Marc HENRY wrote:

I all,Perhaps there is someone here who can visit us in Cognac, to verify if Srajan Ebaen is right or not ?every music lover is welcome :-)Regards,Marco ---

Marco, it is good that you invite people but I do not think that to “verify Srajan Ebaen” is a noble task for anyone. Srajan’s travel and his audio advantage are well known in Europe and very many audio manufactures from Europe reports who he is and what he is after. Even this week I receive two emails (completely not solicited) from a small European manufactures who informed me what Srajan was after and how they sorry that they got involved. I personally feel that their “sorry” excuse is a lie as the Morons do read the Srajan’s pornography and as result help them to sell their products. However, here is where the difference between you and me lies. You do have publicity and exposure interest as you consider a commercial venture in audio. I do not and therefore the Srajan’s efforts of exposure and marketing are completely irrelevant to me.

Now, take a look what happen. You are manufacture who made a new revision of your speaker. You expose this speaker to a marketing clerk with anticipation that it will be a quality observation of your work. What you get instead besides the Larry King level journalism and Larry Flint level illustrations? In a way the situation not different with many today musical reviews. Read my comment below:

http://classical-scene.com/2010/06/28/thanks/

Anyhow, as in many other case in my cases I would omit the at this point the commentaries about your speakers but juts note the very primitive level of Srajan to talk an about your speaker and about audio generally. Partially I understand Srajan – he writes for idiots and he writes at a level to be understood. Does it mean that Srajan journalism shall not be called idiotic?

Romy the Cat wrote:

Partially I understand Srajan – he writes for idiots and he writes at a level to be understood. Does it mean that Srajan journalism shall not be called idiotic? The Cat

Stitch wrote:

I think, we should change our view for High End.We (the customers, those who pay the bill) are always mad or frustrated about reviewers (Astor, Valin, and son on..) and this discussion was endless, is endless and won't change in future. When we change our view to ourselves, I think, we don't deserve it any better (exception me, because I am one of the good guys), we want to read that. I don't think, the customer wants to read real information how bad the unit is he bought just a few weeks ago ("..I got a good price...") All changed for entertainment and a writer has the most power, because he is in the first row to the manufacturer. The manufacturer needs him for the readers, he needs the manufacturer to write and to get paid for it. When he stays on the consumer side, what would happen?Would they say " thank you, that you wrote that this cartridge is so awful..". Hardly. Consumers can be a real pain. They want all, know nothing and want a good price for it. It is like in the old Rome: "Bred & Games"

Sure, we can convert this thread into another bitching about reviewers but it was not my objective. My objective was to express a frustration about one more missed opportunity that Srajan facilitated. His observation about Grande Castine was the observation about nothing. Srajan converted the subject of audio into “America's Got Talent” TV shows where retardation and compliance with movie “Idiocracy” become a virtue.

What we learn about new Grande Castine? That the people who do it live where good wine is made, that some of them have a wife who love big speakers and that Srajan Ebayn, most likely with his wife made a whole-paid off trip in there. Oh, year, we learned that Srajan made many remarks about audio so uninformed that he clearly demonstrated that he shall not be in a position of public speaking.

Well, Srajan of cause is not the true subject. The true subject is the new Grande Castine and their new LF section. What was told about them? Absolutely nothing valuable! Did you get any impression about sonic capacity of the Grande Castine? Oh, yes! Srajan felt that they were better then ….. Avantgarde Duo! What a fucking revelation!

My point is that in today audio manufactures do not have voice, unfortunately. If they try to develop own manufactures voice then the voice get substituted by sales force voice (BAT, Magico). There is absolutely nothing wrong with an independent person visit a manufactures and post his observations. Srajan went to France to see the Grande Castine makers. The makers took him fishing for 3 days. Srajan honestly described what kind fish he caught and what the temperature of water in that French lake was. The Sound interests and sonic capacity of the Grande Castine went very far outside of the Srajan viewfinder…. From my perspective it is very unfortunate.

Image from http://hornloaded-audio.blogspot.com/2011/02/grande-castine.html

Paul S wrote:

Now as ever in hi-fi there seems to be no economically viable model for developing, producing, marketing and servicing  good sounding equipment. As ever, it remains for the end user to find and develop their own equipment from whatever happens to be available at the time. On the other hand, as ever there are still ways to do this, despite the demise of any given commercial product line. People in this forum seem to forget that horns don't sound better than other topologies but they are simply more efficient than other speakers, which opens the door to certain power options that are not honestly viable with other types of speakers. However, it's not about the topology, and it's not about the thickness of one's wallet, and it's not just about the ears but mainly what's between them. We can't just wait for "manufacturers" to do the job for us, and we certainly can't count on The Public to Support Good Sound. One of the most frustrating things for me has been that even at the level of drivers it seems to be almost entirely random in terms of real world result not just in terms of topology or even one line versus another but also driver to driver, down to individual units. Feh!

Paul S wrote:

However, it's also obvious that many still shop and shop and wait and wait for some "manufacturer" to "get it right" and offer to them something they can plug and play, and on this site there also seems to lurk the idea that this will be "the best", not because you sell it like this but because people continue to bring this with them when they get here. How ironic is it that really big speakers that might really deliver might take years to develop and embed in a room that supports them. even something purchased as "plug and play"?