Hello Srajan: Angels and devils, I like it. Seriously, your latest preview on the Korean Quantum Field handles perception hurdles very elegantly. Now I'm very curious how this shall shake out. You referenced the CAD ground control so I looked up your review of it. I saw that you found its benefits mild. Meanwhile Michael Fremer can't live without it. And so it goes. Kudos for keeping us on our collective toes. Be safe! Eamonn
I like to document my instinctual reactions long before product lands. That parallels what consumers may be thinking just looking at an advert or web page. "Very expensive, dubious efficacy at best, more hifi voodoo."… things to that effect. I'm far from immune myself so it's only fair to list all the "B side" ballast. If actual auditions then go very much the other way—"hot damn, that just shouldn't be"—it's fun to see personal assumptions skewered. If they don't skewer—"just as I thought, overpriced bling of minimal efficacy"—it still demonstrates that without hands-on experience, presumptions hold no water. One must try things before one has earned the right to judge them. Either way it's anecdotal as-you-go reportage. It's not writing from hindsight neat and tidy without much of a sense of discovery or surprise because one already knew how the story ended before putting down the first word. That's always been my preference. It's how I start to write nearly all of my reviews – well before the product lands. I get to disclose my assumptions, concerns or expectations, then describe how they clash, decimate or prove out when the listening impressions begin. It's more unpredictable, therefore more entertaining (I hope).
As to the Ground Control, we live very remote and rural, Michael Fremer in a metropolis. That alone predicts very different conditions for noise pollution on the AC line. He also does vinyl which we don't. With the minuscule voltages and high compensatory gain involved in vinyl replay, that's exceptionally intolerant of noise. You'd expect his system to magnify noise differences to a very high degree. Finally, his system appears to be a lot more complex than ours so more exposed to ground-loop incidents. Different strokes. Srajan
