How great an incredible variety of audio gear exists across the world. I\u00a0spend\/waste a lot of time on the internet looking at online review magazines, and to me the number of international companies making high-end components is staggering. Clearly there are\u00a0many\u00a0people around the world who love audio and want to\u00a0build\u00a0great components. Here in the USA we get exposure to only a few international brands. Actually, we don’t even get fully exposed to the USA brands. I recently read an online forum post complaining that none of the four\u00a0Texas\u00a0VPI\u00a0dealers had, or intended to get, the new VPI Direct turntable. What?, nobody in Texas has $30,000 for a turntable? But Texas is so big and rich!<\/p>\n
In St. Louis we’ve\u00a0been short of true\u00a0high-end\u00a0stores for a long time.\u00a0Certainly\u00a0The Sound Room\u00a0and\u00a0Music for Pleasure\u00a0have some fine stuff, but they carry only a small sample of the many possibilities.\u00a0The recently closed St Louis Stereo was an exception, and now\u00a0its gone. The successor, Stereo Haven, has a more limited selection. Of course with my own limited\u00a0offerings I\u00a0don’t set much of an example, but I\u00a0excuse\u00a0myself because mine\u00a0is a home-based hobby business..<\/p>\n
Another thing that amazes me is the reviewer emphasis\u00a0on higher priced gear. Maybe it’s just my fiscally conservative mentality, but I have to wonder how all these companies survive. Are these companies the toys of rich guys? Or maybe the famous 1% buy a lot more audio than I imagine.\u00a0Maybe\u00a0the Chinese and Russians nouveau-riche are the customers. Certainly few reviews are for\u00a0“bang-for-the-buck” components. Or maybe it’s\u00a0just that\u00a0only\u00a0the expensive stuff gets reviewed because the reviewers get to play with expensive toys for free. That I can understand.<\/p>\n
I should be more mature about my reaction to reviews, but every time I read\u00a0Stereophile<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0The Absolute Sound<\/em>\u00a0I get the impression that they are trying to shame me for having such cheap stuff in comparison to that they rave about. Not that they don’t toss us a bone now and then with a budget component or two, but the bones are too small and too few. Most of the reviewed components give you a choice of a new system, or a new car, or a new house.<\/p>\n I know that some of you are waiting for me to make a point. Stop waiting.\u00a0I admire Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em>, and if he can make a living writing his wandering style certainly I can do it for free. I just had some thoughts that I wanted to put out there.<\/p>\n Happy listening,<\/p>\n Wylie Williams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How great an incredible variety of audio gear exists across the world. I\u00a0spend\/waste a lot of time on the internet looking at online review magazines, and to me the number of international companies making high-end components is staggering. Clearly there … Continue reading