Imagine you are watching a favorite TV show and you are constantly bombarded with annoying commercials and promotions. Even if you fast forward through the junk on your DVR, you still catch remnants of it. It's impossible to ignore.... This type of marketing is effective due to constant bombardment of our minds, but ufcking annoying!! And that's what TAS readers have had to put with the last few years with Valin and Magico.
I had a chance to read the latest TAS over the holiday weekend and was very surprised to find a review from Valin where he did not sing the praises of Magico. In fact, Magico was not even listed in his reference system. WoW! Just 2 years ago, he was whining in the conclusion of his Q5 review about how great it was and how he was going to negotiate a deal with Wolf to buy the review sample. Isn't the dude's job just to report how gear sounds? Valin nearly destroyed TAS in the process with his promotional role. If he had any integrity, he should should have quit and took a job with Wolf helping the super-nice, goateed Magico dude set them up at shows and act in the role of what McGrath does for Wilson. But I guess not. Now, we don't really know what happened. The real Oprah did recommend the new Microsoft Surface tablet this holiday season - from her iPad. But, I hope that the Magico phase is done for Valin - as a teenage girl moves from the goth phase to the emo phase and back to being a regular teenager. I hope TAS can now get back to normalcy after 4 years of endless Magico promotion. THANK GOD!
Here's Valin on his new favorites - the Estelons:
" ...Like Maggies or mbls, the Estelon X Diamond simply carves out a different ambient space within the ambience of your listening room and disappears within it. That space expands, as with a classic left-right A/B-miked stereo recording like Ian and Sylvia’s Four Strong Winds [Vanguard], or contracts, as with the great monaural recording of Penderecki’s spooky Cello Concerto [Muza] superbly played by the great cellist Siegfried Palm, as the source dictates. But whether the stage is narrow or wide, shallow or deep, stunted or sky-high, the X Diamonds just don’t seem to be “projecting” it (or any parts of it) from box or drivers. The only other time I’ve had this experience with a large cone speaker (well, cone and ribbon) was with the Scaena 3.4 at CES a couple of years ago. The X Diamonds are that free-standing and that “not there.” ..."
Amazing!!! he is just describing the sound of the speaker, as a reviewer should! Maybe the pounding promotion will start in the next issue, but I hope not. And for Estelon, it would be much better off if they had normal people, demonically passionate amateurs who love their speaker, as brand ambassadors.
Most people think I am a raving hater of Magico, but it's not true. I wish them luck. They have accomplished a lot since getting on the scene, but they did get a lot of help and constant chatter from Valin that was nearly impossible to ignore for those following high end. Where would Magico be without Valin? I'm not suggesting Wolf would be sweeping the streets, but Magico would be just one of many companies trying to break through the clutter. And although they still have others to prop them up, they will have to work harder to stand on their feet.
They do have Robert Harley now, and he has called the Q7 "BEST", but he is quite analytical in his writing: "....The Rowland electronics and Q7 share many fundamental goals, particularly
in the area of resonance control, resolution of micro-dynamics, reduction of stored energy, and the general removal of sources of signal contamination. The Q7 is so transparent and resolving
that it immediately exposes any amplifier or source shortcomings.... Dude, you work for the Absolute Sound!!! Just because you, as a reviewer, are seeking that Deeper Understanding of your music collection, doesn't mean your readers want the same thing. People buy gear for a musical experience, not for audiophile words! Does the damn gear sound like music?!????!!!!
Also, Jeff Tonepub is promising a review of the S5 speaker in the next issue of his magazine. Tonepub may be a gear head, and despite his sin of dCS, he usually recommends gear that sounds like real music. So the S series is promising. Maybe the new S series speakers- the S7 and S9 can create that level of MBL (and Estelon-like, according to Valin) realism that some of us are looking for.
Overall, this is great news to music lovers and TAS subscribers!
Anyone hear the Estelons?
I had a chance to read the latest TAS over the holiday weekend and was very surprised to find a review from Valin where he did not sing the praises of Magico. In fact, Magico was not even listed in his reference system. WoW! Just 2 years ago, he was whining in the conclusion of his Q5 review about how great it was and how he was going to negotiate a deal with Wolf to buy the review sample. Isn't the dude's job just to report how gear sounds? Valin nearly destroyed TAS in the process with his promotional role. If he had any integrity, he should should have quit and took a job with Wolf helping the super-nice, goateed Magico dude set them up at shows and act in the role of what McGrath does for Wilson. But I guess not. Now, we don't really know what happened. The real Oprah did recommend the new Microsoft Surface tablet this holiday season - from her iPad. But, I hope that the Magico phase is done for Valin - as a teenage girl moves from the goth phase to the emo phase and back to being a regular teenager. I hope TAS can now get back to normalcy after 4 years of endless Magico promotion. THANK GOD!
Here's Valin on his new favorites - the Estelons:
" ...Like Maggies or mbls, the Estelon X Diamond simply carves out a different ambient space within the ambience of your listening room and disappears within it. That space expands, as with a classic left-right A/B-miked stereo recording like Ian and Sylvia’s Four Strong Winds [Vanguard], or contracts, as with the great monaural recording of Penderecki’s spooky Cello Concerto [Muza] superbly played by the great cellist Siegfried Palm, as the source dictates. But whether the stage is narrow or wide, shallow or deep, stunted or sky-high, the X Diamonds just don’t seem to be “projecting” it (or any parts of it) from box or drivers. The only other time I’ve had this experience with a large cone speaker (well, cone and ribbon) was with the Scaena 3.4 at CES a couple of years ago. The X Diamonds are that free-standing and that “not there.” ..."
Amazing!!! he is just describing the sound of the speaker, as a reviewer should! Maybe the pounding promotion will start in the next issue, but I hope not. And for Estelon, it would be much better off if they had normal people, demonically passionate amateurs who love their speaker, as brand ambassadors.
Most people think I am a raving hater of Magico, but it's not true. I wish them luck. They have accomplished a lot since getting on the scene, but they did get a lot of help and constant chatter from Valin that was nearly impossible to ignore for those following high end. Where would Magico be without Valin? I'm not suggesting Wolf would be sweeping the streets, but Magico would be just one of many companies trying to break through the clutter. And although they still have others to prop them up, they will have to work harder to stand on their feet.
They do have Robert Harley now, and he has called the Q7 "BEST", but he is quite analytical in his writing: "....The Rowland electronics and Q7 share many fundamental goals, particularly
in the area of resonance control, resolution of micro-dynamics, reduction of stored energy, and the general removal of sources of signal contamination. The Q7 is so transparent and resolving
that it immediately exposes any amplifier or source shortcomings.... Dude, you work for the Absolute Sound!!! Just because you, as a reviewer, are seeking that Deeper Understanding of your music collection, doesn't mean your readers want the same thing. People buy gear for a musical experience, not for audiophile words! Does the damn gear sound like music?!????!!!!
Also, Jeff Tonepub is promising a review of the S5 speaker in the next issue of his magazine. Tonepub may be a gear head, and despite his sin of dCS, he usually recommends gear that sounds like real music. So the S series is promising. Maybe the new S series speakers- the S7 and S9 can create that level of MBL (and Estelon-like, according to Valin) realism that some of us are looking for.
Overall, this is great news to music lovers and TAS subscribers!
Anyone hear the Estelons?
