JV Is Off to Japan!
You guys won’t be hearing from me regularly on the Forum threads for a short while (which may come as a great relief to some). On Friday I’m going to Tokyo with Tangram Audio’s Yujean Kang to visit a couple of high-end designers/manufacturers who are relatively little known over here in the States but are highly regarded in Japan.
The first is Kiyaoki Imai of Audio Tekne, whose fabulous TEA-2000 phonostage I use as a reference and have awarded Golden Ears and Editors’ Choice awards. Among other delicacies, Mr. Imai makes a $130,000 phonostage! (Yes, you are reading that correctly.) And I’m going to get to hear it! Not at Mr. Imai’s shop—it’s a truly custom-built item, too expensive for Mr. Imai to keep “on the shelf”—but at the home of an (I assume wealthy) Japanese audiophile, who also has some of Mr. Imai’s choicest other gear (all of which is exquisitely hand-built and priced along the lines of the phonostage). If you’re interested in perusing the Audio Tekne line, go to http://www.tangramaudio.com/content.htm and take a look. (BTW, not everything that Mr. Imai offers costs a fortune. He and his wife make some hand-wound Litz-wire speaker cable and interconnect that I think is terrific—and very reasonably priced. For which, see my blog at www.avguide.com/blog/affordable-cable-thats-good-the-high-priced-stuff.)
Mr. Imai’s products are tube (often 300B), but I will also be visiting a premier solid-state company that goes by the unlikely name of Technical Brain. (If you want to know more about Technical Brain, go to www.technicalbrain.co.jp/en/.) Like Audio Tekne, Technical Brain is an artisanal Japanese high-end design and manufacture firm that, by report, makes transistor gear that, like Audio Tekne’s tube offerings, is rare and expensive and fabulous-sounding. Its TB Zero Series amps and preamps have a heckuva reputation. Indeed, my friend and colleague and TAS Editor-in-Chief Robert Harley actually heard and examined some Technical Brain components at a CES several years ago and when he found out I was going to visit the company he got excited: “The gear was built like Soulution or FM Acoustics! Fabulously well-made, technically innovative, and great sounding.” I can’t wait to hear (and possibly review) some of it!
If I can get access to the Internet, I will post pix and comments on-line from Japan. I will also write an on-line summary of my trip and a special report in TAS that covers what I saw and heard.
Until later, sayonara!
Comments
Jonathan, Any chance of you reviewing the Audio Techne cables in TAS? May be a fully wired system? And possibly how they compare to others like the Silent source music reference cables that you mention or your reference cables? Would be interesting. Will look forward to your posts and findings.
There is a very good chance that I will review the Audio Tekne cables and interconnects in TAS. They're excellent and they don't cost an arm and a leg.
Jonathan,
Did you get the full set of audio tekne cables yet? When can we expect a review in TAS?
$130,000 phonostage - and JV is off to hear it !!! Just another product no-one can afford...but TAS will review it. TAS is not alone in doing this - take Stereophile's recent review of YG's speaker - 100K.
I wonder why any business (magazine) would do this. It doesn't sell...but that must *not *be the goal. The reviewer gets to use an expensive product in his system and the maker makes a huge profit from selling (maybe) five units. Is this fair ?
JR-1,
I'm not gonna review the $130,000 Audio Tekne phonostage--at least not formally. I'm gonna hear it. And I look forward to hearing it. It's always a treat to hear something that is state of the art. I will also be hearing a lot of other stuff that doesn't cost $130,000 (like Audio Tekne's $550 cables and interconnects).
JV
OK - but the hyper-price thing *still* exists.....
Yes, it does, JR-1. But while you and I can't afford such things (and even if we could, wouldn't buy them), there are people who can (and do). For me it is just plain exhilarating to write and read about what the mind of man can conceive and the hand execute--about folks like Mr. Imai, who (along with his wife--they are literally a "mom and pop" shop) has devoted much of his life to the "zen" of high-end audio. Trust me--I'm not going to "sell" a thing for a master like this. He's been around a long time and doesn't need me to "make" his reputation.
