The puzzle we'd love to solve is the age old riddle of sources vs. outputs. Which is more important?
It is too convenient to suggest they're equal because we can easily prove that to be incorrect. Differences in sources are not discernible on unresolving speakers.
Are we then to conclude speakers are more important than sources? Does that statement alone answer the riddle? I think not.
The problem is deeper than a simple A or B, and it goes back to the heart of what high end audio is all about. Buried treasure.
To understand how all this came about we should travel back a few years to 1972, two years before I started PS Audio. It was then that Linn Audio's Ivor Tiefenbrun began his campaign to dispel the notion all turntables sound the same. It must have been a tough slog, and he had competition. AR founder Edgar Vilchur was attempting the same bit of opinion changing with loudspeakers—though I suspect Vilchur's challenge was an easier mountain to climb.
Tiefenbrun employed two powerful allies: a demonstrably better product, backed up by an irrefutable thought.
The story continues tomorrow.
