The amusement is not at your being offended. Rather, there is an ironic humor in the disconnect between the intent of the comment and its unintended result.
It is unfortunate you were offended. I never intended this. Moreover, it appears we are on the same side of the issue; I like vinyl, too.
A smiley does not only denote sarcasm. A smiley’s purpose is to convey the intent of the poster in case it is not clear. It can mean “I’m kidding,” “I am joking,” “I am making an ironic statement.” In general, it means “do not take the comment literally or in a negative way.”
cris said: I’m from a different time when people weren’t sarcastic for the sake of humor.
You must be at least a couple of thousand years old! Satire/sarcasm as a rhetorical tool has been effectively used for eons, literally thousands of years.
Sadly, we have come to equate sarcasm with meanness and nastiness. Rather, satire/sarcasm merely states the opposite to make a point. One example with which most are familiar is “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick” of Jonathan Swift.
I am certain we all hope you will keep posting. A little misunderstanding between friends is a minor price for dialogue.
Yes Cris, please keep posting. We are a small group and need as many active members as we can recruit and nurture. There may be a fair amount of sarcasm and even an occasional rude comment. It is extremely rare that these are meant to be mean spirited. By and large we are a fairly friendly and light hearted community.
As for the NPC, I do hope that the original revue sample is not representative of the model even though I suspect that it is. If it is defective it is good in the sense that this unit is even better than some of us already believe it to be. On the other hand, it does not bode well for production and QC when any defective unit gets out into the wild.
Text, unless you use a lot of text, is a difficult medium for conveying tone or emotion. So that’s why we have the emoticons. Elk’s is a fairly dry sense of humour, which I certainly appreciate, but I can see that its dessicating effect might be unwelcome on those who’d prefer to stay grapes rather than be turned into raisans. cris - I hope you’ll stay engaged.
I have always been a bit torn as to the proper terminology. To me emoticons are the text symbols; smileys, the newer graphic versions. But I like emoticon as a word much better.
wingsounds13 said: If it [NPC] is defective it is good in the sense that this unit is even better than some of us already believe it to be.
Even though it was not the best, I agree from the sample it sounded very good.
I'd like to replicate the test with my phono pre for comparison, but there are so many upstream variables it would not make any sense to even try. It would be great if Mr. Fremer accepted requests.
I got a note from Michael that the new sample arrived and is “very different” than the one he had. I am assuming “different” is better. Clearly there was something wrong and that unit is on the way back. Whatever was wrong we’ll find it and adjust the final QC test to catch whatever it is because obviously final test did not weed this out. I’ll let you know.
I’m sure you will find the the issue and get things sorted out, but this must be incredibly frustrating when it had looked like everything was production ready.
He will post a follow-up report. I hope he includes a follow-up comparison file.
This is as I said before good and bad news. The bad is figuring out production and QC to insure that all units that leave PS Audio are up to design audio standards.
The good news (I hope) is that a normal production unit may be significantly better than the very good that we already heard in the comparison files. I too hope that ‘very different’ means better… I await Michael Fremer’s update on the unit.
http://www.analogplanet.com/how-is-ted-coding-the-fpgaent/second-ps-audio-nuwave-phono-converter-brings-some-sonic-relief
Not exactly back-tracking. In fact there is a defensive tone to his report.
Satire/sarcasm as a rhetorical tool has been effectively used for eons, literally thousands of years. 