Enough already complaining about "hyper-price" equipment. Hyper-price exists with many consumer products, from shoes to jewelry to bicycles to cars and boats and planes, from wine to race horses. The pricey stuff is there for two reasons: first, done right, it can perform "better;" second, there are lots of people out there with the bucks to afford it. Some people spend $50- or $100,000 to build a model train setup. 99 percent of audiophiles would like to have better equipment, which usually costs more. Most of them are stuck by lack of funds, or perhaps by conscience. Most of them don't have ritzy homes or yachts, either. Some do, and so what? And some have $100,000 audio components, too...and so what? We take solace in the trickle down that presumably takes place to products that we CAN afford. And we just live with it.
Tidepool,
Obviously i agree with you, almost word for word. But I can also understand the frustration of JR-1. I think if he'd forget about price (because he's not going to buy this stuff, and neither am I), and just look on some of these things as the man-made marvels that they are--fascinating in their own right, whether affordable or not, and fascinating because the spirt and dedication of the people who make them is itself fascinating--he might discover that it's fun just to look with no intention of buying.
Jon
This certainly is okay for blogs...but not for a full review (in precious print space) read nation-wide. This esp. with speakers - ones that cost 1-2K to build but that charge $20,000-$60,000. They only need (and want) to sell a small number of units to cash-in. I honestly think that many guys go into this business as venture capitalists.......
<<I honestly think that many guys go into this business as venture capitalists.......>>
Heh-heh!
If so, I think they picked the wrong market!
The wrong market ? Not when they profit tens of thousands of $$ per unit !! And it's a double shame when those products don't sound any better than ones costing far less. *That's* my main gripe. One example is Wes Phillip's review of the 20K Klipsch loudspeaker in the current issue of Stereophile. He struggled to put the (previously reviewed) $100K YG's ahead of it on sound. If anything, it looked like Wes preferred the Klipsch's on vocals !!
So, if folks want to blow many times more for (nothing), then more power to them. But my second gripe is with using *print space* to review these $60-$100 power amps, speakers and turntables. A quick analysis will reveal that they sell hardly *any* of these units, at these price points. So, if it's not about volume, what is it ? Who benefits from this extreme pricing scheme ? The reviewer...and the maker...who only has to sell a handful of units to make hundreds of thousands, if not *millions* of dollars. If YG sells 15 speakers at 100K ea., how much money did he profit ?!!
That's $60,000-$100,000 equipment, not $60-$100 !!!!
It's FUN to read about highly priced equipment. With some, you are paying for cosmetics/marketing/hype/the CEO's Ferrari/whatever, however with others, you are paying for advances in reproduction which will inspire others and eventually trickle down to more moderately priced equipment. Attempts at solving some of the common problems are interesting and fun to read, even if they are all-out and cost a ton of money (Clearaudio Statement being a case in point).
Of course, if that's all a magazine reviewed, then it will be removed from most people's reality, but I would say most mags have that mix right and there's no need to complain every time an expensive component is reviewed.
As far as looking at part costs to calculate anything, I'm afraid it has nothing to do with reality. It's like going to an expensive restaurant and arguing about the cost of the ingredients (25 cents worth of pasta and sauce for $25?) or going to Armani and argue that the t-shirt they're selling for $75 was actually supplied from China for $2.50. Depends on where you are, you're buying engineering, design, art, skill, image, concept, ideas, marketing, logistics, distribution chain or whatever .. (or a combo of the above). Parts cost is probably the least important item of the final bill.
The trickle-down thing doesn't hold true for loudspeakers - esp. when sound-as-good could be had for a fraction of the cost.
Parts costs (and cabinet construction) *do* matter in speakers - I cannot see it any other way. Esp. with so many companies making their cabinets in China. Rip off !!
