Yannzola, Thanks for the well thought out response.
-Except that some froth is necessary to commercial success, even in high-end gear. :-)- Of course you are right, remote control and other luxuries that I wouldn't leave out are all part of the 'problem' as well as part of the practical solution. My post was partly aimed to provoke - I always find it interesting when people see particular features as being 'audiophile' as if by some magic they automatically enhance a product, when in most cases they don't and can even make it worse. You can make most things sound good, but only if they are well-designed, just throwing parts at something (like special caps, expensive connectors etc.) are no guarantee of performance. You have to know when, where and how to use them. Most big heavy RCA plugs for example sound far worse than some of the cheaper varieties. The best by far are the ludicrously flimsy but lightweight and highly conductive 'Bullet' plugs, in my experience. You can't get away from the problem though that the more features one adds, the more work it usually results in - VFD's, fast CPU's doing lots of work, wireless modules etc. all add up to an EMC situation that's anathema to good audio. It's hard to shut down the micro though in a device that's fundamentally micro-controlled though, so it's just something that has to be dealt with. It's not impossible, but it adds cost that gives you no benefit whatsoever in terms of sound and adds work just to enable you to keep stationary, before you even try to progress forward sonically. It's all part of the fun of engineering! But 'the high end' is as much about appearance, looks and labels, in many cases, as it is about sound quality, with a few exceptions. To some it's a status symbol to be displayed - to me I'd like a tiny invisible box that only draws attention to itself by dint of the music it plays, rather than the room-dominating rack of kit I currently own ;) Andy. -- Andrew L. Weekes _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
