Kid in a candy store
Hello to you all.
First of all, a big “thank you” to Marco for his review. First and foremost, it is well written making it a great read - and the content didn’t go down too badly either.
Certainly lots of points have been whizzing around. One in particular, that of supply, needs comment.
Funk’s position here is simple.
Achromat was launched 2005. I find it incredible that after five years people still are highly sceptical and till recently this resulted in a serious lack of interest from dealers to stock / recommend or even try the product. Well, five years on it appears this situation is changing. Funk has been busy appointing an increasing number of dealers and outlets for its product and they are listed on Funk’s website. Anyone in the UK interested in purchasing Achromat (or other product) is encouraged to purchase from them.
Don’t get me wrong, healthy cynicism is a good thing but better still to be practically informed rather than cynical from afar. After all, in my defence, I have been at this game more years than I care to remember.
My passion remains undiminished in my goal to get, well “…ever closer”, a strap line originates from my embryonic beginnings at school, where my maths master was none other than John Shuttleworth - Meridian records and BC1 review fame. (That now dates me to the late sixties)
He taught me what good, no, great recordings were.
With access to master tapes aplenty, its not that surprising that along the way he was pretty dismissive of the sound quality available from groove grinders of the day.
But that set in me a fascination: “Why didn’t the records he was producing sound like the master tape they came from?”
The obvious conclusion was the whole very complicated process turning tape into 12” plastic was inherently flawed and fidelity could never be maintained. (Ill-informed cynicism)
The emergence of direct-to-disc mastering meant the question re-surfaced and with renewed anger. With no tape in the way, it promised better fidelity than the master tape. The tape - turntable comparison was indeed valid.
The discovery that tape still won out meant some thing (MANY things) were wrong…but what?
Cynicism gave way to a holistic, scientific approach to the problem. The rest is my history in this industry and for as long as my ears hold out I’ll continue to maintain my standards to myself, irrespective of what others might think.
After 30 years of turning this problem over and over and over and over…I’d like to think that I’ve finally earned my stripes.
With respect, woe betide those who then choose to leap before they look!
I think you get where I’m coming from for after all, at the end of the day, aren’t we all supposed to genuinely be interested in the same thing?
It’s just that some of us are blessed with more play time than others and what is it people say? The more you play, the more you learn.
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