Electrical engineer meets the world of audiophile retail.

A chap contacted me some months back enquiring about a Boxem, Purifi power amplifier, nothing really unusual in that, I sent him a unit to try and after evaluating it hedecidied to purchase the unit.

We were chatting and it turned out Edward was an electrical engineer, who had always been interested in Hi-Fi but family had forced a somewhat prolonged hiatus.

Being an engineer he had always chosen good measuring equipment, solid state electronics, monitor type loudspeakers, fit for purpose cabling essentially he knew how things worked.

He told me that his ' retail experience' had not though been that wonderful, retailers were perfectly pleasant but had no real idea who the technology worked so would apportion characteristics to a streamer, for example that technically it could not possibly possess. (soundstage was a favourite as was better bass and more lifelike)

There was also always an attempt to sell another product on 'top' that he would 'need' if he wanted to maximise the performance, power cables, ethernet switches which hadn't been around twenty years before on his last shopping excursion, power conditioners and most amusingly even 'grounding boxes'!

I suggested that he might also look at Audio Science Review forum because it has actually knowledgeable contributors, quite a few manufacturers of properly engineered equipment, the purveyors of snake oil don't frequent ASR because they know their BS wont wash there too knowledgeable a membership, which he had actually already discovered.

I also mentioned some UK forums but that they would be quite the opposite uninformed and heavily subjectively biased.

We also discussed 'new' technology ( ok maybe not that new) streaming and lossless streaming providers such as Quboz, he is now an enthusiastic streamer!

Amongst other subjects I suggested he looked at Room Eq Wizard and acoustic measurement which he has adopted with gusto.

I was really touched when he said that the reason he had contacted me ( apart from the fact that we stocked Boxem) was that he considered that I was the only retailer he had stumbled across that actually told the truth, didn't bullshit, didn't sell snake oil and whose entire product line was based on solid engineering.

We are actually going to meet because he is coming up to hear some Dutch&Dutch 8cs which might replace his longterm passive ATCs.

He just recently told me an anecdote which he found both surprising and amusing, on a UK forum he had pointed out that a claim made by a subjective poster couldn't possibly occur.

A digital signal ( higher and lower voltage above and below a designated threshold)

does not and never could contain soundstage ( always soundstage) information, apparently the poster placed him on 'ignore' and a moderator removed him from the thread!

What chance is there when forum moderators support admittedly through their own ignorance charlatanism!

I am just grateful that sites such as ASR, Erin's Audio Corner and Archimago exist, some actual knowledge and good sense amongst the Tsunami of BS.

I would advise everyone to check out the measurements ( and learn what they mean) of any prospective purchases, even if eventually you decide that transparent reproduction is not your preference you will have at least have experienced transparency.

Remember that state of the art, blameless electronics ( dacs and amplifiers ) are available relatively inexpensively, they will sound transparent and cannot be 'bettered' at any price.

Loudspeakers are entirely characterised by their measurements, both Amir at ASR and Erin use the Klippel NFS ( the most accurate method) and both explain exactly what we should we be looking for in terms of measurement and how those measurements correlate to what we actually hear.

Keith Cooper

Purité Audio,

London.