None of this is impossibly difficult. You just need to take it seriously and start questioning the product-focused dogma that dominates audio thinking. Set up and installation used to be the preserve and responsibility of the dealer, justifying his largest slice of the three-tier sales channel. Sadly, that expertise has long evaporated, just as the three-tier sales model has crumbled with increasing prices. Obviously, Stirling can’t set up every system, but if as an industry and a customer base, we start to take his skills at face value, soon he should be one amongst many, rather than an audiophile unicorn. That’s starting to happen, but way, way too slowly. Few might reach the performance level delivered by ASO, but Stirling will be the first to tell you that the current system set-up and installation bar is set so low that it’s not difficult to make substantial improvements in almost any system. Nor is there any one path to success.
As will (hopefully) become apparent over the various articles and reviews generated by this system, both from Gy8 and other writers, the effort is demonstrably worthwhile. Which is really the whole point of these articles. Already the implications of listening to a system that’s executed with this discipline, along established lines and with maximum care are starting to bite. For too many visitors this is an exceptional experience. It shouldn’t be. There are plenty of systems out in the world or being reviewed, with ambitions that extend well beyond this one. There are far too many systems that are underperforming and failing to deliver. If high-end audio wants to remain even peripherally relevant, we’d better shape up and start putting that right.
