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Mike at AudioFederation.com posted in his blog something that I feel should be expended upon.

http://audiofederation.com/blog/archives/52

I meant to reply there but I never was able to find out how his login is working, so I decided to dump my comments on my site. AudioFederation’s blog is not exactly tha place where a lot of audio intelligence I would expect from. Mike is heavily conditioned in his judgments and conditioned  in his experiences by the fact that he is audio dealer and that he need to create enthusiasm and drummed up feeling about audio components. The problem is that he frequently, almost always, “over stimulate” himself with his typical “looking at the products” instead of “looking at the results”. So, I will leave along Mike preoccupation with Brinkmanns, Walkers etc. and try to inject into the subject of Continuum turntable some sense.

As I told above in this thread “Mike Lavigne” and “Michael Fremer” are not really names in audio but rather diagnoses. Their actions: buying, selling, liking, not liking, their motivations and conclusions should are completely detached from any sincere reality as they driven mostly by the “other” factors. In any case, by mocking the cretin Mike Fremer in the initial post I did not mean to pass any judgments about the Continuum turntable. (The Moron- Fremer did not catch it.) I had no motivations say anything about Continuum and just used the Continuum example to ridicule the Framer. Since then, people asked me why I do not like the Continuum turntable. It is ironic, because I do not think I never passed any judgment about Continuum, not even during my “arguing” with Michael Framer in a few posts above.

Nevertheless, since people continue to have interest to the Continuum subject I think I need to express some observations. I have nothing against Continuum and it “might” be a good accidental performer. However, I have some very serious concerns. The Continuum was designed as a civil engendering mechanical blueprint, based upon amoral rational (do not confuse with immoral). It is OK to use equations and mechanical principles (at least it what stated) if you build a bridge but unfortunately it never works with Sound. (I might say more about it.) For example listen any of many audio amplifiers that were designed by computers, base upon the primitive theory of currents propagation: that electronics always sound like crap. Anyhow, the Continuum was designed and made as a “conceptual vibration propagation model”. It is good and it is perhaps noble (it is it true) but it HARDLY has anything to do this Sound. You see, Sound is validation of all concepts and I my experience with Continuum indicated those folks are very shallow in Sounic region.  I had some very promising conversations about the subject with Continuum designer and he did indicated himself as an interesting person but when we were moving into more or less interesting discussion we were constantly interrupted by an idiot Stereovox guy who felt that he  with his  revolting cables should be in epicenter of everyone’s attention.

So, what is my problem with Continuum? I like the guy who initially designed the Continuum. I like the way how he was truing to think.  I do detect that later on, when his company got some marketing memento, his thinking got much more stale and much more contaminated by the marketing BS but I think it is unavoidable for anyone who embrace the fealty Industry:

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/TreeItem.aspx?PostID=930

So, if I so like that Mark Doehmann (the Continuum designer) then still: what are my problems with Continuum? Well, dispute of the presumed Continuum credentials and the Continuum’s proposed objectives I have my doubts that Continuum team is able to manufacture Sound instead of rendering thier abstract mostly irrelevant design principles. Furthermore, the exposure the Continuum’s results to the legendary Michael Fremer’s idiocy did not make the picture clearer.

It was a year before Continuum sold itself to the Michael Fremer’s self-inflicted slavery. I think it was CES 2004 or 2005, I do not remember already. Continuum was a newcomer who was looking for a representative in US. They made that CES with no noise and no one mentioned their existence. A friend of my invited me to go with him to listen a new Australian TT that he was contemplating to became US distributor: It was a dedicated listening session special for him, deep into night. I suggested that there are no reasons to asses a TT’s sound within a completely random and unknown playback (particularly cartridge and phionostage) but… you never know where you might find and where you might loose…

The room featured that annoying Stereovox guy, the entire Continuum team and the Wavac dealer who serve all electronics. It looked like they all spruced up everything in order to make a good impression to a prospective distributor. After a short elevator speech about the “marvel of the design” they put a record on the TT, It was Bach’s partitas by Heifetz. The sound was on a soft side generally but you would never know as it was completely unknown setup. However, there was something in THAT Sound that made it very notable. The pitch was and tempo were completely off. I immediately concluded that this zillion dollars  turntables (during that time the price was 2 times less then after the Michael Fremer pop up to the picture),  armed with “cutting edge design technology and research” was just simply spinning at wrong speed.  The fact that a TT speed was off during a critical demonstration is slightly embracing but it is not big deal – it happens, and partially with certain “overly smart” TTs. However, what was really embracing, near-shockingly-embracing that there was a team of the people in the room who designed the TT and who were listening the music along with us and who COMPLETELY DID NOT ACKNOWLEDGE the fact that the damn TT haw at wrong speed. I was looking at them was almost laughing trying do not dive into a depth of my typical in this case sarcasm. Then the fan part starts. I decided to make a comment that the speed was off. After then the Continuum guys begun to question IF THE SPEED WAS REALLY off. The friend of mine - the prospective distributor, and me were looking at each other asking ourselves: “Holly cow, what we do in here?” The Continuum guys brought then some kind of objective measuring devise and did confirmed that the speed was off. For whatever reasons it was not possible to set the correct speed right the way and they needed to disassemble the TT to do so. So, we did not listen the TT anymore.

Ok, what is moral of that story? The TT’ speed was wrong the entire day of the show and the people who made the TT did not recognize it. I do feel that it is symptomatic. I presume that something that Continuum guys do might not be where it should be and they have apparently limited understanding of the REAL subject of audio. Music and Sound are complex and not necessary comply with algorithms. I feel that success come from unity and non-conflict-ness between algorithmic thinking and human sensibility. From what I have seen the Continuum guys did not demonstrate any useful sensibility and therefore their engineering objectives nave no mandatory self-assessment. It is completely unknown to me how Continuum sounds today. The only thing is know about Continuum that Michael Fremer is trying to sell this TT to his constituents. However, whatever I know about Michael Fremer is that he is a DUNG FLY OF AUDIO and whatever he touches he pollute to the point of being absurdity fealty.

As you can see I have no judgment about Continuum. I might only presume that the Continuum guys should mature personally at sonic level before they might be able to make more sonically capable turntables. However, by the venture of association with Michael Fremer I propose the Continuum is already a brain-dead company. I did suggest in my posts above to sabotage, boycott and to discard any manufacture that associated with Michael Fremer. Why Continuum should be exception? After all, do you eat your steak if you have seen that a dung fly was sitting on it?

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