Oy! Such a Bargain! (1 Viewer)

[Chu Gai]

http://www.stereophile.com/amplifica...views/704wavac

$350,000/pair...I think I could do better with a Marshall Amp and have enough money left over for a session at the Chicken Ranch with a porno star to do some real tube rolling Why there might even be enough left over to buy a car. Then I could drive back to the Chicken Ranch!

 

[Lynda-Marie]

Wow, does that come with the special $450 wooden knobs?

Jeez, I think it would actually be cheaper to buy my own f&*%ing hi fi movie theater that would seat 1000!

 

[Juan_T]

"Accidents
Despite having been carefully packed in substantial wooden crates, the SH-833 arrived damaged, including a bent isolation-transformer chassis, which is constructed not from sheet metal but from solid metal plates that range in thickness from 10mm to 50mm. There was more damage in one of the main amplifiers. It took the designer the better part of a day to undo the pallet punter's work. (I didn't get special treatment: a visit from a Wavac rep., most likely Yuzuro Ito or Yasunori Matsuki, is part of what your $350,000 buys you.) A week or so into the review, one channel failed, and back the designer came. Turned out to be a cracked power resistor—probably a result of shipping trauma. "

I cant believe they didnt package that thing right!

 

[Angelo.M]

Does it go to eleven?

 

[BrianAe]

Yeah, but if you don't get some 500 grand cables to go with it, it will sound like #*&*#(&%(*&.

 

[Yogi]

I didn't know you rolled your tube for fun. I just stick them in and out of the socket for best results

 

[James W. Johnson]

I read that review a few months ago.


At least the amps come with a visit from the designer (flys out from Japan)..also if there is any problems they fly out to you and fix it.

 

[Yogi]

Perhaps in the middle of Kansas. Over here in CA you would get a beat up shack for 350K without electricity let alone a theater.

 

[Jack Briggs]

These are the end times for the so-called high-end cult. As its last gasps are heard throughout the land (with no veiled midranges), it fires off a final few desperate shots and this is one of them. It's the very sort of thing that gives that cottage industry such a bad name.

Madness.

 

[Danny Tse]

Isn't the warranty on this thing super short? Like 6 months?

If a 10K Hyundai can give you a 10 year warranty....

 

[Charlie C]

wonder if it has a short protection curcuit

 

[john.michael]

Is it AAAA or not?

 

[Lynda-Marie]

Shipping trauma? Maybe they should airlift the pair to Harborview Hospital in Seattle... it is a first rate trauma center.

Don't you think for that price that pair of speakers should have been in the first class section of a jetliner sipping Cristal champagne from goblets made of Waterford crystal? [Or whatever is the highest end?]

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Didn't someone say the exact same thing back in the late sixties when solid-state amps became big?

 

[kevitra]

Exactly...digital amplifiers are cheap right now but once Rotel/B&K/etc get ahold of them all of a sudden they will cost $1000 minimum. I also have a feeling that the $300 units will mysteriously sound worse than they do today.

 

[Yogi]

Yes and they will continue saying that. But looking at all the new companies cropping up every year making affordable tube gear (more affordable than solid state gear in some instances) it doesn't seem likely so.

 

[Jake S]

Actually B&K and Rotel have done much to keep high quality gear reasonably affordable, they also compare quite favorably to the panasonic and other "digital" amps....SONY ES has had a whole lot of fun with their new "digital amps".......
When people start to get on others about how much they spend on this hobby, I am never at a loss to remind them of how much we spend on other, less used, indulgences....
The jet skis in my neighbors garage that he has put in the water @ 6 times in the last 14 months.....
The small house in the Bahamas one of my friends has that he stays in @ 3 weeks out of the year.....
The Harley another friend has that has only about 2,000 miles on it after 3 years.....
The Hot Tub a customer has that he uses @ 3 times a month..
The full bathroom and fireplace in the basement of another customers house that his builder talked his wife into(@ $25,000 up grade)... (the wife who wondered why they were spending $40,000 on a HT & Whole house audio system)...
Look at any or all of this and ask yourself how many people do you know who use their A/V systems many hours a day (or would if they had an A/V system) yet have spent very little money on it in contrast to the other luxeries like I have described above.....
I wouldn't spend $350,000 on an audio system, but I 've seen people waste money better on other things.....music gives me a great deal of enjoyment in my life...it's not hard for me to justify why I need a special insurance rider on my homeowners policy

 

[Chu Gai]

It wasn't the price so much Jake. As you look at the review and observe the measurements that indicate what the amp is doing, it should become quite obvious that regardless of price, this is a poorly performing piece of equipment. In fact, it is sufficiently wretched that it should be considered broken and defective. Junk. The efforts of an individual totally unconcerned with any measure of quality and ignorance regarding audio reproduction. My early comparison to a Marshall amp was in retrospect, decidedly unfair to the the Marshall.

This is an example of whomever the editor is in abrogating his responsibility to serve the audio community with integrity and assess the performance of equipment critically. No one is served other than the manufacturer who decidedly deserves condemnation. However, StereoPhile finds itself backed into a corner that it has created over many years - afraid of saying a product is pure unadulterated bullshit for fear that its other laudatory praises for other incompetently performing equipment will be subjected to the same scrutiny.

I could care less if the reviewer personally likes the product. That's his perogative. That he is unable to distinguish performance from junk and convey it to his audience is far more disturbing and one would have to seriously question this person's ability to critically evaluate anything. He may well relish the fragrance and pungency of a juicy broccoli, sausage, garlic fart and the way it hangs around like a thermal inversion in LA. That he should sing its praises should come only from the walls of a building for the mentally insane.

I'm Chu Gai, and I approve this post

 

[Jack Briggs]

 

[Jake S]

I was simply commenting on the dissmissing of the dollar amount spent by people...I agree that one would expect high performance at such a price...a promise not delivered.