And again, if a company sells 5-10 units after a rave review, it benefits...the 5 or 10 people who bought that particular product. The other 300,000 people who read these reviews (as subscribers or passive readers) don't. And how is it profitable for a magazine to run reviews that most people say are "fun" to read ? Wouldn't make more (business) sense to review products the masses can afford ? !! By this, I mean *all* reviews, not just the select few that are hyper-expensive. Why review for only 5 to 10 people ????
JR-1
You way over estimate the power of the review in the selling of really expensive gear. The branding of Audio is almost non existant to other true High End Products. Audio is a collection of expensive esoteric products not High End products. THe sales of said products are extremely small worldwide.
Its fun to see what is possible and reviewing them is what the magazines do.
I have no problem with components costing 5, 10 even 15K. But I do when they're 60,100, 150, 200K. This tiny group of people (maybe a few dozen) get their own review sections in nationally / internationally published magazines. This just looks stupid and wasteful - like DSD recording rates.
Jr,
I don't know why you would call 100's of components over 50k each stupid and wasteful surely they are selling by the thousands LMAO. What the world needs now is Dr. Evil making......pause......wait.........keep waiting......
The 1 billion dollar phono cartridge!!!!!! Exclusively reiewed by TAS!
A color foldout and interview of the designer and pictures of his entire production of 1.
Audio has always been rational and sane what's you problem? "hehe"
I seriously doubt anything sells by the thousands when it costs 200K, even 100K. Rip-off profits are the only play at hand - there's no other way around it. And it's a double shame when these designs are *not* worth it. Ayre has a new preamp which includes (major) new technology and cutting-edge sound for 18K. No problem. But a 130K for a phono stage ? Even if made with pure platinum (which it's not), it begs to ask : how much did it cost to *make* the damn thing ? I understand some profit is deserved by the co. for research - but this is WAY over the top.
But reviewers like JV play right into their hands and spin it. Who benefits from such product blogs and reviews ? Not 99.9999% of TAS readers.......
I like reading reviews of super expensive gear that I cannot afford. I dont see what the problem is. TAS (and Stereophile) does a good job at sorting out the wheat from the chaff and should keep it up!
I guess this is okay, but I see TAS and Stereophile as launch pads for more "real" products. Systems that can make a difference in *all* our lives - not just an extreme few. High-end is dead enough....and reviewing products costing 100-200K will not bring more life (people) into it.......
JR-1,
I know what you mean and agree with what you say. I read all of these mags and they do have alot of cheaper products. They both have a 'start me up' sort of section. Once, after reading Robert Harley's review of the Musical Fidelity A308 pre and power amps, I purchased them and ended up with a whole A308 rig. It did me for about 5 years and was just great. I now am the proud owner of all Herron electronics and Focus Audio FS 888 speakers. I've never seen these items reviewed in TAS and only the power amps in Stereophile years ago. What gives? Maybe they're not expensive enough?
As for the highend being dead: its a shame but true! While people are happy to sit in McDonalds with an i-pod in their ears and their fathers are happy with their crappy surround sound systems it will remain the same. Remember too, these trogs will never read TAS or Stereophile and will be happy to live out their lives without ever hearing a good sound system. They'll never know what they are missing!
Nice system...this is how high-end began and thrived (for a while) - with products we can afford. But cutting-edge items like the Ayre preamp I mentioned above aren't evil, either. As long as it's within reason !!
I had a look at the Technical Brain monoblocks just for a look-see. They go for JPY 3,650,000 or about USD 33,000.
How they would compare to ultra highend (high priced) power amps I would not know.However, if I won powerball and wanted to put together a dream system it would be just wonderful if JV or RH could rate them so at least I had a clue. Pipe dreams, I know. I wonder if they give a discount for invalid pensioners like me!!
As Blondie once said, 'dreams are free'. I hope TAS and Stereophile keep the dream alive.
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