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PUBLISHER’S LETTER<br />
WELCOME N03<br />
TO THE ACCLAIMED SOPRA FAMILY<br />
NEW<br />
As you may or may not know,<br />
I have always rejected measurements as a way<br />
to buy hifi gear; it’s way too subjective and taste<br />
oriented for me. I’ve read all the other magazines<br />
that hang their hats on measurements for years,<br />
and have never been able to find a universal<br />
measurement for good sound or tonality. Yes, we<br />
can measure distortion, wow & flutter, jitter and<br />
the like, but what about the gear that sounds<br />
great but measures awful? Think almost every<br />
single ended triode amplifier you’ve ever heard<br />
and go from there.<br />
Not being an engineer or product designer<br />
who builds gear that goes to market on a<br />
daily, I question the measurement thing by the<br />
armchair engineer crowd because I don’t feel<br />
they even know what to do with the data. Nor<br />
do I for that matter. As my web guy Nate said<br />
the other day, “That’s why I don’t work on my<br />
own car anymore.” I watch friends struggle with<br />
torque wrenches and the sliders in Photoshop<br />
with equal surprise. I’m certainly all for anyone<br />
having a hobby, but oftentimes working out of<br />
your league, like I do when convinced that I can<br />
do that brake job or tile the bathroom; I get your<br />
enthusiasm. And I do understand the feeling of<br />
a job that you know you’ve done with your own<br />
hands – that’s totally cool and does appeal to my<br />
inner caveman.<br />
Enjoyment Per Hour. I’ve applied for a trademark,<br />
so don’t try stealing it. Much as I’d like to take<br />
credit for this bit of genius, I can’t. I tip my hat to<br />
Peter Soderberg of MartinLogan. He mentioned<br />
how he used it in his retail days, when trying<br />
to convince a potential customer what a great<br />
investment audio was compared to other things.<br />
I couldn’t agree with his logic more. There are so<br />
many things all of us enjoy and it’s your personal<br />
decision whether any of this stuff makes sense,<br />
because it’s your money after all.<br />
Having just moved into smaller quarters,<br />
everything in my life is in question right now, and<br />
I’m trying to live a bit more Japanese, if you will.<br />
Everything nonessential, or at least not being used<br />
on a regular, is going. Cars, cameras, that big pile<br />
of vintage receivers and all those tape decks are<br />
out of here now. I want to dramatically increase the<br />
EPH on the stuff I really love.<br />
I know that so many of you are crunched for time<br />
these days, so I hope that TONE provides you<br />
with a bit of EPH too. I can’t thank you enough for<br />
reading. Drop me a note at jeff@tonepublications.<br />
com and tell me what you think of this concept.<br />
I’d love to hear your thoughts.<br />
SOPRA N01<br />
SOPRA N02<br />
SOPRA N03<br />
However, I am introducing a new measurement<br />
to all TONEAudio reviews effective immediately:<br />
MADE IN FRANCE<br />
www.focal.com<br />
USA • Distribution by Audio Plus Services — CANADA • Distribution by Plurison<br />
AUGUST 2016 11
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