Monday morning musings....

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
Staff member
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
30,575
Location
Sarasota, FL
A couple of thoughts as we start the week....

I read with interest Paul McGowan's blogs each morning. A few days ago, he was smitten with the fact that Steve Hoffman was smitten with his new DirectStream DAC and in fact referenced a particular thread on Steve's forum. I decided to take a peek. I even joined Steve's forum and posted my own experiences regarding the DirectStream DAC in my own system (and the shootout with the Lumin). Members were quite interested, asked lots of questions and the conversation had moved from the typical love-fest to a more technical discussion of Ethernet vs USB and whether upsampling everything to DSD was indeed a good idea. Members weighed in with the recent Stereophile review comments and associated measurements. Within a day, all my posts were deleted and all the members responses were deleted. The thought of having an open, honest, friendly, fact-filled discussion were lost. So, the thread was back to the love fest. Ironically, the heavy handed controlled thread has not seen a single post since. The medium may be the message, but content control is dangerous.

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A friend of mine who happens to be a Tannoy dealer in PA suggested I call SRA. He thought they made a stand for Tannoy Canterbury speakers. As you may or may not know, the Canterbury speakers sit a little low. Jim Smith, author of Get Better Sound, utilizes Tannoy Canterbury speakers as his reference speakers. However, Jim figured out that to really optimize the speakers, he needed to raise them up 7 inches so that the middle of the Dual Concentric driver is at ear height. So, I left several voice messages and emails for the folks at SRA last week enquiring into whether or not they make such a stand. Not a single call back. No email response.

Jim-in-Sound-Room.jpg
 
Sorry to hear about your treatment on the gloom and doom Hoffman forum. Never liked the attitude of their host. This forum is hands down the best on the net....So open and we can still talk about turntables, LP's you know the "good old stuff".
 
Mike if you were the paranoid type you would think that everybody's out to get you. :)

Sorry to hear that you have had problems getting a hold of SRA. In my several dealings with them they would always answer emails within a day or so. Their production was always 2-3 weeks behind from what they told you but always great work. I love their amp stands and I think they are the best out there.

They are a small company and maybe he's on vacation. Just a thought.
 
the professor said:
Mike if you were the paranoid type you would think that everybody's out to get you. :)

Sorry to hear that you have had problems getting a hold of SRA. In my several dealings with them they would always answer emails within a day or so. Their production was always 2-3 weeks behind from what they told you but always great work. I love their amp stands and I think they are the best out there.

They are a small company and maybe he's on vacation. Just a thought.
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True - but he deleted all the other threads from others too. Makes no sense. Would have been better just to make a commercial.
 
FWIW, I recently contacted SRA to get a couple of quotes on platforms with two follow ups. They responded within a day each time. I know Myles speaks highly of them. Maybe he could chime in here.
 
Thanks Anthony. Ironically, they JUST responded. Maybe they saw my post. :)
 
SRA might have been out at CAS last week. I am sure it's a small operation although no excuse not to answer an email quickly to let you know they are out if office and will get back to you this week. I must say, this industry while filled with enthusiasts is sorely lacking in the most basic principles of business and customer service.
 
Yes, the response time of SRA is sometimes frustratingly slow. SRA makes some excellent products but business mgm't could stand some improvement. Plus the stands and bases can be matched both mechanically and cosmetically to your individual components.

I do think highly of Kevin's new OHIO class base under my table; interestingly, the SRA bases brought the biggest improvement (other than the table) in my system not under the phono or amplifiers as expected but the preamp. Much quieter and almost unrecognizable improvement in dynamics under the cj GAT preamplifier. Go figure as it only has two tubes and handles switching! :)

I just suggest people interested in the SRA stands and bases contact Jeff Catalano at Highwater Sound in Brooklyn, NY. Really, really nice guy and seems to have Kevin's ear.
 
CPP said:
Sorry to hear about your treatment on the gloom and doom Hoffman forum. Never liked the attitude of their host. This forum is hands down the best on the net....So open and we can still talk about turntables, LP's you know the "good old stuff".
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Well perhaps we can start a thread "Do You Just Like Distorted Sound?" just to keep the forum real! :)
 
CPP said:
This forum is hands down the best on the net....
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Want to respond to this comment. This is an excellent forum agreed...BUT... = )

But, it could be even better. Two things, first, this forum needs more traffic. Not enough posting. This site needs to be optimized a bit for google search. If I search google for stereo forum or high end audio or whatever, this site is never on the first page. Not sure it's on any page. Second, there is too much content focused on the uber expensive. For instance raidho gets lots of airplay but NAD or Cambridge Audio almost none. I realize that's just what the members happen to own, but I strongly suspect that turns off a lot of people. It's intimidating for people who aren't swimming in the 5 and 6 figure pools.

