[JWV Miller]

On Sep 26, 1:32=A0pm, Ron wrote:

snip

=A0I have the ability to
pay for high end equipment but the more I read and inform myself the
less tolerant I am of the prices my local audio store is charging. =A0As
a business man I hate being ripped off and I believe a company must
give value and quality to stay in business for the long term. =A0In
whatever I do I have tried to understand the underlying form of an
object or business to fully appreciate what I am buying and to get a
sense of value. =A0With that said, I am probably your typical high end
audio consumer making my decisions based on listening (which can vary
wildly depending on the room and supporting components), brand, and
the reviews of influential magazines.

Sadly, uncontrolled listening conditions are just about worthless for
evaluating audio components. Influential magazines don't appear to be
useful either since many evaluations that they do are also
uncontrolled.


I believe the typical high end consumer has a bit of money, not a lot
of time and a passion for the music. =A0What I constantly hear on the
blogs is, as long as the ignorant and uniformed buy high end equipment
the market will exist. =A0Well what is a guy to do? =A0I don=92t have the
time or inclination to get an EE degree so I rely on TRUST....I trust
the manufacturers, marketers, magazines, and sales people.

You don't really need an EE degree but it is hard to find a valid
reason for trust here. From an engineering standpoint, there will be
very little difference in performance between modern amplifiers and CD
and DVD players that are competently designed. Even low-cost units are
likely to be indistinguishable in carefully controlled comparisons.
This also goes for amplifiers in receivers although tuners may have
differing sensitivity and sound quality. I would suspect that most
audiophiles are not overly impressed with modern programming anyway,
especially since it will be somewhat degraded compared to pristine
digital recordings. High-end cables are one of the biggest ripoffs.

=A0For a
company such as CJ, a long standing and respected brand, to do as you
describe is a gross violation of that trust. =A0 Perhaps being ripped
off is part of the high end audio game. =A0I don=92t have a solution to m=
y
problem but thank you for opening my eyes this glaring issue.

You might consider performing careful comparisons of components that
are not as predictable as those components previously mentioned, i.e.
speakers or perhaps turntables. Room conditioning is also a good
investment.