Ron Resnick Launches Audio Cafe LLC, a New Clarisys Audio Dealer

[Rexp]

That makes no sense to me. Why not let people play their favorite songs?

The whole reason I got the streamer + DAC in the first place was to be able to hand an iPad to visitors and say "Have a good time!"

The problem is if you have to sit through demo after demo of sub par sound, you will go off listening to music and audio pretty quick.

 

[Gregm]

I heard the Clarisys Minuets very briefly at AXPONA last year along with many other people. If something actually sounds good at a show that tends to be a statistically significant impression.

I am working with Clarisys because I wanted to introduce people to what I hear from planar dipoles and to get more involved with what I think is a great-sounding re-incarnated Apogee design than just reporting on it and reviewing it for WBF and Mono and Stereo.

A re-incarnated Apogee with higher sensitivity, a reasonable impedance load, great build quality, presumably greater reliability and great sound quality is what led me to buy Studio Plus.

Specifically, why now? The speakers have been sitting in my garage for six weeks awaiting the examination of the dripping sound in my listening room. The speakers got moved to the living room literally just yesterday, and I connected them immediately.

I did not want to publish the Audio Café website until I had actual speakers to actually demonstrate.

Congratulations and best wishes for success!
I don't think you'll have trouble avoiding bias - after all, it you can always specify your preference for dipoles as well as the business side... (i, for one, also give my bias for dynamics, etc when offering subjective opinion)
BTW, I too had a pair of Calipers, then Duettas back in the time...

 

[tima]

With regard to Clarisys Audio loudspeakers, on the one hand, and my interviews, show reports and reviews on the other, I definitely have an apparent conflict of interest regarding planar dipole loudspeakers versus other loudspeaker topologies, and Clarisys planar dipole loudspeakers versus other brands of planar dipole loudspeakers.

2) I don't see myself as serving two masters. My sole master remains intellectual honesty for what I write on WBF and Mono and Stereo and for what I say on the WBF YouTube channel, and trying to help audiophiles as best as I can connect emotionally to the music they love. Yes, it is up to me to prove this over time.

With all this talk of intellectual honesty and your proving it over time in conjunction with casting yourself as a highly visible and vocal person in high end audio - a public figure - I want to ask you about your prominently self-displayed status as a reviewer in the first line of your signature.

As far as I know you've been published by Matej Isak on his Mono&Stereo Web site. I understand that Isak labels you as "Senior Contributing Reviewer". If you have published work elsewhere or under a psudonym I am unaware of that. Publication to me means you have a publisher and an editor who reads your writing before it is published, at least minimally checking it for spelling and grammar, and that the writer is meeting the publication's protocols and rules. Reviewing means, at a minimum, that your writing about a product is based on using it yourself in your own audio system under controlled conditions where you have experience with that system for some period of time (not show conditions), that you actively use the product for some period of time, whether it is compatible with the other equipment in the review system, and that the review is checked for technical accuracy and current msrp by the manufacturer and/or distributor. Pretty standard stuff for an audio review.

Best as I can tell your first published article at M&S was in 2016 and your last was in 2020. The considerable majority of your articles were about visits to shows, dealers or manufacturers, and to some audiophile's homes. You have written a handful (1 ?) of actual product reviews - pls correct if I mis-counted. Of that product review it is unclear if you used the product for some period of time in your own system since your system is never described nor how the product fitted in to it. You told us in 2022 that your Pendragon speakers were in storage for 5+ years and that you did not have a working stereo in your house in Beverly Hills while it was remodeled.

So, wrt being intellectually honest (your topic), since you haven't published at M&S in several years, do you believe it is such to present yourself as a reviewer?

And good luck selling Clarisys!

 

[XV-1]

Sounds like a great way to get dealer cost, even if Ron never sells a single speaker

 

[bonzo75]

Congratulations and best wishes for success!
I don't think you'll have trouble avoiding bias - after all, it you can always specify your preference for dipoles as well as the business side... (i, for one, also give my bias for dynamics, etc when offering subjective opinion)
BTW, I too had a pair of Calipers, then Duettas back in the time...

And you have Devore now?

 

[Argonaut]

With all this talk of intellectual honesty and your proving it over time in conjunction with casting yourself as a highly visible and vocal person in high end audio - a public figure - I want to ask you about your prominently self-displayed status as a reviewer in the first line of your signature.

As far as I know you've been published by Matej Isak on his Mono&Stereo Web site. I understand that Isak labels you as "Senior Contributing Reviewer". If you have published work elsewhere or under a psudonym I am unaware of that. Publication to me means you have a publisher and an editor who reads your writing before it is published, at least minimally checking it for spelling and grammar, and that the writer is meeting the publication's protocols and rules. Reviewing means, at a minimum, that your writing about a product is based on using it yourself in your own audio system under controlled conditions where you have experience with that system for some period of time (not show conditions), that you actively use the product for some period of time, whether it is compatible with the other equipment in the review system, and that the review is checked for technical accuracy and current msrp by the manufacturer and/or distributor. Pretty standard stuff for an audio review.

Best as I can tell your first published article at M&S was in 2016 and your last was in 2020. The considerable majority of your articles were about visits to shows, dealers or manufacturers, and to some audiophile's homes. You have written a handful (1 ?) of actual product reviews - pls correct if I mis-counted. Of that product review it is unclear if you used the product for some period of time in your own system since your system is never described nor how the product fitted in to it. You told us in 2022 that your Pendragon speakers were in storage for 5+ years and that you did not have a working stereo in your house in Beverly Hills while it was remodeled.

