Michael Lavorgna strikes back.......

[beetlemania]

8 hours ago, firedog said:

Professionals often don't participate at forums or give up after trying  b/c they are hounded by a small number of impolite and ignorant posters who often disparage their motives. Why waste your valuable time at a forum when that is the response?

That said MLs attitude didn't help and his PMs were totally out of line - not just for a professional, but for any reasonable adult. 

 

He does seem to have some good listening skills. We can then take his written insights for whatever we think they are worth. 

I strongly agree with these points. Many reviewers and manufacturers have "been driven" off this forum and others by those apparently looking to knock someone off a pedestal (and the manufacturer looking to share knowledge  must take care not to put themselves on the pedestal!). I've read many highly combative posts directed at manufacturers by members who seem bent on making an "authority" wrong.

 

But ML was clearly out of line with his PM and his post on AS is disappointingly childish. And ML has had a similar meltdown on at least on other forum. He really should stay home if his skin is that thin.

 

Still I will continue to read reviews at AS. Having heard some of the kit ML and SP have reviewed, I've come to trust their ears. And, they are good writers . . . just not when responding to impolite posts on the forums (altho' SP -aka Mercman - participates over at AudioAsylum without losing his sh*t).

[beetlemania]

11 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

send him some old lasagna

Seriously?

 

IIRC, this was some of the nonsense that lit ML's fuse. He didn't just go of the rails in a vacuum. I hope you're nearly ready to graduate 4th grade and that Chris is taking notes.

[beetlemania]

15 minutes ago, wgscott said:

 

Because saying Lasagna is the moral equivalent of being told to go fuck your mother?

Do you see that in my post? Sad.

 

To rephrase, ML's inappropriate (and ban worthy) meltdown was precipitated by impolite posts. He didn't just randomly drop fym on the unhappy people here.

[beetlemania]

8 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

In other words, not ML's fault?  Just like Flip Wilson's Geraldine, apparently the devil made him do it.

Is my post really that hard to understand? Why do you twist and modify the meaning?

[beetlemania]

6 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

That's how I read your post.  If I'm wrong, please elaborate.

Of course ML is "at fault" for his inappropriate fym PM. Did you miss where I wrote "ban worthy"?

 

But here's the thing: his PM was a disproportionate *reaction* to at least one impolite post. Again, this didn't happen in a vacuum.

[beetlemania]

5 minutes ago, Bill Brown said:

Certainly, many of these statements came after his message, but the attitudes behind them permeated all prior interactions with him.

 

Indeed. I went back thru' the build-up to the fym PM and found many examples of people needling and outright insulting ML. Once again, my opinion is that he was rightly banned (and he should probably refrain from all of the forums, given his short fuse). But more than one CA member went out of their way to heckle ML presumably, in part, because of his status as an "authority". Chris was active on that thread at the time and, curiously, failed to ask for civil discourse in the manner he did earlier today on this thread.

 

 

[beetlemania]

9 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

With all due respect, not a single person, including Michael, reported posts that heckled him. That in and of itself doesn't make it right, but I also can't monitor every comment and keep it in context. So, just because I participated in a thread, doesn't mean I condone all the comments in that thread. 

That's fair. I do not expect you to have the time or interest in moderating every post on your site, nor do I assume you condone every post in threads you participate in. I just found it curious that you were quite active in that thread while much of the uncivil banter was happening. I suppose my curiosity is founded on the hindsight of having seen this episode unfold.

 

I'll (try to) step aside from this thread now. I mostly come to this and other forums to learn new tricks for improving my server and it's software as well as learning about better sounding components and new music. The examples highlighted by Bill Brown are an unfortunate side effect of the these boards.

[beetlemania]

36 minutes ago, Bill Brown said:

 I know this morning when Audirvana shuffled to Coltrane's "Song Of The Underground Railroad" all of this seemed a bit insignificant.

 

Bill

 

 

I've found the "ignored users" feature of this forum to be a godsend. My enjoyment thereof is greatly enhanced by it. Highly recommended!

[beetlemania]

Bizarre to me that everyone associated with Stereophile is doubling and tripling down on MQA. And I haven't seen where they've addressed the points raised by Linn or Schitt. Nor has JA addressed the special attention given to his own recordings that birthed his new world.

 

In my own comparisons using Tidal and my non-MQA DAC, I found MQA SQ to be notably worse than 24 bit PCM.

[beetlemania]

6 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

And you won't

 

Yep, I've given up waiting for them to address the downsides of MQA. If they subjectively prefer MQA, great, but why stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the very real practical concerns? Not the least of which is higher costs for hardware and content - at a time when the industry is shrinking! Jim Austin - the Chips for Chumps author - is setting new standards for irony at Stereophile . . .

 

Doug Schneider is pretty much on an island of reason among his media peers.

[beetlemania]

16 minutes ago, christopher3393 said:

Plaskin: "Most audiophiles I know couldn’t give two shits about MQA."

They will if MQA - pushed along by TAS, Stereophile, and Audiostream - is successful at getting Bob Stuart's hands on their wallets every time they want to buy a new DAC or album.

[beetlemania]

5 minutes ago, Spacehound said:

Plaskin, he owns more snake-oil

Don't know about that but he has a killer system that I would love to hear.

[beetlemania]

9 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

I can tell from just looking at this that there's no way this setup sounds good

 Brick fireplace on the front wall is not ideal but, with the blinds down on the glass, it otherwise looks passable to me. Note the speakers are well out from that potentially problematic front wall.

[beetlemania]

4 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

Maybe there is a coating of snake oil on the window?

An example of Plaskin's "vitriol and devise behavior being propagated displays to me some serious issues that need to be addressed - and they are not audio issues". BTW, did you not notice the blinds on the windows? Or maybe that's "snake oil" to you?

 

BTW, Chris. I hope you took note of the "jerk" and "lackey" post. Not sure why this should get a pass in light of posts from a recently-banned member.

[beetlemania]

Nearly all of my front wall is glass and I have a large window on my left wall. I have a pretty good idea of how simple it is to address these pitfalls, thanks. Blinds very much make a difference, among other simple features (I have blinds and plants along the front wall). The only way any of us can know what Steve Plaskin's room sounds like is to go listen. But that's not as much fun as blasting the man for his "snake oil". smh

 

Can we please go back to blasting MQA which has real (bad) consequences for our hobby?

[beetlemania]

I don't need a journal article - I have ears. Coated with snake-oil, no doubt . . .

[beetlemania]

4 minutes ago, Brinkman Ship said:

Thank you. Does anyone have a current print issue of Stereophile?

I do. What are you looking for?

 

I think TAS will write pretty much anything you want for a price but I don't see this dynamic at Stereophile. I can only speculate the reasons why JA and crew are propping up MQA but I doubt it has anything to do with revenue from specific advertisers. Magazine sales, perhaps, but not to appease certain advertisers. It would be interesting to enumerate the pro- and anti-MQA manufacturers. I don't know that the second pool is a majority but it surely is significant (Schitt, Linn, Ayre, mbl, PS Audio . . .).

 

Doug Schneider is taking a reasoned approach here, waiting for credible listening tests. Even then, the multiple downsides to MQA need to also be considered. Stereophile has completely ignored these as far as I can tell.

[beetlemania]

Wow, I had no idea people actually go to TAS for content!

[beetlemania]

New Eric Bibb is my early frontrunner for favorite of 2018 - except I see that it was released last year.