Critic's Corner

RE: Thank you for the clarification

12.169.244.100

This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: Thank you for the clarification posted by robert.gaboury@videotron.ca on May 26, 2009 at 06:14:47

>Gifts are limited to $100. Accomodation pricing on a pair of big W
>speakers might be well above $25000. That's 250 times higher than >the "gift" limit.

So what? As has been pointed out to you, the discount pricing, which is
around the product's wholesale price, is available from all manufacturers
to anyone involved in the audio industry. As has been asked of you before
in this thread but which you chose to ignore, where is the opportunity
for corrupt behavior in this scenario?

And in addition, reviewers cannot purchase products until after they
review it and cannot resell it for an agreed length of time. And in your
example, the reviewer still has to find the $25,000, which hardly makes
it a "gift."

>Either reviewers are too poor to buy full retail (like all customers)
>and manufacturer wants to help for altruistic reasons alone (hum), or
>manufacturers expect said pair might profit on the long run.

You are also ignoring the fact that reviewers, unlike regular customers,
have to purchase multiple components, if their value judgments are not to
emerge from a vacuum.

All these facts have been explained on this forum in the past; I don't
comprehend why you find it so difficult to use the site's search engine.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Follow Ups: