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| HIGH-END VALUES by Constantine Soo September 25, 2002 |
The High-End audio industry is resplendent with value-oriented products as
well as cost-no-object, performance-oriented ones. In the course of reviewing,
rather than criticizing the shortcomings of the lesser products and giving lavish
praises to the superior products, I try to maintain a balanced perspective of
the values of the High-End. If an expensive piece of equipment did not
perform to my satisfaction, I would share my thoughts with my readers as to
what the root cause is, so we can all weigh my methods and procedures. I am
doubly alarmed when a product does perform spectacularly, and usually go to
extraordinary length in my report, detailing the conditions under which I
reached my conclusions. Come to think of it, I am in debt to my very
supportive publisher and his very capable, exacting, persistent and tireless
editor, who work laboriously to keep my writing sprees under control.
Recently, a sentiment was raised on Decware's web-based Forum towards
my 15 March 2002 review of the $499 SE84C Zen Triode Amplifier, which
opined that more expensive SET amplifiers were "rip-offs." That was not the
first time similar sentiments had surfaced.
Although opinion expressed on Decware's Forum is undoubtedly a form of
peer support among users of the same product, "rip-off" can be a strong term
and can mean different things to different listeners. To me, a product is a
"rip-off" when someone copies, repackages and re-labels an outstanding
original product, then adds a price tag several times the MSRP as set by the
original manufacturer. Quite differently, overpricing describes the situation in
which a manufacturer's sense of the market and competition is blinded by
visions of profit.
In a strict and fair sense, in order for the Zen amp to be able to render more
expensive products as overpriced, or even "rip-offs," it has to possess
identical qualities. While I considered the SE84C an exceptional product and
encouraged readers to audition it in their own systems, I also noted in my
review that its characteristics might not meet everyone's needs and
preferences. I never considered the Zen amplifier as indisputably superior,
and I doubt that view would generate disagreement from any readers.
Nevertheless, I did consider the spirit with which the SE84C is designed as
admirable and express the wish that more products be made with the same
diligence. The fact that Steve Deckert was able to come up with a sound
design using inexpensive parts and then priced it accordingly should be a
cause for celebration and purchase but nothing else.
Personally, although I believe it is a legitimate curiosity to want to understand
the justification for more expensive products, and that advanced designs are
prone to examination and study by competitions, I don't believe high-end
products in general are "rip-off's." Instead of stereotyping premium-priced
products as "rip-offs", audiophiles should recognize excellence of products
from both sub-$1,000 and beyond-$10,000 categories. If, in any instance, a
product possesses property of such value that one is willing to pay more to
receive a unique satisfaction not attainable from more affordable units, be it of
sonic or other criteria, then the unit is a qualified success.
In my personal experience so far, under equalized listening conditions,
higher-priced premium products from well-established makers still offer higher
fidelity than their contemporary, more affordable products. For example, the
$6,000 Audio Note M3 preamplifier is more complete in its sonic presentation
to me than the built-in digital pre-amplification stage of the $8,950 Wadia 27
Decoding Computer. The $4,000 8 Wpc Audio Note Quest 300B monoblocks
are more detailed than the 15x more powerful $3,450 Music Reference RM9 II
when mated to compatible speakers like my Genesis VI. Among CD
transports via the coaxial digital outputs, my $4,995 CEC TL1 belt-drive
transport still carries a higher level of fidelity than the transport section of my
$3,450 Sony SCD-777ES SACD player. Among D/A converters, the Wadia
27 is more detailed than the less expensive, $4,995 Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 of
the same era that I once had. In retrospect, despite the 6-year-old $14,000
CEC/Wadia combo's many incomparable qualities, the $8,100 47 Laboratory
4713 Flatfish CD Transport and 4705 Progression DAC digital system that I
reviewed in May 2002 surpassed the CEC/Wadia in data retrieval finesse.
Readers may notice another aspect of my personal experience, one in which
performance of the latest gear usually surpasses that of earlier generation.
Technological advancement being a predominant factor, newer and better
parts play a crucial role as they are capable of working within more exacting,
sophisticated and stringent specifications as demanded and expected by the
designer.
I am sure many of us can relate to my findings and opinion on the Decware
Zen amp. The point is that each of us has his own high-end values and then
votes with his spending accordingly. If within one's economic concept a
$6,000 preamplifier is justified as superior to a $4,000 unit, for however
minute improvements it offers, then it has found a market among the
audiophiles among us. Yet, some of us may not want to spend more than
$1,000 on a preamplifier regardless of spending ability, as well as the
product's worthiness. Likewise, though you may be a billionaire, if you
consider a $85,000 speaker system as ridiculously priced, despite its
superior sonics, when compared to a slightly lesser-sounding system at a
substantially more accessible $9,500, then may the superior system find a
customer elsewhere.
