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Joe Roberts wrote:

I feel I am being objective when I say that a Mirrophonic system simply blows away Altec, Vitavox, TAD, etc.

Joe, I am not a reader of your magazine and the phrase like “blows away” impress me very little. Pay attention that with all your demoed inspiration of WE you never told about specifics of WE advantage, never was able to address or even acknowledge the apparent problem of WE design. As the most humble person you even seen I would propose myself as an example. I do pass comments about audio results but all my positive or negative comments are very (always very) specific and they describe one of another aspect of sound reproduction. Your comments about WE are just hysteria and self-desire to become a slave of hysteria. I am sorry in my view it is a lack of experience and tendency to superficiality. Again, I do not offend you but I do make attempts to expose my view about your judgment. We do not know each other and we only make conclusions based upon what we heard from others. I know that you are very fast to drop concussion about my judgments at other sites (at the sites run by the people who I wish drop dead tomorrow). But you never were able to bring specific or any worthy analyses to your WE infatuation. I give it to you – your views of Altec were accurate and mature but your expression about WE are very immature. I do not know what blow away what but I think you false to make any worthy case. Not to mention that performance of playback is mostly described not by manufacturer label but by the objective of a person who responsible for the playback. Sure, you will not talk about is as you would hadley can sell this subject….

Joe Roberts wrote:

All hype aside, I can't imagine that anybody who ever heard a complete WE system with the field coil woofers and the good WE horns (e.g. 15A, 26A) and appropriate crossovers would dismiss it for more typical home horn attempts. I can only guess that they heard a few WE parts in a mismatch jumble.

Is it the shortage of your imagination of the problem of somebody judgment?  I admit that both cases are possible.  I have my opinion which case in more plausible. I can only assure you if you and I sit together in front of WE playback I would point to you many very specific aspect of Sound that I would do or do not like.  Many people who have listened with me do know it. I am not insist that I will be necessary right but my comment will be always very explicit, specific and precise.

Joe Roberts wrote:

For example, above you trash open baffles...well the BEST bass I EVER heard, EVER, came from a pair of 4181 woofers in an large open baffle with a front exponential horn that I heard last year in Korea. It was like an earthquake and it shut off in an instant. No hangover whatsoever. Incredible slam and power. I was astonished and I heard a lot of big woofer systems, including various WE multi woofer systems. This was IT.

This is exactly why I do not feel comfortable with your evaluation. Sorry, Joe, but the example you described have so many holes! What bass are we talking about:  the Lowerbass or Midbass? What were the efforts of the room in this bass? Why do you feel that the incredible slam and incredible power is something that characterize a proper bass? In my view it characterizes very bad bass if you experienced ANY slam at all. This earthquake effect that you describe is ridicules. What in live music you even heard the incredible slam, the incredible power in bass and any resemblance to earthquake? Sorry, Joe, but your comment about the “best bass you even heard” to me sound only like your shortage of dissent reference point and the WE’s system owner luck of understanding what is a good reproduced bass might be.

Joe Roberts wrote:

So when I read your words above on open bafffle woofers, although I follow the logic and appreciate the intent, I have to say that you are DEAD WRONG in practical terms. The 18" in an open baffle destroys everything I ever heard in my life.

Ok. It is your view and I am fine with it. I do know the bass you heard and this make my disagreement with you stronger. I know that you will be crying again the I never heard the WE 18" but you will fail to udders the in lower bass the quality of driver is irrelevant becose as soon the driver hit dipole mode then all driver becose to sound the SAME.

Joe Roberts wrote:

You laughed at this system last year as a hodgepodge. Go ahead and laugh. You have no clue what you are dismissing.

I do not remember myself laughing but I did say and am saying again that I would not organize the speakers this way and I have a LOT of justifications why I do not feel that the way how the Korean guy did it shall not serve proper result. Joe, if you still do not get it, you man, have a problem to get the things generally. You remind me a sales guy I meat 9 years ago in “Sound by Singer” store in NY City. The guy demonstrated me his new Grand Utopia. He was new to this and believe me or not but he forgot to remove the wooden plug from the drivers. I was sitting and weighting when he did it and he did not move. You understand that all drivers had wooden covers on them. I ask him if he find the sound incorrect. He replayed: you got to be kidding – this is the Grand Utopia!”. Joe your attitude about WE is no different that the attitude of that sales clerk in the Singer’s store.

Joe Roberts wrote:

You accuse me of dealing with mental images when in fact you are the one doing that. That's all you have on WE. Your "advisors" are wrong and probably have not in fact heard the kinds of systems I'm referring to. Where could they possibly hear them?

Ironically my "advisors" in very spesific details and without BS described many positive and negative moments of the WE systems they heard. If you know the WE world then you know that there are very few fully blown installations out there and you shell know where it was. BTW, my objectives are very much not to demand WE but to question the validity of your claims. You have very confident tone about Aporia, also claimed that I did not hear it and insisted that I will experience the effect of rebirth when I do.  I predicted the sound of this thing and my private channels who did heard it informed me that it was very accurate prediction. Sorry, I told you before that Aporia is not the level of the speaker that people propose me to listen. Now compare your attitude to WE and Aporia  - they very same rolling of eyes and use of empty adjectives. Sorry, Joe, I did not grow up reading your articles and I take the things for what they are. What I buy the thing I deal with results, not with marketing efforts to dram the things…

Joe Roberts wrote:

Maybe someday i will write about WE on the techno/practical level you are looking for, but I am retired from audio journalism and working on archaeology these days. A Silbatone brochure is not a DIY journal like Sound Practices, so don't confuse the genres.

I do not know if I would find it too useful for myself, Joe. 10 years ago I would say that I would be very much enthusiastic to read it. Nowdays, knowing what I know and understanding why some WE sound in the way they sound I would not expect that you will be able to touch the core of the Western Electric Sound. I know the answers and I know that they are not possible to sell in  your-type publications. So, you will write another cult article about pretty much empty subject and I would expect very little TRUE educational value from this endeavor for TRULY thinking reader.

Joe Roberts wrote:

As for marketing, leave it to the pros, boy. We know what we are doing and we know our audience and it isn't you (or most of the readers of this forum). We are talking to a wealthy Asian market who understands what we are saying, not some DIYers looking for good drivers for an Oris or Edgarhorn. 95% of the Silbatone market is Korea domestic and they swiftly buy everything we can produce.

Interesting. You call me a boy but you sound in the given subject as very much ignorant youngster. The very wealthy people around the world who buy very expensive gear does not build own systems and this sound is not authored sound. They have people who assemble expensive playbacks for them – not personally, no custom objective, no result-oriented custom solution. You and the people like you make then to buy what was given for you to sell, so you stuff this houses with currently fishable things. It is exactly when you and me have different vision about “the outcome”. I am talking about more advanced and more interesting sound; you are talking about number of the boxes or eBay items shipped to this or that country. And do not call me DIYer, it is well know that I have those people and this movement.

Joe Roberts wrote:

So, Romy, as our discussions always end...stick with what you have experience with and don't project your theoretical likes/dislikes on Western Electric stuff you haven't heard. You really have no idea what you are missing.

I am doing what I do the best – defending at my site the notion of sophistication in sound reproduction and trying to free it from superficiality and dubious efforts.

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