Quote:
Originally Posted by gadawg
Charles ... again you assumed that I only listened to the C1100 once and only in a dealer show room to form my single snapshot as you called it. When I got around to looking to upgrade preamps while I still owned my 601's I listened at the dealers several times as well as at home to the C1100 along with three other preamps and no ... it didn't sound as good to me as the other preamps I was considering. I'm not saying your conclusions aren't valid because you like it so please don't insult me by suggesting mine are any less valid because I don't agree with your opinion or your methodology. Since you pretend to know how I make buying decisions here you go ... When I'm really unsure about a component ... I'll often buy my top couple of choices and live with all of them for several months before making any final decisions then sell off the others. Doing this with quality used gear doesn't result in too much loss and for me is a lot of fun and I end up with a system that sounds the best in my room regardless of brand. Right now I have no thoughts of upgrading anything ... other than my speakers maybe getting bigger soon but that's another story! 
Also ... you seem to be thinking I'm some sort of AR guy? I'm not at all. Don't own any currently and not likely I will in the near term unless they introduce a Reference 50 Pre ( or Ref 11) and I like it better with my setup than the BAT. Its good product though as is McIntosh as are many other brands. The DAC 9 I used to own ended up not working out so Ivan helped me into a stack of Esoteric Digital that will not be going anywhere anytime soon!
Again ... everyone should listen to lots of different options if they can ... hopefully at home in the context of their environment and make choices based on the beauty that particular setup creates for them and just don't assume someone else's combo is ever the right choice ... trust your own ears!
George |
George, I'm not meaning to insult you. I'm not upset with you. I'm sorry you have taken my criticism this way (personally as an insult).
Just using it as an example, a C-1100 costs 11,000.00, it's a very expensive piece. Top of the line Mac pre. As soon as it entered your home it became a demo and a used piece,
if it wasn't a demo already.
So let's assume it was a demo. It takes an amazing dealer(s) to allow his valuable demos to be away from his store for a week or a month or longer? That's a lot of time off the display away from the store, especially since you heard it at the store
repeatedly and didn't particularly like it and had less than a 50% chance (it certainly seems) of buying it. It is a fact you did not buy it.
It's a very complicated thing to get even a piece like a C-1100 safely home and into your rack. I'm very impressed with the way you buy equipment and with your dealer(s).
Hypothetically, buying a C-1100 and a Ref 6SE and a ML 526 and selling off two of them down the road would be pretty impressive.
If
I'm the dealer and I think you (using "you" in the generic sense) just want to audition for the sake of it, how many potential sales would I lose while I'm waiting patiently for "you" to finish your in home audition, especially if I have given "you" two other of my demo preamps? All my display systems would be without preamps.
I live in a fairly large city (about a million). There is
one maybe two serious high end dealers in my region. It takes a large investment to have demos on display. Unless he has changed my dealer displays Mark Levinson and McIntosh exclusively.
Now I'm not insulting you, criticizing you, or questioning your veracity. Or criticizing how you make your buying decisions in any way. Actually, I'm very impressed by your methods and logic. I'm glad you can provide me your listening impressions and what you have said has enlightened me greatly.
