's review,written by Six Moon's creator and resident audiophile guru Srajan Ebaen,regarding Red Rock Audio's Renaissance monoblock amps that sell for $38,750.00/pr? Ebaen,stopped his formal review when he couldn't elminate in his words,"a very belligerent ground loop". However even before this stated problem, he described the sound of these amps as,"berefit of tension,energy,color,communicativeness,or any true sense of music". Ebaen, also stated that a,"$999.00 Onix/Melody SP3 amp was superior". Now here's the fun part.By applying Walker's Extreme SST to all the tube pins the "veil" was removed and the energy emerged and unfolded.Walker is quoted as saying by using his Extreme SST that,"the amps went from being mediocre to bonafide super-amp magic".Now,I want to be totally fair,I use this product my self and find it to be quite good at adding that final resolution to my system. I also accept that a world class amp can be tweaked out to its ultimate performance with power cords and isolation devices.But would you spend $38,750.00 for a pair of amps that first sound inferior to an amp that costs less than $1000.00, and only after you use this tweak they become world class contenders! What does this say about the over all design flaws that are still there.I found this to be one of the most ludicrous reviews I have ever read. Notice I'm not attacking the statement that the amps improved after the tweak,but the ridiculous notion that anyone,in their right mind ,would spend close to 40 grand for a pair of amps and than be dependent on a $200.00 tweak to make them sound right! Thank goodness for that,"very belligerent ground loop",otherwise Srajan might have completed his review and loved these amps.It would be great if you GON members would share your opinions on this review,maybe I'm the crazy one.
teajay
timrhu
2,778 posts
 
I lost faith in reviews back in the mid 90s when I started reading Stereophile. It was in the small digest format with the best "letters to the editor" section I've ever seen (another subject). Anyway the issue had a speaker shoot out review with in-depth follow ups. The reviewer found a pair of Ariel speakers (don't recall model) so bad they were unlistenable until he changed speaker wires. After the change the speakers were near the best of the bunch. I laughed outloud. I'm not saying cables don't make a difference but give me a break.
I still enjoy reading reviews but don't rely on them for much more than entertainment.
darrylhifi
498 posts
 
The Amp also sounds better if you use a cheater plug.
fplanner2000
616 posts
 
Amps should also be facing south for best performance.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
Want to read some good reviews, input, etc? No problem c'mon over here to Audiogon.

.....now if only the editors would lighten up a bit and allow us out own rant section.....
boa2's avatar
boa2
1,550 posts
 
Timrhu, I strangely had a similar experience when I purchased a used pair of speakers, a $6500 pair no less. But in my case, it was with a set of IC's. My wife called me at a friend's house to say that she thought the speakers sounded lousy (mids/highs recessed and muddy), and I agreed, having listened to them for an hour or so earlier in the day. We did not want to keep the speakers. The seller agreed to take them back (I'd picked them up only hours earlier), until I tried something out just for grins.

We had volunteered for a beta testing run on IC's, whereby one set would be sheathed with two layers of carbon, and another identical set would be left stock. We had two identical sets of IC's (same model, same manufacturer). I was at the time running the set with the carbon sheathing on them. When I switched over to the 'untreated' pair of IC's, all of the frequencies fell into balance. The muddiness was gone, and we kept the speakers. I still think this is one of the reasons that Audience AU24's (and Speltz anti-cables) are so popular, because all of that extra layering (which the Audience and Speltz DON'T have) can potentially veil the sound. This is why I am convinced that cables can make such a big difference, because I've experienced it first hand.

Does this mean I put stock into a Stereophile review? Heck no!
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