Hey Frank, thanks for your thoughts. A few comments from my side...
Consider how long it took you to fine tune your system at home to get the sound you are now getting. It wasn't always as great as it is now. And you needed DSP/EQ to help achieve that...
True. There was something
very specific that I was always unhappy about with my system and yes it took a long while to sort out. BUT... overall, my system always sounded 'good'. I mean, the potential of the system was obvious from the start and never in doubt. I can't say the same for most of the systems I heard in Munich.
As for manufacturers, you are much too tough. Most are striving hard to produce the very best they can...
I'm sure some are. But I'm convinced the majority in 'high-end' totally understand that the priority is in selling 'jewellery' and 'brand' before 'sound quality'.
Then there is the pricing issue of trying to compare selling direct, like Phasure, to selling through distributors and retailers.
Well, I have way more disdain for distributors and retailers than I have for manufacturers. How many times has a distributor switched his opinion on a brand from being 'the best thing ever' to 'only mediocre after all' as soon as he happens to stop carrying it? I've read countless examples of this in the past.
I am not saying that Peter's system isn't fantastic and perhaps world-leading, I would love to own it, just that it is not necessarily valid to compare Show-SQ with a properly set up Home-rig-SQ.
A couple of systems at the show sounded very interesting to me. When I was a Munich I was using these systems as the reference.
Finally, how few people (let alone manufacturers) have ever heard a system like yours and can make any kind of valid comparison with more regularly available and identifiable hi-end brands also in a carefully optimised set-up?
Difficult, I know. So why not do what Peter does and use real instruments (a drum kit for example) as the reference with which to compare?
Interested in hearing yours or any other thoughts.
Mani.