Ok it's 1981, we know a new amp is coming out and it shows up......3K a big number in 1981, $1200 more than the MC2205. It took us about 20 minutes to get it unboxed and hooked up to the voiced XRT20s.
Again turntables ruled the day so I kept a piece of masking tape across the top of the 20's display with marks noting the placement of instruments spread across the soundstage with various records so I could keep track of the them as I would audition various cartridges for resale.
At that time we had just started recommending the AT MC32 MC cartridge as our top line offering and I had a particular record' a direct disc from Les Brown that had a piano far stage left that wanted so bad to get fully outside the LH speaker but was not quite there with the MC2205.....MC2255 it was presented well outside the speaker....when I got Gordon's prototype MCs it jumped 2 more feet to the left, but that was a few years later.
So the channel separation sure sounded like it was better. It was quieter......and seemed to be more dynamic. The countdown test was over the top but we had to live with it.
So I sold a few in the next month, everybody was certain that it was a sound improvement over the MC2205, and we had Gordon come in to introduce it to our customers.
I started working on him when I made him his first cup of tea in the morning. When he needed to confirm my turntable setup and voicing curves I bugged him again.....Why does the MC2255 sound better than the MC2205. This went on a few more times as we listened to some of my demo records that he would use and each time he demurred a answer.
If I remember correctly after Skizo interrupted him getting a show of hands about who had their systems voiced and cartridges set up Skizo pressed him to get a answer as he owned a MC2205. He did not get an answer either.
I tried one more time and the look said to back off so that was it I thought.
We are all out for a true 5 star dinner, with my wife sitting between Gordon and I, to my right. Gordon's wife, Palma, to his right next to my boss and the rest of the crew enjoying the stories and a coffee with a aperitif. The day is done as far as I am concerned and Gordon pulls out the big artillery.
Across my wife, with her hearing every word he asks me" Are you willing to gamble your house payment, car payment and your children's education on the ability of some guy who might work in a noisy factory to hear a difference between two excellent amplifiers?" Palma cracked up....he nailed me the big one.....
We all knew it sounded better and we did do a few A B comparison swaps while we still had a MC2205 in stock but I learned to not press him on how equipment sounds. I did press him years latter on cables but that too was a dead end. Turntable setup or room voicing we would talk often. When he swapped out his ML4s for 20s we discussed the voicing, same with the 20s referenced here lately in a different thread. He loved to talk about turntable setup....
Sometimes you just had to do what you had to do. We have done the before and after MAC4100 A B C comparison, the C30, 35, 31 comparisons, I wish I could measure something to know why we have heard such a improvement, but alas at this time I do not know.
Pragmatically I know he was right, but still it was a dirty trick to bring it up in front of my wife!