Disclosure: I used to work for a former Spectral dealer (Progressive Audio in Columbus, OH, now out of business, sadly). I also apologize and warn the reader about the length of my loving rant.
With that out of the way let me begin by being clear about my feelings about Spectral. I plan to own the best Spectral components I can lay my hands on as soon as financially feasible. This is because I have the greatest admiration not just for the gear, but for the philosophy and vision of Rick Fryer, Keith Johnson and the rest of the Spectral team. They epitomize everything that separates commodity crap and/or status symbol baubles from meticulously crafted music reproducing instruments of enduring value. That is not hype or brown nosing. That is what I observed behind the scenes as a dealer. And not just at shows, but every time we interacted, for any reason.
I do, however, have a bit of tough love for Spectral. I've kept quiet for several years now but I feel compelled to speak up. What set me off were the various reports of the CAS 2013 Wilson/Spectral room. It garnered great accolades and I'm sure that Spectral, Aesthetix, and DCS worked out the demoing partnership well in advance, but what bothered me was the following:
Quite simply, the Spectral ecosystem is cripplingly constrained. It basically consists of HDCDs played on their CD player (magnificent thought it is) and then through their electronics. Spectral is cut off from the other two largest rivers of music that exist. LPs and computer audio. They have come out with preamp after preamp; power amp after power amp; discontinued their DAC and went to a CD player which they have revised a time or two (please correct me if I'm wrong on this). When I read Robert Harley's words in TAS saying that Spectral needs to be auditioned as a system because there are unique capabilities of musical communication that only Spectral gear can provide, I was not learning anything new. Source components are as critical as they come and not being able to enjoy your LPs and non CD digital audio with the unique capabilities that Spectral gear provides limits the full appreciation of these important media. There are two components would open a floodgate of new music options to Spectral customers:
A new Phono Stage:
Here we are in the midst of what can only be described as a shocking revival of vinyl playback (that is more that old enough to prove itself not just a fad), not just in perfectionist realms but in general culture. And Spectral, who has demonstrated absolute mastery of phono stages, has come out with nothing for about 20 years.
Yes I know better that most about the meticulousness of the Spectral design process, and I know what it takes from Rick Fryer personally. But its been at least 10 years since we've had relative certainty that the LP would continue to be a central feature of the high end listening experience. I've read references to a new Spectral phono stage in this forum, but nothing official on their website. I'm sorry but we should have had a phono stage long ago.
A new DAC:
Spectral already knows how to do this and do it well to say the very least. Yet they have produced an (admittedly amazing) HDCD player year after year with updates, some very significant. But ultimately, the writing has been on the wall for computer audio for enough years that they really should have gotten back into the DAC game by now. BTW I'm not suggesting discontinuing the SDR-4000s, just adding a DAC to the line. In other words, they have stayed in their comfort zone for far too long. And yet, what they need to do, they have already done in the past. True, the DAC will need some new capabilities regarding input types (including USB) and file formats (including DSD), but most of the work is already done in the SDR-4000s as far as PCM is concerned. This DAC will open up a huge world of new music and listening paradigms for Spectral customers.
Before you finish reading this please re-read the second paragraph because I feel that way about Spectal more than anything else.
Love ya Spectral and WBF,
Henry Aguado
p.s. Is this a bad time to bring up the tape repro and the headphone amp?
With that out of the way let me begin by being clear about my feelings about Spectral. I plan to own the best Spectral components I can lay my hands on as soon as financially feasible. This is because I have the greatest admiration not just for the gear, but for the philosophy and vision of Rick Fryer, Keith Johnson and the rest of the Spectral team. They epitomize everything that separates commodity crap and/or status symbol baubles from meticulously crafted music reproducing instruments of enduring value. That is not hype or brown nosing. That is what I observed behind the scenes as a dealer. And not just at shows, but every time we interacted, for any reason.
I do, however, have a bit of tough love for Spectral. I've kept quiet for several years now but I feel compelled to speak up. What set me off were the various reports of the CAS 2013 Wilson/Spectral room. It garnered great accolades and I'm sure that Spectral, Aesthetix, and DCS worked out the demoing partnership well in advance, but what bothered me was the following:
Quite simply, the Spectral ecosystem is cripplingly constrained. It basically consists of HDCDs played on their CD player (magnificent thought it is) and then through their electronics. Spectral is cut off from the other two largest rivers of music that exist. LPs and computer audio. They have come out with preamp after preamp; power amp after power amp; discontinued their DAC and went to a CD player which they have revised a time or two (please correct me if I'm wrong on this). When I read Robert Harley's words in TAS saying that Spectral needs to be auditioned as a system because there are unique capabilities of musical communication that only Spectral gear can provide, I was not learning anything new. Source components are as critical as they come and not being able to enjoy your LPs and non CD digital audio with the unique capabilities that Spectral gear provides limits the full appreciation of these important media. There are two components would open a floodgate of new music options to Spectral customers:
A new Phono Stage:
Here we are in the midst of what can only be described as a shocking revival of vinyl playback (that is more that old enough to prove itself not just a fad), not just in perfectionist realms but in general culture. And Spectral, who has demonstrated absolute mastery of phono stages, has come out with nothing for about 20 years.
Yes I know better that most about the meticulousness of the Spectral design process, and I know what it takes from Rick Fryer personally. But its been at least 10 years since we've had relative certainty that the LP would continue to be a central feature of the high end listening experience. I've read references to a new Spectral phono stage in this forum, but nothing official on their website. I'm sorry but we should have had a phono stage long ago.
A new DAC:
Spectral already knows how to do this and do it well to say the very least. Yet they have produced an (admittedly amazing) HDCD player year after year with updates, some very significant. But ultimately, the writing has been on the wall for computer audio for enough years that they really should have gotten back into the DAC game by now. BTW I'm not suggesting discontinuing the SDR-4000s, just adding a DAC to the line. In other words, they have stayed in their comfort zone for far too long. And yet, what they need to do, they have already done in the past. True, the DAC will need some new capabilities regarding input types (including USB) and file formats (including DSD), but most of the work is already done in the SDR-4000s as far as PCM is concerned. This DAC will open up a huge world of new music and listening paradigms for Spectral customers.
Before you finish reading this please re-read the second paragraph because I feel that way about Spectal more than anything else.
Love ya Spectral and WBF,
Henry Aguado
p.s. Is this a bad time to bring up the tape repro and the headphone amp?
