From rick155@aol.com Mon May 24 12:49:14 2004
Subject:Re: Organ comparison

In a message dated 5/24/2004 3:09:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time, shrockrob writes:

> Hell, maybe I should just blow this off and do a real
> shootout as a column for the
> magazine.

Admit it, Rob, you're waiting for the list to do all the work for you, and then you're gonna cash in with your article! LOL.

But seriously folks, I've stood by for several days while these mp3-related posts have been flying. And you know what? Listening to them is a fun way to spend some time, but I'm not about to base any purchase (or nonpurchase) decision based on the posted files. I'm going to do what I've always done: Go to a music store and play what I'm interested in buying. Play and play and play. Even this approach at its best is highly imperfect for several reasons, but it's certainly better than trying to discern meaningful differences among clones through my computer's speakers. I'll trust what my ears and my fingers tell me at the store. No offense to Josiah, who has put an admirable amount of effort into creating and posting the files. But when I see people say things like "well I was considering buying an XK3, but not anymore, now that I've heard these files", I am mystified and amazed. Same for the bickering about what is a "fair" comparison and what's not. Sheesh. Get over it already. Of course, when Rob writes his article for Electronic Musician we can all write disagreeable letters to the editor, but that's different. ;-)

Rick