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A customer raves about us in The Absolute Sound
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Reprinted with permission from The Absolute Sound April/May 2005, Issue 153 Thanks TAS! It's unusual for me to write this sort of letter, but I wanted to thank your magazine for helping me to make intelligent choices in my recent purchases. I love music and I have a good-sized collection of LPs and CDs. I am a teacher with a family, however, and I make a modest salary. For years, I have been listening to what I had considered good-quality, mass-market components--the best that I thought I could afford. Last year I began to think I might "upgrade" my audio system. I researched a couple of "entry-level" hi-fi components and knew that I was on to something. So, I went to a "high-end" shop to look at gear, but the prices of the items there made me weak at the knees. I did pick up a copy of the March 2004 The Absolute Sound, however, in which you awarded Product of the Year to the Rotel RCD-1072. To make a long story short, I went to Rotel's Web site for more information and a dealer (Spearit Sound). A Web search also provided a couple more TAS reviews of Rotel products and I ordered those back issues. My new best friend, Joe at Spearit, patiently let me listen, over several visits, to a range of products from NAD to Musical Fidelity and, after deliberating and counting my pennies, I did, to my great pleasure, but the Rotel 1072. (HDCD has been a further ear-opener.) Feeling the need to upgrade my receiver next, I began saving again, but with greater trepidation because of the cost of an amplifier/tuner combination. (I'd be lost without WGHB). Thanks, again, to a TAS review, I recently auditioned and purchased a Rotel 1050 receiver. I now listen to detailed, spacious, non-fatiguing music, while still managing to pay my bills. The fact that your magazine bothered to take a serious look at quality products that happened to be of lower cost directed me to the audio equipment I now so happily own. It was actually a relief to have my desire for better sound on a modest budget taken seriously by a respected magazine such as yours. The other half of the equation was, of course, finding a sympathetic, open-minded--and ever patient--dealer like Spearit Sound with a wide range of products to compare. I know that this is just the beginning--these won't the last components I own. I've tasted the edge of "high fidelity," and I'll never settle for less. Now I'm thinking about speakers. Richard Chambers |
