Goldmund
Cemil Gandur -- Thu, 02/12/2009 - 06:59
Have been surfing the web a bit, and happened on this discussion, which compares a Goldmund CD player to a Pioneer one:
http://www.xtremeplace.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=53100.0
Now, high-end manufacturers redoing mass hifi boxes is nothing new. Indeed, the whole "it's not perfect sound and we can make it better" started when Meridian took a Phillips apart and redid it, if I remember correctly. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples after that original Meridian. However, in this particular case, apart from a transformer, there seems to be little change; the PCBs look totally intact. Not heard either player, I can't comment on the sound, and this might already be old news to all.
What really floored me though and prompted me to post, is a paragraph on Goldmund's own web site http://www.goldmund.com/technology/ :
++
The problem in listening to an Audio component is the automatic compensation made by the brain.
If High-End Audio Manufacturers tell you they have to design their product by listening, it means they believe Audio is Magic and cannot be measured.
Don’t believe them…Everything is measurable. So, send them back to school!
When we listen (yes, we do too!), it is only to check one parameter at a time, and only to be able to correlate it with measurement.
You cannot tune a whole product like that.
We, at Goldmund, absolutely never listen to our components before releasing them to the market. But we have a pretty good idea on how they will sound, because we do measure them…
++
I'm speechless!
Thanks for sharing this interesting piece.....
Goldmund has a strong reputation in high-end...but I'm not totally shocked they (might) retro-fit an el' cheapo unit. This gets to the heart of the high-end argument - do products costing many times others really sound better ? There's no question they sound *different*...but across-the-board improvements remain elusive.
This goes for speakers as well. We all know of that one reviewer who has a fetish for reviewing extremely expensive loudspeakers - thinking they sound "better". Better than a $1,000 pair, yes...but not better when mating two subs with a 7-10k, high-value design. At least not in my opinion.
But some like to live in la-la land (and not even have the right room for the systems they're reviewing !!). But TAS reviews at different price points, so not all is lost, thank God........
Zeb, I got a chance to hear ( have it set up and burned in now) the dCS Puccini with the U-clock, this my friend you should take a listen too.
Try it and let me know what you think ( eveil smile).
Be well
Has anyone compared the dCS to the new ML No. 512?
Tks!
tell to goldmund can thay measure our brain response to music?!
I had read this also on the lampizator website (which seems to delight in taking apart players).
Is anyone from TAS going to comment on this?
I would have thought it would have been cause for concern that a very expensive Goldmund unit is basically a pioneer dv300 el cheapo dvd player.
No wonder so many people are negative and sceptical on many aspects of the high end.
this is a scandal. so much for swiss precision then.
it is a shame these things do not alarm magazines, dealers, owners, enthusiasts, consumers, company officials, reviewers, other manufacturers, legal groups etc. "business as usual" continues and we go back to a-b'ing stuff. nice.
nothing swiss is precise ....may be the watches...thats all...
Post new comment