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RE: Help me pick SET monoblocks

"See its funny. If Fred replaces an Einstein with AN...Fred being a reviewer I can site as a real person and one can read his review of the comparison...well he only did so because he was bored. When the HK Einstein dealer buys AN for his own house and all the other people working there and NOT an Einstein let me guess he's wrong too."

Are you trying to be obtuse on purpose? This was never a discussion about the F*ing Einstein. That is what my friend has and that is what we used. Is it a bad preamp? Not at all. That is why it is irrelevant what Fred or your HK dealer does with their own damn money. I never said Fred bought it out of boredom. READ what I said. I said that I don't know why he changed...perhaps boredom...it's as good a reason as any for many guys who change gear constantly. I know plenty of people (my two of my friends in fact) that strongly prefer Einstein over AN...so what? Stop being a dope and stop making strawmen.

"But, when it's YOU and your mysterious buddies then they are all of course perfect decision makers and infallable and never wrong."

I simply related what we heard and you don't like to hear that AN was outperformed so you have been going through contortions to claim our listening session was somehow invalid in your mind...believe what you want. My friend and I are both very experienced listeners and we know what we hear. Would AN work better with AN speakers? Who knows, we don't own them...no one I know owns them even though they all visit the dealer for other stuff...come to think of it none of them own any electronics either although we try them out...

"PS, judging sound quality has absolutely no relation to being an engineer"


No, but it does mean you an easily misassign the reasons for WHY things sound like they do...as you clearly do.


"I just spent this afternoon listening to a complete Einstein flagship system and KR recently. Meh."

So? Care for some details beyond Meh? I could say that for every AN system I have heard so far but I choose to be slightly more descriptive.

Which KR and which speaker and what ancillaries...come on this name dropping KR and Meh is really amateur hour. Why you keep mentioning Einstein is a mystery...my friend owns, he likes it and we used it. I don't own any Einstein (I had an Einstein "The Absolute Tune" for about 4 months...didn't like it and traded it for the NAT Symbiosis SE...a really interesting but frustrating machine).

"The M3 eats the Einstein for lunch"

Maybe, maybe not...I am not surprised by your opinion. I don't have one as I have not heard them back to back. I know though another friend of mine strongly preferred the NAT Utopia to an Audio Note M5 as he said the M5 was too warm and sluggish comparatively. The Aries Cerat Incito is far better than all of the above, including my NAT Plasma, which I also like more than Einstein.

"I already told you which Odeon I heard so why go down that road again.

Stereophile sums it up nicely and correctly. If they're such great quality speaker line why would all 7 dealers dumped them? People came in and heard them and all bought something else because the something else was clearly better.

If Odeon was in fact better they would have 7 dealers now and perhaps more if they were prized by anyone.
"

Seriously, stop being an idiot. One model reviewed by Stereophile does not a company make. Look at the very positive reviews on Positive Feedback and in the German an Dutch magazines. They have been in business 25 years and have a robust business in Europe and Asia. Who cares what you think makes them a successful business or not? They had a very well regarded room this year in Munich as well, partnering with New Audio Frontiers of Italy.

"I mean since our discussions back in the day AN has gone from 1 plant to 4 and quintupled their workforce"

And? Is business size a function of quality now? Then Sony, Yamaha, B&W etc. make far better products than Audio Note. Really stupid...sorry it is such a stupid thing to say.

"So doing the math on the audiophile world market is on my side not yours. My opinions on sound quality held. Yours went out of business. Lol"

As I said, Odeon is not out of business at all and just launched new ultraend models and had a sucessful Munich show (they had a real room too, which costs serious $$$). Clearly to do that means they are not shuttered or struggling. Your lack of knowledge is stunning.

"And yes AN amps come in different transformer levels based on price. That's fine. No one should expect massive 50hib c core etc etc in a $1500 amp. KR sells amps well above $40,000"

Most KR amps are under 20K and hte lowest prices are well under 10K. My JJ322 HAS massive Hib double C Core output transformers for a retail price of 6K euro. They are a good 10Kg. Bass is tight, controlled and well defined...as one would expect with good iron. Midrange is holographic as one would expect from a good 300B design and highs are extended but delicate. Not a world beater but very good for that money. The only AN amp for 6K or less with Double C cores is the Oto Signature.

The reason it is not fine for AN to offer in their "budget" products EI transformers is that the EI transformers used in lower AN amps are frankly too small and do not deliver clean bass and it colors up through the midrange as well. I have heard this now one three or four of their lower models. Maybe you don't hear that lack of bass definition or the coloration that creeps into the mids as a result?

If I was going to spend 20K-25K on an amp, I would probably buy an Aries Cerat Diana Forte or Concero 25 monoblocks. I would put them up against a Jinro or Conquest Silver Signatures or P4 Balanced...why not try? As always, I am an experimenter and will base my decisions on observations. You don't like mine because they didn't come down in favor of "your" brand...

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