Mr Powell went to the trouble to come to the UK and did a presentation at the dealership where I get my hifi. They also sell Shunyata. I already had some of their cables. The dealer called me up about a Hydra Alpha a customer had traded in, he sent it over, it was an immediate improvement and I bought it.
When I buy something I’m not one for watching endless promotional videos and reviews, checking out everything on the market. When I first bought Shunyata it was on a recommendation and I assumed from the name it was a Japanese company. I never even looked at their website.
Saying that, I bought two PS Audio products before looking at the PS Audio website. I only bought one more product after that.
I naturally assume the if the owner or principal of any company puts their face in front of a video camera they are trying to sell you something. It makes me think of Morrie and his wigs from the Godfather.
Can’t think of what “Morrie” has to do with researching a mfr’s website to learn about their particular technology. Degrees of curiosity, I guess.
Before I bought my PS Audio stuff, I had a great time learning about their technical approaches, like BHK’s preamp and Ted’s DSD.
I bought my PS Audio DAC by lining up three DACs on the floor and listening to each of them for a few hours each.
When I read technical stuff it often goes over my head and there is no certainty that things are of any benefit or the claims made have relevance. I just read over a snack a few minutes ago a review of the Aqua La Scala MKII Optologic DAC. I hardly understood a word of it, except the bit about the galvanic isolation from an optical bridge (the product name gives that away) between the processor and the converter (it’s a ladder DAC), a feature which Paul has promised in the Octave streamer.
If I were comparing, for example, the Aqua La Scala MKII Optologic DAC and PS Audio DSD DAC on paper, based on technical design and spec, they are so different in almost every way that I doubt anyone could objectively decide which one they might prefer.