The Admonitor -- Comments on Current Ads (March/April 1977, Vol. 1, No. 2)

In our first issue, we admonished some heavy advertisers like Pioneer, prompting a few of our readers to remark that we were preaching to the converted, since they had long ago learned to discount the credibility of these big-budget ad campaigns. Well, this time we'll look into the smaller ads of a couple of strictly audiophile-oriented specialist companies. Surely they're the good guys in the white hats ... ?

Bryston 3B and 4B

This small Canadian manufacturer of amplifiers made what we consider an inauspicious advertising debut in the March issue of Audio. Although the ad is only about a quarter of a page, the claim is far too big to swallow.

"We build the two best power amplifiers in the world," says the copy; "the 3B with 100 watts per channel, and the 4B with 200 watts per channel. Each will distort a musical signal less than any other amplifier we know of." Now the only reason this can have even a semblance of credibility is that the name of Bryston is unknown to most audio enthusiasts, some of whom may therefore take a who knows-maybe-it's-true attitude. If Sansui, for example, made a similar claim, it would be mercilessly hooted down by the same crowd or, more likely, ignored. So, for openers, Bryston is capitalizing on the virginity of its product line to get away with two of the most dangerous advertising phrases: '"'best in the world" and "less than any other." Just how dangerous is revealed by our own tests on a borrowed Bryston 4B, which appear to indicate rather high audible and measurable distortion of several types. Luckily, we had a chance to talk to Bryston's chief engineer and were left with a reasonable degree of doubt as to the condition of the unit we had tested. It may have been subtly defective. For that reason we excised (with considerable editorial difficulty) the Bryston 4B review from our power amp survey in this issue and will report in Part 2 of the survey on a brand-new sample promised to us. The point is, though, that the ad allowed no margin for error.

We also wonder what other low-distortion amplifiers the Bryston people "know of." It might be to the advantage of their formal veracity to have no knowledge of the Threshold, the Electro Research, the Electro from Norway, the latest Futterman and several others we plan to test at about the same time as the Bryston 4B. May the one that "distorts a musical signal less than any other" be exalted.

Grace G-707

Right below the Bryston ad is an ad of similar size for "the largest-selling tone arm in America," the G-707 by Grace (imported by Sumiko). The ad attracted our attention be cause it perpetuates an irritating simplism about tone arm design, one that has just about carved a permanent niche for itself in audio freaklore.

"Its ultra-low mass enables cartridges to sound better," proclaims the ad. "Even our own!" Does that mean all cartridges? If it does (and that's certainly the implication), then it's dead wrong.

Substituting a tone arm of lower mass for the one previously used with a specific cartridge will raise the resonant frequency of the arm cartridge combination. If that resonant frequency was originally too low, then the change will make the combination sound better. If the resonant frequency was just about right in the first place, then the change will make the combination sound worse. (Exact numbers belong in a future tone arm report, not here.) Although other factors also enter into the picture (such as the damping, or Q, of the system), it should never, never be a rule of thumb that "the lower the mass of the tone arm the better." Life isn't that simple.

For example, we have used the G-707 with the Denon DL-103S cartridge and found the arm to be too low in mass. And remember, that's not the same as "bad." Grace makes very good tone arms. Only their advertising is bad.

SME 3009

While we're on the subject of tone arms, let's have a good laugh. In the same issue of Audio as the Bryston and Grace ads, a one column SME ad pays off the headline "Amati, Batista, Bechstein . . ."" with the following copy: "... SME: a worthy companion for the world's best instrument makers. The best reproduction of music, either by electronic or acoustic means, requires a combination of sensitivity and strength: sensitivity to the delicate vibrations which make up the sound, but strength enough to ensure that only the right vibrations are heard.

"The SME arm achieves this delicate balance by precision engineering, setting a standard that others have tried to equal." We're thinking of writing to SME asking for their exact specifications on (a) the sensitivity and (b) the strength of the 3009. We're especially interested in the strength, as we have a very stubborn piece of hardwood here to drive some nails into.

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[adapted from TAC, Vol.1, No.2]

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Also see:

Seminar 1989: Exploring the Current Best Thinking on Audio--Part I of the Two-Part Transcript

Various audio and high-fidelity magazines