Actually I think in a very real sense he may be telling an important truth here. This was a very damaging theory. But the damage it did was to the future of the electronics sector of the hi-fi industry. If they’d had to face the fact that in blind tests people couldn’t hear any difference between amps and pre-amps as long as these met certain specifications then that would have eliminated a whole chunk of the selling landscape for new kit. Manufacturers would still be able to sell on the basis of, among other things, cost, build quality and reliability, ease of use, available power, styling etc. They’d also be able to concentrate on the areas where real audible improvements were, and indeed are, still to be had - media (records vs CDs vs bit-perfect 1’s and 0’s), transducers (cartridges, CD mechs, particularly speakers), interactions with the room etc. But they didn’t go this way.
Playing devil’s advocate I might claim that the alternative theory has actually done more damage. Asserting that objectivity and science aren’t applicable to audio electronics design and that the appropriate response to hard evidence is a combination of blank denial and insult, presented using a humpty-dumpty language whose words mean everything and nothing, has driven a lot of customers away. They look at the stuff talked by some manufacturers and can detect no meaning in it. It sounds a lot like the language of the delusional or of charlatans. There’s no clear pathway through the landscape for them. So in the end 99% can’t face the mumbo-jumbo and buy something cheap (or not so cheap) and cheerful and sort-of-OK. It’s never going to sound fantastic. But finding what is is just too hard now.
He needs to make much, much better speakers as his are OK (well Js and Ks are) and the Es are not great.
The Es remind me of the Linn Isobarik DMS that everybody in the UK said were fantastic and the best speakers ever and then suddenly they are shit, especially when you hear them (I did once hear them sound good though). Having owned 2 pairs of Es (one Snell) I wouldn’t own another pair.
AN-E’s bear no sonic relation whatsover to any of the various pairs of Isobariks I’ve heard over the years. Couldn’t really be more different in either concept or sound.
How can you say that? Neither speaker is within 1dB at 5Hz or plays up to 180dB or can take a jiggawatt of power, so they are both completely identical in their uselessness in BobWorld. They’re basically the same thing.
AN-Es are a bloody odd flagship speaker - I’ve never yet heard a set sound better than average (which of course - implicitly - lots of speakers do…), but their price and marketing claims are anything but!
Js and Ks however seem capable of performing beyond form-factor expectations.
Given PQ has often held-up Snell As as something of a benchmark, and presuming he owns the design rights to everything Snell did(?), it seems odd he’s not produced a modernised clone of them…
If you read it, I didn’t say they were. What they have in common is that they are massively over rated by some. Personally, I wouldn’t give house room to either.
Fair do’s. FWIW neither really do it for me either although the AN-E’s are a lot more in the right direction. But I’d rather take Snell Es if I had the choice.
There seems a gulf between AN UK and Kondo as we know it today particularly in Turntables, speakers and cosmetic finishing in general. For a premium quality brand the An speakers / kit sales etc seems to undermine their positioning.
Probably because they are mahoosive and dominate most rooms. they also need quite a lot up em and are not a natural match for any of the AN range of amps.
I heard Dom’s with a lot of different amps, including mine, and 845 monos and the best i ever heard them was with the amp Dom eventually bought which was the Modwright KWI 200. (Solid State 200Wpc)
Some may remember this combo at Scalford a few years ago, it was one of the best systems at the show.
I don’t think speaker development is very high on PQ’s list of things to do (or Kondo either) they focus on amplification, cartridges and cables with a passing wave to turntables. That seems sufficiently profitable to keep the wolf from the door.
