Best all-rounder?

One of the most difficult decisions for me is whether to go all-out for an incredible sound that only works with some gear and some records or to go for a safer "sounds good all-round" solution that may not quite reach the same heady heights, but is still good and worthy of carrying our name.

Here I'm talking about splitting hairs - one is a "gnats" better but swap a source or a pair of headphones for example, and the loss is greater than going for a "gnats" less.

But in forum land where reputations are now won or lost at the click of the mouse keys of those who shout loudest, going for the best all-rounder can be taken as something abominable.

Just think about it: Forum land dictates that the component world stalwarts which have done sterling service and many wonders for the ears of the masses are now total crap, to use their language.

Such electronic components are rubbished vehemently and to justify their stance these people will purposely look up the cheapest distributor price and quote it to their massed audience who will then all join in the chorus like vigilantes, snubbing anyone who dares to try to do anything good.

Very often their "approved" component is only a matter of pence more, but that is carefully excluded from the argument and like all vigilantes the following mob never bothers to find out or even care.

How unfashionable it is to own an old Alba amplifier for example. You are only chic nowadays if you own a Naim or Musical Fidelity for example, even though that old Alba may be able to run rings around the others in the musical satisfaction stakes.

Take for example the Sennheiser HD250 headphone: Where has it gone? It looks like Sennheiser have discontinued it. Why? Forum land that's why! The HD250 helped me hear all the things many of our phono preamp customers now take for granted. I know the HD600 and 650 could have never revealed these important musical treats which I needed to hear to confirm important performance criteria. I and all who try them with the Solo love them to bits and end up preferring them to the 600/650's. The exception being one reviewer but why? Could it have been the influence of the forums?

So how do I justify using in a world beating performer, a component that forum land dictates is wrong? If so then the ears that just heard the world beating performance will then deny what they just heard!

And what about the knowledge of these forum dictators? Listen, I've done exactly the same here as they do, pushing my doctrine against those who think different - it's not nice is it? And in some cases my own intelligence on these side subjects has been found a tad wanting.

Do we have to fight the equivalent of a courtroom battle to prevent customers drifting away en-mass simply because we proved a forum no-no beat the sh1t out of a forum favourite? But forum land denied its ears and said we got it wrong?

This, I suppose, was the reason I set up our own forum community. But compared to one very influential forum, we are nothing - our voice is a whisper.

What's your take?

Not just the forums you mention...

No decline in sales yet...

Just wrestling with the truth that a particularly disliked component is ******* all over the chic one. The one we were levered into using a while ago through public (forum) pressure. A case of "I am going to dictate the success or failure of Mr Slee and if he doesn't call my tune I will personally see to it through forum land that he is ruined". Believe me, that has been the case twice in our 10 year history. And those reading this will know who they are. They hold great power - satanic power.

They have convinced the non-tg's of this world that anything using a particular technology or component or idea is total ****.

In my experience for every tg there is a few million non-tg's.

And the few million non-tg's are not only easily misled, they lust after it.

And with more and more review magazines showing under the bonnet pictures, and with so many reviewers making judgement on what they see rather than what they hear, or telling themselves they are hearing what they aren't hearing becauce of a jaundiced view, do I simply go ahead and launch a product containing such an item?

As Alice would say, this gets curiouser and curiouser.
Am I going to have to trawl through past threads to find out what you used before ?
Hard call, go with your ears, have Dejan & Leo have a listen - try and pick your reviewers - you probably know by now who will actually listen to it.
Pray - much stress is caused by trying to control outcomes that are beyond our control.
It is sufficient that we do that which disturbs our conscience the least.

 If all records were made to the highest standards possible, just about any hifi kit would be capable of producing effortless superb sound).
do you really think so ???