Well good morning to all.
To me this thread is now filled with misinformation and it seems people are on the bandwagon chastising Joe about being innovative without reading his white paper
The original CS footer is 4 years old and CS2 was introduced 3 years ago.
As for resale value, those of you who are complaining about the paltry resale value again are misguided. These sell like hot cakes on the resale market and return at least 50% on initial investment which IMO is as good or better as most audio products such as cables or power cords etc, etc
Finally to say there is no upgrade path, let us not forget that there was indeed an upgrade path from the S1 to the CS2 and Joe did upgrades on several hundreds of sets as it was derived from the same technology. Now along comes the CS2M which is derived from different technology making an upgrade path impossible. That has been mentioned countless times. They look the same but they are completely different. These products were developed to be separate stand alone products but when they were sent out for beta testing there was 100% unanimity in the users that the newer lesser versions were found to perform better than their better older counterparts.IOW the new CS2M was favored more so than the CS2 1.0 etc.So after much beta testing the consensus by all was that it made no sense to have both products in production especially when they were priced virtually identical. Hence the 2M is now only available
And yes "best"is not something that lasts forever and a day. Best is a moving target that is dynamic, not static as you naysayers make out
Finally to reply to a few comments
I have to agree that the comments about CS footers creating an effect of sitting center stage has been a part of my reluctance to try them. Sitting center stage sounds to me a lot like the surround effects one hears on Roger Water “Amused to Death” album. If all my music sounded like that I’d be very unhappy. My experience of live music has never had me sitting on the stage. And when I’ve been front row or even front couple rows… its been too long and happened too infrequently for me to ascribe any preference. It might be that classical music is not my preferred genre; I certainly don’t have a history of attending the symphony on a regular basis from which to build a reference. I‘m a rock, blues, funk, some jazz kind a guy. Sure I like girl with guitar cuts too, and solo cello, etc. I just don’t think ”immersive” is a term, to my understanding, that I’m looking for from my system’s soundstage presentation.
Believable, realistic, dynamic, visceral, balanced — these are some of the attributes I expect from my system.
As for the CS2M if you want visceral, dynamic and balanced the CS2M has all of this and more
When I go to concerts , symphonies, operas etc my preference is to sit no further back than mid orchestra If you like to suit at the back then that's OK. I enjoy the performances better where I choose to sit. So don't get hung up on the name as you also seem to be with Immersive effect. You seem to compare Roger Waters and out of phase recorded music with Immersive Effect. Joe has spent almost 20 years of research trying to break down that invisible plane between the front of the speakers and behind which the soundstage resides. IOW an attempt to bring the sound stage forward of that invisible plane. By doing such (and he has succeeded) there is the sense that one is closer to the musical event. This is a given so if you prefer sitting in the cheap seats at the rear vs upfront and be a part of the event, then clearly Center Stage isn't for you but to claim visceral, dynamic and balanced, I would say this is how all beta users have described this product
Finally the notion that these are worthless when new models emerge to me is nothing more that utter nonsense. They sell quickly and always return at least 50% of initial investment. They are far from worthless. I have said repeatedly that the CS2 is a remarkable product and is merely being archived and listening to those selling them to move to the 2M they are all selling. So if you all are going to be critical ,state the facts truthfully rather than making them up as several have done here.
And as to this being a niche product, countless professional and published reviews will conclude otherwise. In fact one reviewer made the case that these footers should be essential for every system. Those are pretty bold words from a reviewer that in my mind contradicts everything said here.
IMO this is a hobby and one men's passion can be another man's poison. Much of the poison I have read here is coming from members who have never heard these in their systems and to me that is misguided and wrong. I don't here any issues when cable manufacturers come out with a new replacement several time a year and all is good in the universe.
So again unless you've heard these footers, IMO making incorrect and misguided comments serves no purpose.
The issue of stock footers has been discussed by time but I would disagree with his premiss that stock footers have no sonic signature. They all do as Joe has done the research It was his goal to remove "stock footers" from the equation and produce a product that allows the listener to truly hear his system products as the manufacturer designed them. To me that is a good thing and the 3 iterations of the product over 4 years IMO is well within the industry standard
As to the old model still being shown for sale on pirtchperfectsound.com I have been discussing changes to reflect the new product. This doesn't happen overnight but will in the next few days. I did have an individual place an order yesterday. I phoned him and advised him that the CS2 is no longer in production for all of the reasons listed above. I told him he had 3 options
1. He could get TWO demo sets of CS2 for the price of one new set
2. I could refund his money
3. He could purchase the new CS 2M
He did the latter and purchased the 2M. BTW he is a new user who bought his first set a few months ago and loves the product. His comment was that these footers sell quickly in the used market. So it seems that not everyone is crying foul
So unless you all can post factual information that is absent of expletives, I am going to ask that this thread get back on track