Audio reviewers must be the nicest people on earth

[Jim G]

Here's a great example. I was disappointed when I saw Herb had reviewed the LTA ZOTL 40, because he likes warm, lush, some would say musical systems. I knew he was going to struggle with this review, and he did. If John A had reviewed it, it would have been just the opposite conclusions.

Personally, I'd take the ZOTL 40 to the Primaluna any day of the week.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/lin ... -amplifier

[Pelliott321]

and that was over two years ago and much has changed.
I did not like the LTA stuff back then it was brutally cold.
the new stuff is much more to my liking in that I bought the new preamp and find slightly left (yang) of center. You can call it very neutral. I find it much more musical than the previous preamp.

[tomp]

As Jim said, musicality is a matter of personal choice. On the other hand, measurable technical flaws like resonances are real but they may or may not affect your definition of musicality. At the end of the day your own listening will determine what is right for you. I also agree that by my standards, Walt's system is very musical. It has a few characteristics that are better served to my taste in my system. But then, my system also has limitations for both me and others that have hear it. There is no one solution.

Getting back to the point, I think a good reviewer should point out any measured problems without deciding how they would affect your listening, If he or she ( I don't think we have any "it" reviewers yet) does claim a better listening performance of the equipment it is imperative that it is clarified as a personal preference, not a fact.

[Jim G]

...These speaker will be 3-4 feet behind me on a credenza. I am looking for wide bandwidth speakers which can play classical music. The bookshelves Dave B is using in his workshop were very good with classical music. I need to check with him the details....

I believe Dave uses a vintage pair of Rogers LS3/5A speakers at his workbench, with a small subwoofer under the bench. Very smooth and easy to listen to all day, but not wide bandwidth. There must be 3-4 companies releasing new updated versions of this classic right now.