I think a big part of the issue with the criticisms of the amp were they are not necessarily valid and assumptions were made about the heat transfer and likely internal temperatures that simply conjecture, this is incredibly unfair to the designer and to Andre, who is presenting the product. It seemed like some were suggesting the designer of this amp had no clue heat would be produced and/or had no idea how to deal with it. That's a pretty ridiculous assumption. That's not to say there were no valid criticisms but there was a whole lot more "armchair engineering" that was speculative bull$hit. I don't think criticism should be disallowed, but this was unfair to both redgum and Andre.
I am unfamiliar with the term "armchair engineer." I went searching online and the first hit was to "urban dictionary" and it says this:
"TOP DEFINITION
armchair engineers
These are typically 24 year old yuppie wannabees straight out of college. It takes about 18 months to get them to the point where they can actually do something constructive for the company. Once this happens, they get a stupid title with the word "worldwide director" or something, and from this point on will not put their hands on anything tangible, like a product."
I can tell you that I can't even think that far back let alone be 24 years old!
The next few links were other things but then the was a link to our forum!!! And this was it, a post by Bruce saying CA's founder is calling him an armchair engineer:
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?7330-Armchair-Engineering!
Irony of ironies, the first response is from Andre!!!
When you work for a proper company, i.e. anything other than a garage shop, your work as an engineer will always get reviewed. In some companies for example, every line of code you write has to be audited by a senior engineer. As a minimum architecture of the system will be reviewed and heavily second guessed by senior engineer with gray hairs. As an engineering manager for nearly 30 years, it was my job to a) conduct such architectural review and b) fund an effect test/QA team to test what engineers designed. For anything involving manufacturing, we would have DFM for Design for Manufacturing engineer (s) who absolutely review and second guess your design. I learned long time ago to not "protect" my team and let these audits, reviews and test find problems. Because the alternative was that the customer, press or competitors would find them. Had such measures been in place properly at VW, maybe they would not be in such hot water with their Diesel engines.
Anyway, what I and others did in looking at that amplifier, is routine and proper. As I said, I have done that and had the results published in a magazine that is read by the industry. Look at any engineering unboxing and they will comment on such things. A lot can be learned by looking at the internal design of a electronic equipment, much like a mechanic can by looking under a used car you are looking at buying. These types of reviews and audits should be what customers cherish. Not look for ways to censor.
As I said in my last post, I am still shocked that there has been any controversy here.
You say we are being unfair to Andre. Why? He did not vouch for the reliability or design of the unit. Why would he take issue with our criticism of that? He said it sounded good to him. Us saying the heatsink is upside down did not dispute his report.
As to manufacturer, Andre emailed him and he responded and I said that was a great thing. We also acknowledged that the heatsink was over designed so this was a minor concern.
Let me say that on a personal level, one of the things that I absolutely love about high-end audio is that it includes extreme engineering. What may work with one transistor may have 6
. What may work with one DAC, has 8 of them holding hands
. As an engineer I love and lust after what goes on into high-end equipment. It seems odd to me and worth noting when something is sold as high-end audio, i.e. above mass market products, but what is inside of it is lackluster and nothing resembling high-end. Such was the case here.