Is High End Gear A Lot Of Smoke and Mirrors?

[Themis]

Ah... Sonus Faber Extremas....

Why in the name of all that's holy did I sell mine!!

Damn house-buying related cash-flow crisis!

(i promised myself getting one pair of these one day -hopefully- soon)

[DSJR]

I only heard the Extrema's once and thought them dull and not very involving. Could it have been that you needed mega ARC and Krell to do them any justice at all, I don't know?

I must admit to being very impressed with the Cremona floor-standers though.They entertain so well on relatively humble gear and really don't need mega amps or expensive sources to allow you to suspend disbelief..

I think the most important thing with ANY stereo, whatever the price, is that you should be able to "suspend disbelief" with the sound, the system disappearing to a large extent and letting the musical "passion" through. If that means spending loads then so be it. I have to admit to thinking that many lower priced CD players especially, seem to owe their performance standards to the huge, over-built greats of twenty years ago.

[Spectral Morn]

Hi Dave DSJR.

Thank you for your reply, that gives me a much clearer idea of where your experience is at and coming from.

Thank you.


Regards D S D L

[Mike Reed]

I only heard the Extrema's once and thought them dull and not very involving. Could it have been that you needed mega ARC and Krell to do them any justice at all, I don't know?

Indeed it may be so. The chappie who bought my 135s did so to wake up his beloved Extremas, having discovered that they do not come to life without a bit of welly.

[Soundhaspriority]

This is an old story and I'm familiar with it, and in my opinion, there's nothing "had" about it. I don't and most audiophiles I know don't have any problem paying $400 for an amp that sounds like $4,000 driving loudspeakers that befit that price. But there's more to the story if you dig deeper, that would help explain why Carver hasn't made a fortune of the amp, if this was all there is to it. No doubt the man is a brilliant engineer, and he faced a mighty hard challenge and came through. Doesn't mean his amps sound all that good though.

In the end, it isn't the technology that matters; whether solid state or valve, analog or digital, conventional or unconventional. It's the sound.

[Steve Toy]

Good points Paul.

[DSJR]

Regarding smoke and mirrors in top end audio, I cannot wait to hear the new Rega CD and amp. Forever out of my league now, I'm told (and have also read elsewhere) that the CD player really is a VERY serious piece of digital hardware and even though it costs £6K, it out-performs many at twice the price or more. If this is indeed the case, then this machine is to "Top End" what the Planar 2 and 3 turntables were/are to budget vinyl playback...

As these Rega bits will almost certainly be made in small numbers and apparently the casework is superb, I suspect this latter will account for a large proportion of the cost..