So, wrt being intellectually honest (your topic), since you haven't published at M&S in several years, do you believe it is such to present yourself as a reviewer?

And just what does this barely disguised Diatribe of Resentment , even remotely , have any relevance to the subject OP ?

 

[Argonaut]

I can't help have a wry smile thinking about Ron having to endure hour after hour of 100% digital demos of Line Dance for potential customers, lol.

FTFY

 

[JackD201]

Welcome to this side of the Industry Ron!

 

[Republicoftexas69]

Good luck Ron and it will be a delicate balance with all your other activities. All the best.

 

[cjfrbw]

LOL! More kevlar for the flak jacket! Had to figure there would be the inevitable incomings.

Probably curled up in a ball in the corner for an hour or two before publishing.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Congratulations and best wishes for success!
I don't think you'll have trouble avoiding bias - after all, it you can always specify your preference for dipoles as well as the business side... (i, for one, also give my bias for dynamics, etc when offering subjective opinion)
BTW, I too had a pair of Calipers, then Duettas back in the time...

Thank you very much, Greg!

As a former Apogee owner, I'd be curious to know what you think of Clarisys.

 

[rando]

I heard the Clarisys Minuets very briefly at AXPONA last year along with many other people. If something actually sounds good at a show that tends to be a statistically significant impression.

I am working with Clarisys because I wanted to introduce people to what I hear from planar dipoles and to get more involved with what I think is a great-sounding re-incarnated Apogee design than just reporting on it and reviewing it for WBF and Mono and Stereo.

A re-incarnated Apogee with higher sensitivity, a reasonable impedance load, great build quality, presumably greater reliability and great sound quality is what led me to buy Studio Plus.

Specifically, why now? The speakers have been sitting in my garage for six weeks awaiting the examination of the dripping sound in my listening room. The speakers got moved to the living room literally just yesterday, and I connected them immediately.

I did not want to publish the Audio Café website until I had actual speakers to actually demonstrate.

Your response is appreciated at the same face value I took your responses to question of resuming active production visible content on M&S, in your system thread.

Now that all is resolved I hope we'll soon become acquainted the finished state of said room. It must've been very exciting to uncrate two new sets of speakers within just over the span of a single year following a lengthy hiatus. You and Tinka will no doubt enjoy sharing your home with the stream of visitors that appears likely to increase it's visibility.

Thank you Ron. Jim Smith dealt with my static room modes by moving my listening seat. DDK did the same.

To be sure you are locked into analog' halcyon days closer to the 1900's than a quarter way through this century. Ron lives somewhere exciting technology and large city activities occur daily.

I question your methodology for establishing worth of new and/or exciting developments to a considerably greater degree than attempting to mitigate a room issue with modern digital solutions.

I wish both sides luck in their endeavors.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Welcome to this side of the Industry Ron!

Thank you, Jack!

 

[PeterA]

To be sure you are locked into analog' halcyon days closer to the 1900's than a quarter way through this century. Ron lives somewhere exciting technology and large city activities occur daily.

I question your methodology for establishing worth of new and/or exciting developments to a considerably greater degree than attempting to mitigate a room issue with modern digital solutions.

I wish both sides luck in their endeavors.

Rando, I am not sure I understand your post.

At one time Ron had told me that he was considering hiring Jim Smith to set up his speakers. I thought I would share some of my experience with Jim Smith when he was at my house doing the same. Perhaps know that Ron is a dealer and is offering advice to future clients, that plan has changed.

Yes, changing the listening seat location based on measurements below 300 Hz for smoothest bass response as Jim Smith does is a different approach to the problem than is electronic bass node mitigation. I do not think there’s actually much luck involved in either endeavor.

 

[Ron Resnick]

So, wrt being intellectually honest (your topic), since you haven't published at M&S in several years, do you believe it is such to present yourself as a reviewer?

Fair enough. I think my last real review was the Grado Epoch 3.

I really miss Matej. The last time I saw him in person with in Munich in 2017. He is amazingly delightful.

Matej graciously keeps my Senior Contributing Reviewer title on his masthead, as I intend to return to comparative component reviewing once my Pendragon system is all squared away.

And good luck selling Clarisys!

Thank you very much, Tim!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Yes, changing the listening seat location based on measurements below 300 Hz for smoothest bass response as Jim Smith does is a different approach to the problem than is electronic bass node mitigation. I do not think there’s actually much luck involved in either endeavor.

Different strategies to mitigate room modes are not mutually exclusive. We (I alone, and then J.R. and I together) moved the woofer towers inside of the panels to mitigate some of the amplitude of the room modes. We moved the listening chair around for the same reason.

When tower and listening chair positioning improvements were exhausted the electronic bass absorbers provided measurable additional room boom mitigation.

 

[KeithR]

Best of luck on the new endeavor Ron!

 

[PeterA]

6) In summary it absolutely is up to me to prove that this apparent conflict of interest never becomes an actual conflict of interest. It is up to me to prove that I can maintain professionalism and intellectual honesty. I am happy for you and for everyone else to be the judge of this.

Hi Ron,

Do you think intellectual honesty is maintained when a visitor writes on a forum a “polite report“ of someone’s system and then later notifies the host that he really doesn’t like the system but was simply being “polite“?

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

Good stuff Ron, best of luck on your new journey!
Would like to hear them someday.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Best of luck on the new endeavor Ron!

Thank you very much, Keith!