Ken Kessler's latest rant

[al2002]

Has anyone seen kessler's latest column over on soundstage.com? What a load of rubbish.


http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index....limmer-of-hope

[Arkless Electronics]

What a complete Republican arsehole!

[al2002]

At first I thought it was an April 1st spoof, but the the date was all wrong... .

[struth]

Seems to miss the point entirely, in that most millionaires are much more interested in Ferraris and watches than bling hifi, because the aint interested in something they cannot show off easily. They dont want to drive down the street in their Roller do they? You bet they do

[narabdela]

Kessler lost the plot years ago.

[Barry]

What a complete Republican arsehole!

That's a bit severe Jez. You may not like Kessler, but he makes a valid point.

[Arkless Electronics]

Indeed Grant. Super hi end hi fi is something I've no time for anyway personally as it just becomes a "bling off" (rather than bake off). EG does winding output transformers with pure silver wire make any difference? NO. But it does add hundreds to the production costs and possibly thousands to retail price just so someone can say "There's 1/2 a mile of silver wire in my amp". I can't see why any amplifier should cost more than about £10,000 or any speaker cost maybe double that. The cost of materials and labour just doesn't justify it.

[Arkless Electronics]

That's a bit severe Jez. You may not like Kessler, but he makes a valid point.

Not in my opinion. I find people who glorify wealth and power, and worse still look down on those who don't have it, to be completely abhorrent. I am well inside the list of people who he at least warns at the beginning of the article will likely be offended. I'm a proud socialist and find it below contempt that a rich person will go and buy another Ferrari in the full knowledge that there are malnourished kids and people losing sleep over the threat of eviction for non payment of rent or mortgage just a few streets away... But I guess we can blame the human condition...

[The Black Adder]

What a W@nker.

Shallow, deluded olde man. But then I knew that already.

[Macca]

I've never met a wealthy person who looked down on poor people. The exisitence of such people, is, I suspect, a complete myth. I have met a few whose charitable contributions in a year were more than I will donate in income tax in a lifetime.

On the other hand I sort of agree with Jez, how do they justify that second Ferarri? It is a hard circle to square.

People, even very wealthy people, tend to be complex and are unlikely to have a full grasp of their own motivations for doing things, any more than the rest of us do.

For the record I quite like Kessler, he's a good writer, always has been. And I don't go along at all with this chip-on-the-shoulder lets make all the rich bastards poor so they can suffer along with the rest of us. I'm glad I live in a world of £300 thousand pound cars and ten million pound houses even if I will never have one. I prefer that to a Soviet Russia where everyone gets the same crappy Trabant so there is no 'envy'.

With regards to this article all he seems to be saying is: if you are selling hi-end high price hi-fi, do it professionally, the way the watch and car people do it, and guess what? You will sell more.

Duh.

Also I doubt very much that he is a Republican.