To the manufacturers: our supply and demand driven system expects a
product to speak volumes for its manufacturer who prices it astronomically,
because such pricing not only reflects its creator's confidence in the ingenuity
and superiority of his product, it also puts the survival of the product line in the
trust of a minority. While we have no doubt our economy will recover to a
prosperity even more magnificent than its predecessor, it is doubtful if some
of the more expensive members of the current High-End industries will survive
to see the sun again. The prudent approach, therefore, may be to repackage
their own premium products in a scaled-down model and price it accordingly
for the sake of revenue generation. A good success story is Loudspeaker
manufacturer B&W, who is extracting technologies from its flagship Nautilus
product line and incorporating them into less ambitious speakers at
significant savings. Not doing that would be poor business planning. With only
the rarest of exceptions, no luxury-item manufacturer can expect to maintain
longevity creating strictly expensive products. Think about Genesis.
Unfortunately, efforts from the few SET amplifier manufacturers in making
excellent but ultra-expensive SET amplifiers hardly represent a serious
marketing initiative aimed at making the amplifier a more adopted preference
among audiophiles in the foreseeable future. Neither are some companies at
the other end of the spectrum helping the situation, in their venture of making
super-cheap SET's. In some cases, such discrepancies in pricing and quality
are telling audiophiles that either you pay premium to get the best, or pay
much less just to get by, thus forfeiting your right to complain.
Whether you are financially well-endowed or stricken, regardless of whether
you have a PhD or a high-school diploma, whether you're a brother or a
mother, you're staying alive and music belongs to you as well as to all of
humankind. Perhaps it is this fundamentalism in our lives that fuels many
music-loving audiophiles' condemnation of fine, expensive and unreachable
audio equipment. At the same time, we are searching for the next "best-buy,"
let's remind ourselves that whether we like it or not, in a universe of limited
resources, there will always be a price on objects rare and in demand, be it of
natural origin or of human manufacture. And the sole society and system that
withstood the test of history and politics in the distribution and management of
such objects is the one we are living in.
well as cost-no-object, performance-oriented ones. In the course of reviewing,
rather than criticizing the shortcomings of the lesser products and giving lavish
praises to the superior products, I try to maintain a balanced perspective of
the values of the High-End. If an expensive piece of equipment did not
perform to my satisfaction, I would share my thoughts with my readers as to
what the root cause is, so we can all weigh my methods and procedures. I am
doubly alarmed when a product does perform spectacularly, and usually go to
extraordinary length in my report, detailing the conditions under which I
reached my conclusions. Come to think of it, I am in debt to my very
supportive publisher and his very capable, exacting, persistent and tireless
editor, who work laboriously to keep my writing sprees under control.
Recently, a sentiment was raised on Decware's web-based Forum towards
my 15 March 2002 review of the $499 SE84C Zen Triode Amplifier, which
opined that more expensive SET amplifiers were "rip-offs." That was not the
first time similar sentiments had surfaced.
Although opinion expressed on Decware's Forum is undoubtedly a form of
peer support among users of the same product, "rip-off" can be a strong term
and can mean different things to different listeners. To me, a product is a
"rip-off" when someone copies, repackages and re-labels an outstanding
original product, then adds a price tag several times the MSRP as set by the
original manufacturer. Quite differently, overpricing describes the situation in
which a manufacturer's sense of the market and competition is blinded by
visions of profit.
In a strict and fair sense, in order for the Zen amp to be able to render more
expensive products as overpriced, or even "rip-offs," it has to possess
identical qualities. While I considered the SE84C an exceptional product and
encouraged readers to audition it in their own systems, I also noted in my
review that its characteristics might not meet everyone's needs and
preferences. I never considered the Zen amplifier as indisputably superior,
and I doubt that view would generate disagreement from any readers.
Nevertheless, I did consider the spirit with which the SE84C is designed as
admirable and express the wish that more products be made with the same
diligence. The fact that Steve Deckert was able to come up with a sound
design using inexpensive parts and then priced it accordingly should be a
cause for celebration and purchase but nothing else.
