Linking continental.(Forum)

Sadly, I must tell you that I can't renew my subscription to The $ensible Sound. I'm getting a new education and get only 63% of my last income through this period. As soon as it is possible for me to renew my subscription, I will do it.

So I'm sitting here writing this e-mail. I send you also some comments on your publication. Years back it was pure fun to read your reports on the megabuck systems sounding very poor on several hi-fi shows. By the time I'm missing this fun a little bit in your magazine.

Thank you for the report of the rip-off by Company A [Several company names have been removed from this letter to keep life simple.--KWN]. At the moment you couldn't find any critical reports in hi-fi magazines. Take a look at other mags in the U.S.A, Germany or England. What did they tell you: Everything is fine, consume, consume, and consume.

A lot of companies rip off their customers. Company B, Company C in Italy, and Company D in Germany. Surely there are several other companies that get their gear built in China and sell it totally overpriced. Companies like Company E and Company F started this, if I remember correctly. But these companies sold their products at reduced prices. Those other companies tell fairy tales when they report about the better parts that are thrown in their components. Please do a double blind test with the Company B phono stage and the same product by Vincent of China. On the website of enjoythemusic.com was a news report on the new SACD player by Company C of Italy that has a retail price of more than $3000. They tell you that it took years of investigation for this product. Maybe it took years for them to find out where to place their brand logo on the box. Exactly the same SACD player could be found on Xindaks home page in China. The inner components are exactly the same. Only the stickers on transformers are different. A short time later the prices on the Xindak homepage had gone. This player with the Xindak logo comes in at $500. I'm waiting for the announcement of a western company for constructing the beautiful integrated amp by Xindak with the Rosewood front and knobs for several thousand dollars.

Lots of cable manufacturers get their high-priced products made in China. What is built in China is not mediocre. They use for several products the finest parts imported from western countries. China will be "the" exporter for excellent hi-fi gear in the next few years.

It would be helpful to place a photo of every reviewed record in your publication. Often someone is walking through a record shop and can't remember a title or an artist's name from a review, but mostly can remember when he sees the cover of a record. Not everyone has his wish list by hand in a shop. The reviews could be more widespread, for example, I am missing a lot of great independent records (Rock, Pop, Ambient to name a few). The $ensible Sound is not a mass-market publication, so I think to myself, why report on mass-market records or mainstream?

The record industry is a miracle to me, especially the "Audiophile" companies. Every record from yesteryear will be recycled several times. 180 gram/ 33 rpm, ...