Perspective is needed by designers and their companies.
The "reviewers" (online) nowadays have - mostly - only a passing acquaintance with "the absolute sound" and, as such, the High End is looked upon with disdain by younger people who are as unfamiliar with acoustic instruments as they are writing a correctly spelled sentence. To them, the High End is just stupid people who spend obscene amounts of money on equipment strictly for the "bragging rights" (I already said they don't go to symphonic/jazz concerts that are unamplified). They do not understand that some of us actually know (read/write/play) music and are familiar with which component most closely mimics that in life. And the (online) reviewers rarely - if ever - refer to the kind of music that would show unequivocally how magic some of the best components are. They talk about the 'features' and those features almost always involve techonology MUCH MORE than the music itself. I don't even watch their reviews more than say, a minute, to see if they talk about the music (and what kind of music this component is best at). Classical??? They've never heard it. How do you do High End with absolutely zero knowledge of the orchestra or UNAMPLIFIED music of any kind. And that's only a slight exaggeration - if at all. And of course other kinds of music can be recorded very well, as used for evaluation, but even that rarely shows up in most online reviews (and even some print ones. There is an online review of the Magnepan 2.7x which is anything but what i would consider a thorough - or even good - review in Tone Magazine). It is so vague as to suggest the reviewer listened for an hour or two, but it's merely impressions. Nothing you could sink your teeth into. I expect more from Tone than that. But it just goes to show what happens in "reviews" sometimes.
So, that being 'their' mindset, the best thing a manufacturer can do is recognize that his target audiences will likely continue to be us older folks, 45-80, who DO know how music sounds in real life. Just cater to them and leave the rest of the population alone. Some of them will never "get" that there is a quest for acoustic music to sound its most accurate, and that this industry started before they - as they put it - "sucked air." They simply want "good sound" (not that there's anything wrong with that, but their standards are much MUCH different than, say, a knowledgeable 50 year old audiophile who's been going to Carnegie Hall, or Boston Symphony Hall, or any other hall, for that matter.)
DCS - and every other manufacturer - should learn from these unfortunate events. Tom Evans is being savaged on Reddit for his Groove unit, the one that costs $25k, and the younger ones - who, it should be said, have never heard any of Tom's units, are just SO certain that the unit is not worth it, which, by extension, means that the companies such as Jadis, Audio Research, Soulution, Constellation and others of the HIGH high end will look to them to be sharks just out for our money. People's opinions used to be able to be reached by intelligent conversation. That's no longer possible, when one looks at these boards and sees all the hate aimed at such things as Shakti Stones, ac plug and play conditoners (even ones that only cost $200), speaker cables and the like. People now substitute opinion for actual experience. Look where that's gotten us in the macro world.
Manufacturers need to learn to just smile and say nothing. Don't respond at all, and if they do, just say, "We disagree completely with your review, but that's okay. We suggest people listen for themselves" and leave it at that. Not that the 'screamers' will ever 'listen for themselves' (it takes up time, and they're good for typing an acerbic response in a forum, but actually objectively listening to the best equipment? TOTALLY not their thing.) That said, it is far more gracious to simply say as little as possible than anything else. They are not the designers' audience. Leave it alone. I'm not sure the younger crowd as the time, patience or ability to learn how to listen to music. If they can't assess the benefits in one hour, they dismiss things are 'snake oil.' I hate to put it this way, but just ignore them. They're convinced us 'old geezers' can't hear and are fools. Don't assist them by proving them right by lawsuits with caustic comments.