Personally, although I believe it is a legitimate curiosity to want to understand
the justification for more expensive products, and that advanced designs are
prone to examination and study by competitions, I don't believe high-end
products in general are "rip-off's." Instead of stereotyping premium-priced
products as "rip-offs", audiophiles should recognize excellence of products
from both sub-$1,000 and beyond-$10,000 categories. If, in any instance, a
product possesses property of such value that one is willing to pay more to
receive a unique satisfaction not attainable from more affordable units, be it of
sonic or other criteria, then the unit is a qualified success.
In my personal experience so far, under equalized listening conditions,
higher-priced premium products from well-established makers still offer higher
fidelity than their contemporary, more affordable products. For example, the
$6,000 Audio Note M3 preamplifier is more complete in its sonic presentation
to me than the built-in digital pre-amplification stage of the $8,950 Wadia 27
Decoding Computer. The $4,000 8 Wpc Audio Note Quest 300B monoblocks
are more detailed than the 15x more powerful $3,450 Music Reference RM9 II
when mated to compatible speakers like my Genesis VI. Among CD
transports via the coaxial digital outputs, my $4,995 CEC TL1 belt-drive
transport still carries a higher level of fidelity than the transport section of my
$3,450 Sony SCD-777ES SACD player. Among D/A converters, the Wadia
27 is more detailed than the less expensive, $4,995 Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 of
the same era that I once had. In retrospect, despite the 6-year-old $14,000
CEC/Wadia combo's many incomparable qualities, the $8,100 47 Laboratory
4713 Flatfish CD Transport and 4705 Progression DAC digital system that I
reviewed in May 2002 surpassed the CEC/Wadia in data retrieval finesse.
Readers may notice another aspect of my personal experience, one in which
performance of the latest gear usually surpasses that of earlier generation.
Technological advancement being a predominant factor, newer and better
parts play a crucial role as they are capable of working within more exacting,
sophisticated and stringent specifications as demanded and expected by the
designer.
I am sure many of us can relate to my findings and opinion on the Decware
Zen amp. The point is that each of us has his own high-end values and then
votes with his spending accordingly. If within one's economic concept a
$6,000 preamplifier is justified as superior to a $4,000 unit, for however
minute improvements it offers, then it has found a market among the
audiophiles among us. Yet, some of us may not want to spend more than
$1,000 on a preamplifier regardless of spending ability, as well as the
product's worthiness. Likewise, though you may be a billionaire, if you
consider a $85,000 speaker system as ridiculously priced, despite its
superior sonics, when compared to a slightly lesser-sounding system at a
substantially more accessible $9,500, then may the superior system find a
customer elsewhere.
To the manufacturers: our supply and demand driven system expects a
product to speak volumes for its manufacturer who prices it astronomically,
because such pricing not only reflects its creator's confidence in the ingenuity
and superiority of his product, it also puts the survival of the product line in the
trust of a minority. While we have no doubt our economy will recover to a
prosperity even more magnificent than its predecessor, it is doubtful if some
of the more expensive members of the current High-End industries will survive
to see the sun again. The prudent approach, therefore, may be to repackage
their own premium products in a scaled-down model and price it accordingly
for the sake of revenue generation. A good success story is Loudspeaker
manufacturer B&W, who is extracting technologies from its flagship Nautilus
product line and incorporating them into less ambitious speakers at
significant savings. Not doing that would be poor business planning. With only
the rarest of exceptions, no luxury-item manufacturer can expect to maintain
longevity creating strictly expensive products. Think about Genesis.
Unfortunately, efforts from the few SET amplifier manufacturers in making
excellent but ultra-expensive SET amplifiers hardly represent a serious
marketing initiative aimed at making the amplifier a more adopted preference
among audiophiles in the foreseeable future. Neither are some companies at
the other end of the spectrum helping the situation, in their venture of making
super-cheap SET's. In some cases, such discrepancies in pricing and quality
are telling audiophiles that either you pay premium to get the best, or pay
much less just to get by, thus forfeiting your right to complain.
Whether you are financially well-endowed or stricken, regardless of whether
you have a PhD or a high-school diploma, whether you're a brother or a
mother, you're staying alive and music belongs to you as well as to all of
humankind. Perhaps it is this fundamentalism in our lives that fuels many
music-loving audiophiles' condemnation of fine, expensive and unreachable
audio equipment. At the same time, we are searching for the next "best-buy,"
let's remind ourselves that whether we like it or not, in a universe of limited
resources, there will always be a price on objects rare and in demand, be it of
natural origin or of human manufacture. And the sole society and system that
withstood the test of history and politics in the distribution and management of
such objects is the one we are living in.