Winners and losers

*Chapter 6 of my upcoming novel, Resurrection, is posted here. Evaluating audio equipment by ear can sometimes be challenging, while other times it's as obvious as the nose on your face. I'm always happiest when I know what an amplifier has to say for itself within the first 30 seconds of listening: yikes! this needs work; wow! this deserves more listening. Clear, clean, simple. The tough part of evaluation comes when it's not a clear matter of better or worse, but rather different and deciding which you prefer. The upcoming M1200 monoblock amplifiers are like the latter. As soon as you put them in the system a smile pops on your face and your toe starts tapping. They are instantly great and you know it from the first few notes of music. Nothing is missing. But are they better than the BHKs? The quick answer is no. There's a musicality and a sweetness to the BHKs that just can't be touched, but without careful AB comparison, that's not obvious. To call one the "winner" and the other the "loser" has vast implications that hide the truth. If we're forced to think in terms of winners and losers, perhaps it's best to imagine a close race rather than a football game. Coming in second place by mere tenths of a second hardly qualifies one as a loser.