Here is a good day in my Audio biography: the last particle of electronics made by Lamm Industries has successfully removed from my listening room. I was using in one or another way Lamms from I think 1998 and I use to have many M1.1s, L1, LP2, L2 and 2 pairs of ML2. it was very interesting and educational ride with Lamms but today, due to multiple reasons, Lamms are not “there” anymore.

I always said that any new enters live as heresy and end up as supposition. Today’s Lamms, thanks to the dismal will of Lamms creator, are not juts the supposition but rather quite devilish peaces of the modern Hi-Fi.

Opening a bottle of the “red”, celebrating the Lammodeliberation,
Romy The Cat

Tommy,

I would not characterize myself as “die hard” anyone and if I would then my selections in audio would hardly relate to my alleged “die hard” inclinations.

Lamm’s stuff is perfectly fine – as good as it could be, within the scope of Lamm’s own capacity and sense of self. The problem is that Lamm personally is severally restricted and limited person with very distinctive tendencies to move into a direction where his potential capacities would never be utilized within a scope of any serious references. When I first exposed to what Lamm did it was very progressive, highly educational very beneficial for my evolvement. Unfortunately Lamm never when further then juts being an angry Ukrainian who managed to catch a few tricks here and there and who has in his head the only one frustration - how to cash out his focuses with those wealthy Yankees.

Do, not get me wrong: the Lamm stuff from the mid-end 90s was quite good, way more interesting then most of the audio available out there. Unfortunately, or fortunately – nothing stay stationary and we all in our ways to somewhere. So, the direction to where Lamm is drifting is completely out of my interest or from a direction of any series listener what I would respect. 

Today Lamm’s operation is an agglomeration of cheating, deception and unethicality not to mention that some of the things they do are near-criminal. I terminated any relationship with Lamms and declared to them that they are becoming a full of crap during the winter 2001-2002. I was using some of this audio since then (the earlier production) and was looking a way to eliminate the imperfections that detected in the Lamm electronics. Recently I was able to substantially over-perform what Lamm was able to offer in his best time and, I think, this journey is well documented in my site.

Lamm, still has a strong reputation among the mid-class of audio hoodlums – the real high-end users had dropped Lamms or they are in process of doing it as the newest Lamms production is more horrifying then a crappy transistor radio form 70s. This all should lead that Lamm will eventually turn into a glorified Hi-Fi McDonalds, sort of pretentious Bang & Olufsen. So, if today the people who really know something about sound listening the Lamm’s ask themselves the questions “What happened?” then in a few year the name Lamm will ignite nothing else then a smile of pity.

If you think that I too intensify what is doing on with Lamm’s sound then… juts listened the Sound that Lamm is doing for the last few years…

Anyhow, saying all of this I would suggest you the following: even today the idiots who have Stereophile pulp attached to their heads instead of ears pay twice more to the newest predication of ML2 and M1.2 despite of the fact that the older production performs 594933 times better. In a few years you might be able to fish a 10 years old ML2, L1, M1.1 for a very little money- pretty much exactly how they should cost initially. I assure you that they would be wonderful electronics.

It is very sorry to learn the one more company is gone to a toilet…

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

Tommy wrote:

I believe that congratulations are in order for the great threads on Audiogon sewer; the Lamm LP2 and WE417A tubes and Wavac 805 vs Lamm ML2.1.

Unfortunately most of these people are quite primitive. The “more advanced” among them was the oriental freak who owns (or crawl near someone who own) the Audiogon sewers.  A few years ago I was selling one of mine Expressive Technology SU1 transformers on Audiogon and he contacted me offering 20% of the priced I asked (not 20% off but 1/5 of the market price!!!). I turn him down but he INSISTED (!). I refused… and he banned me form Audiogon… Talking about someone deserves violence…Yep; there are practically no people in there with whom it might be interesting to talk and if they pop up in there then the sunk in a lake of the flooding Audiogon audio-Moronity.

Returning to the subject of the thread: it is interesting to note that 5 years ago, when Lamm still tried to make good electronics the word Lamm was a taboo at Audiogon. I remember when me or somebody else even mention Lamms then the Audiogon’s Idiots screamed like creasy bashing and condemning that “crap”. Today, when Lamm does manufacture “the crap”, and when Lamm had levered his target market to the level of an ordinary Audiogon’s “intellectual” the subject of Lamm electronics is as regular among the Audiogon’s listeners as the subject of the Krells or Parasounds.

It nice to see that the “rules” work….

Rgs,
The caT

Tommy wrote:

I believe that you are right on the LAMM issues look at the sewers! The market is flooded with them and everyone wants to sell them including dealers and private folks. I have never seen so much Lamm crapolla for sale as in last few months.

I do not think that you are correct saying that “everyone wants to sell Lamms including dealers and private folks”. Sometime it might be more Lamms on second hand marker and sometime less. There were some periods on in past when market was flooded with Lamms. It happens with all brands and it hardly depending from the performance of the equipment but rather form the amount of pissed reviewers, dealer and distributors. I have to note that in case of Lamm it is very spacial subject as the Lamm Industries has a phenomenal, truly legendary ability to screw up own vendors, business associates and customers. Still, the second hand saturation is not really the factor that portrays the performance of a company’s equipment. The problem with the contemporary Lamms is Sound of his amps, and since the contemporary Lamm buyers/owners are completely clueless about Sound then I do not anticipate that they dissatisfied with what Lamm offers today.

You see, this is a problem: quality of people who put the Lamms in their homes is going down very rapidly. I do not mean the “quality of people” as is but rather their level of understanding and utilization of audio as tool for something noble or valuable. Today, the majority of Lamm users are juts the Audiogon-type junk who went for the Lamms juts because some people, including me, told then to do so.

A few years ago, before  the Jorge W Bush's production of ML2, to use ML2 was very interesting journey. ML2 did something very interesting and I know an army of speakers that ML2 made to performs at totally different, completely unexpected level. It was very fascinating and very educational al to see how the different speakers, topologies and technologies would react to the certain ML2’s integrity, and partially the ML2’s vibrant integrity. Today’s production of ML2 sounds worse then any single loudspeaker that I ever heard with this amp. In fact, the ML2 become really dangers for Sound.

I have some friends of mine who complained to me about it and I have even dealers who contacted me and complained that they can not convince their customers that Lamms sound OK anymore. I really do not know what Lamm is thinking himself today nor do I care. The sonic demise of the Lamm Industries it was something that I forecasted in 2001 and it was one of the many reasons why at that time I banned Lamm form the circle of the people with whom I socialize. I’m NOT so happy to see that I was correct again, as I feel that Lamm might be quite promising… However, I deal with the realty of the facts and the fact are not very pleasing when I'm  looking at the performance of the Lamm electronics today…

Rgs,
The Cat

PS: Another funny part that when you look at the Audiogon then you would see that older Lamms are being sold much less that the “newest”. This is very funny as the older amsp should be at least 10 time more expansive then the newest production. Only God knows what the Audiogon idiots have instead of brains and ears