Class "A" sound, as related to Stereophile.

Stereophile and the other reputable publications do provide a bellwether of sorts for sorting audio gear, but there is an unfortunate side effect to their approach for those seeking guidance in sorting through the myriad of component offerings for purchase:  If a component is auditioned for review and does not cut muster in a substantial way, they normally don't publish a review, nor do they tell their readership about this when it occurs, excepting possibly KR or Tom Gillette (Sam Tellig) when he was there. I understand the wisdom of this for a publication that depends almost entirely on advertising revenues for its existence, but it does limit the usefulness for those seeking to narrow the field for purchasing decisions.

So, IMO, one can assume that the components listed in Recommended Components are ones of substantial merit, but so few of the great components available are included due to the realities of limited time and resources for thorough review.  Just how it is. 

A second point is that it is impossible to keep non-current components in the mix of ratings. Those on a budget (including me) need to seriously consider the true audio bargains in the used market, but unless one has possession of (or keen knowledge/memory of) the years of reviews in past issues, the options are to limited to selecting from the lower categories of recent reviews that are within their budget.

Thirdly, by the very nature of being reviewers (I have reviewer friends), they cannot possibly find the optimal combinations of gear available for review that provide the best ultimate synergy.  The reviewers have their vast experience and the network they share with other reviewers to guide them in pairings for review, but this is a far cry from what is necessary to find the best combinations necessary for long-term listening satisfaction.

Fourthly and lastly,  there is little information about how to tweak the sound of components to provide their best performance.  I include cabling, power enhancement products, room acoustical treatments, and vibration-reduction products in this category (for the purpose of this writing but I certainly consider these things as vital to achieving great sound in the home environment) . Tweaks are under such scrutiny/denial/criticism by so many and the time to identify the best ones for each component and application is simply impossible for reviewers.  The best guide is to carefully examine the reviewers' list of "associated components" the accompanies the review for a vague idea of what that reviewer uses as a general setup.  Many a component has suffered an inaccurate review due to ignorance about compatible cabling.  Smart manufacturers get involved in the review of their equipment and personally see to it that this is addressed, but little is normally included in the review about this.

So where does this leave us?  Competent advice from friends who are farther along the journey and share our preferences in sound characteristics, interaction with local audio societies, and with forums such as this to ask others who have more experience and then to sort the responses to pick the ones of most benefit and application to our circumstances and those with the most perceived credibility.  The challenge here is to know the right questions to ask and how to interpret the responses, which unfortunately also takes some level of experience. 

Perhaps most of all, to understand the notion of the hierarchy of "foundation components" (those that are primary to establishing a successful path to great sounding systems) before buying a component that will sent us off into a unnecessarily difficult and expensive journey to accommodate its idiosyncracies.   Room =>Speakers=>AC quality=> Vibration isolation=>Source=> Preamp=>Amplifier=>cabling would be my recommended path FWIW.

Best to all,
Dave

Dave, very nice post. I appreciate your experience and it is something that enriches all of us.

Orpheus, I believe that you are misinterpreting my posts. I did not say that synergy was the "gospel truth", in fact, I said "I think". It's just an opinion; feel free to make of it what you will. Your experience may take you down a different path and others would certainly find value in your journey, as do I. That's pretty clear, isn't it?

Glad that you believe that auditioning cartridges, presumably in your tonearm, is the way to go. Unfortunately, for many of us, there is no practical way to do this. Though it would be nice if it could happen. But that's really true of any component. If you can try it in your own system, you will have the best sense of if it works with your components and suits your own preferences for distortion spectra.

You said that cartridges are too expensive to take anyone's opinion as guidance on. Tell me please, are amplifiers, or speakers less expensive in your system? I always subscribed to the hierarchy that the turntable was much more important than the cartridge, based on personal experience, and allocated funds in that way. Now I do have a Kiseki Purple Heart Sapphire, and a few other nice cartridges, but there was a time when I ran a Shure M91 on the Linn and SOTA turntables with no regrets. I don't think that I would reverse that and run a Lyra on a Music Hall MMF-5, but as with all things, there will be those that differ.

And Tommy, I learned almost nothing from my time listening to appliances in our major metropolitan centers. I learned what works well together on forums that featured components similar to mine. There has been no need to reinvent the wheel. Others were giving in their time and experience and we're happy to relate what components worked well together.

Almost forgot, something else that may completely invalidate my opinions. I'm a "source first" believer, so I allocate the largest part of my budget to sources, quite a bit less to amplification and just a wee bit to speakers.

 Overall, I am much more sensitive to the electronic types of distortions that one hears in streamers, CD players, phono stages, amps and preamps than I am to loudspeaker distortions. So even if loudspeaker distortions are an order - or two - of magnitude greater than those of electronics, I can somehow tune those out better.

This is not to suggest that finer speakers will not improve a system if they match with the other components.

Viridian, there is no doubt about source first; I'm an electronics tech, that's what I did until I retired. Source first is a fact from a "scientific" point of view. The preamp takes what you give it, makes it bigger, passes that to the amp, which gives it to the speaker. If you gave the pre "crap" it's going to give bigger "crap" to the amp which gives fat "crap" to the speaker; some people claim that fat crap sounds good if it comes out of the right speaker.

With cartridges your only option, since you can't audition the cartridge, is to pay careful attention to the music the reviewer is using. If he likes the cartridge when using the (same music) you like, that's a good bet.

I wont even mention the cartridge I like, because it gets bad press on most from this forum, and I can understand that because type of music determines the cartridge best for whoever is buying it. Relative to everything else, the front end is expensive, if it's to be a good one, even when you make it better with "tweaks", the good tweaks aren't cheap.

Sota Star Saphire is my favorite. 1K in tweaks can give you a Rega P-3 that will run with the big dogs, like the Sota Star Saphire; that's a big dog in my league any way; No Great Dane's in my league.


Enjoy the music.

Getting a little cranky in your old age aren't you viridian?