Dont my get me wrong, like the forum. Would like to see it grow is all.
 
I would never buy a product based on a Steve Hoffman recommendation. I'm pretty sure he's a paid salesman for brands these days.

Remember those hideous Escalante speakers he raved about a few years back? Some of the worst speakers I've ever heard and the technical reviews were less than complementary.

I respect his remastering ability, but stay away from the gear.
 
Mapleshade is another source of solid maple speaker plinths. Get the 4" maple on solid brass heavy feet and that will raise your speakers. Put the speakers on spikes and raise them a little more.
 
jaxwired said:
Want to respond to this comment. This is an excellent forum agreed...BUT... = )

But, it could be even better. Two things, first, this forum needs more traffic. Not enough posting. This site needs to be optimized a bit for google search. If I search google for stereo forum or high end audio or whatever, this site is never on the first page. Not sure it's on any page. Second, there is too much content focused on the uber expensive. For instance raidho gets lots of airplay but NAD or Cambridge Audio almost none. I realize that's just what the members happen to own, but I strongly suspect that turns off a lot of people. It's intimidating for people who aren't swimming in the 5 and 6 figure pools.

Dont my get me wrong, like the forum. Would like to see it grow is all.
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Jax - good post. A couple of things, we have only been up a little over a year and our growth has been remarkable. But hopefully over time, post counts will increase. Summer is slow too FWIW.

As for the uber expensive gear, I agree. I try my best to talk about "value" gear like Line Magnetic and others. But inevitably, conversations often turn back to the latest "$45,000 DAC" or $100,000 amp. I much prefer finding smoking values out there - like the JOB225 and LM518, then the latest $100,000 amp from Boulder, DartZeel or whomever.

Most importantly - I would like to see more posts on new artists. At the end of the day, it's all about the music.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mike...the owner of that other forum is pretty strategic about how he attracts traffic/flow to his site. By starting threads on brands and opening dedicated forums, he is able through the use of tags associated with those threads to capture eyeballs and draw traffic. I am sure you know how the Google search and advertising gig works way better than most of us but I think Jax's suggestions make a lot of sense if your aim is indeed to grow this a lot more than it already has.

You, Joe, Mark, and now Chris have done an excellent job but as always, I think with a little bit of strategic thinking on how to draw more traffic, I am sure this platform can be grown even more rapidly.

Too bad you have your other real jobs to interfere with this passionate hobby of yours :D
 
Good points Cyril. I've already changed our HTML title tags to reflect what JAX suggested above. As for topics....that's where you all come in! :)
 
Another unmentioned forum had their initial invited members make a concerted effort to invite and bring their friends along with them.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Well perhaps we can start a thread "Do You Just Like Distorted Sound?" just to keep the forum real! :)
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I believe that stupid thread was called "Why do people like distorted sound" like it was a given that all people love distortion. It kind of reminded me of the old joke when someone would say "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

The sad thing is that we have all been on forums where the owner of the forum takes a particular interest in protecting products/manufacturer's that are near and dear to their heart (and usually because they are being given steep discounts when they buy their products) and anytime someone speaks out against them, they shut the thread down and sometimes send you a really nasty and threatening PM in order to get you to tow the line "or else."

Any DAC that upsamples all files to DSD or PCM, I want no part of it. You end up with a Frankenstein DAC that does nothing really special. That's the same reason I would never have DSP/DRC in my system because I have too much analog source material that I want to keep analog. And since most every DSP/DRC device I'm aware of works in the PCM realm with no higher a sampling rate than 24/96 and either upsamples or downsamples everything to 24/96 PCM including converting your DSD files to PCM, I'm not interested in it for digital either. Who the hell wants to pay for 24/192 files only to have them converted to 24/96? Who wants their DSD files converted to PCM? Who wants their analog converted to digital and then back to analog? Not me.

I made the "mistake" of saying this on another forum and you talk about sharks, I felt like chum being thrown into a pool of sharks. And somebody said that someone they knew that used DSP in their system couldn't tell DSD files from PCM and they acted like it was a compliment. To me, that's no compliment because DSD doesn't sound like PCM. You can debate whether you like it better or less, but they don't sound the same. So when I made the comment that of course you couldn't hear any difference between DSD and PCM in a system that converts DSD to 24/96 PCM because the DSD has now been homogenized to PCM, oh my. That struck a raw nerve and that is another story in itself. Because of who it was that owned the system in question, I may as well have gone to Rome and called the Pope an atheist.
 
I've always found that DSP giveth and DSP taketh away.

That being said, I was shocked to learn how much some recording studios use DSP.
 
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