Steve, as you know, some products are just trophies. I suspect this is the case here...
add Solution and Constellation Audio to that list....
Soulution and Constellation as expensive as they are are 1/3 the cost of FMA
+1
To save the dear forum members a trip to Google:
400,000 CHF is $432,000 US Dollars
Where will this stop?
When are we to see the first $1,000,000 amp?
Will we see the $50,000 speaker cable first?
Can someone explain to me the high cost of these amps or do they do it just because they can. I also wonder if their owners can pick out their amps in a blind test
I don't know if the FM 122 is better than the latest AR Reference Phono 2 SE, but it was better than the original Reference Phono when I compared them about 8 or 9 years ago. I didn't like the Manley Steelhead when I heard it in a customer's system, so I didn't do a direct comparison. I used to bring it around, and I did directly compare to a number of phono stages, but didn't find anything better until the Burmester Ph100 (which was twice the price of the FM 122).
However, having sold it and bought the Ph100, I miss the ability to adjust RIAA curves for some of the older recordings I have. The RIAA curve adjustment also allows a bass cut for some records that are mastered for systems that have insufficient bass and are bass boosted. One of my customers just bought a Ref 2 SE, so I may just take a road trip to his place in Wyoming (when it stops snowing in the passes) and bring my Ph100 for a comparo.
I don't think that the FM 268 and the VRE-1 C are directly comparable. The 268 has a superlative built-in graphic equalizer (FM calls it a linearizer). If I was more of a tweaker, I might have got the 268, but using it to tweak your system is the wrong way to use it. It is intended to tweak recordings that are done less than linear (hence the FM122).
The VRE-1C is more directly comparable to the FM255 because they both have both balanced and single-ended inputs (more flexibility for someone like me). But, I think that the VRE-1C is better sounding and is better value for money.
Nobody's slamming you, it's just unbelievable that folks will pay that out of the insecurity that they won't have "the best".
Lee
We have already seen this, in prototype form only though in the Genoa model prototype from the colaboration between Allan Shane and Sensory Power. The conductors were superconductors and they were cooled with liqued nitrogen. The cables came with a compressor to circulate the nitrogen and a liquid nitrogen tank.
If I remember correctly it was more than USD $100K
Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |