I wasn't thinking along the lines of resentment over WWII ,but a form of market protectionism.
We all know which brand was responsible for instance for the assumed(and wrong in my opinion)attitude that belt-drive is automatically superior to direct-drive.That brand did such a good job of denigrating the opposition that even to this day adherence to the the notion that the company's turntable is the 'best in the world' is more like a religious following.Acolytes of the brand will hear no argument that there can be any possibilty that any other turntable might be able to bear the title of 'best'.To the blind and obedient followers of that brand there will only ever be one 'best turntable in the world',the one which they worship.
To suggest to them that it's overrated is sacriledge.:nono:
All other turntables(so the faithful have been told) are incapable of music and by extension only capable of making sounds.The triumph of the corporate marketers over commonsense.
The eager many who swallowed the party propaganda about this turntable were convinced(in my opinion)by journalists in the pocket of that coporation to shun the opposition,and also convinced to reject utterly any notion that competing technological approaches to the problem of vinyl reproduction posessed any validity.
Now extrapolate that attitude about turntables to amplifiers and the same stance was put forward about another company's amplification products.i.e. the only amplifiers capable of music reproduction came from this particular company(when mated to the above turntable.No other).
The worst demonstration of hi-fi gear I ever heard was in the showroom of a dealer of the above two products.The demonstration was of THE turntable manufacturer's TOTL TT/arm/cartridge,mated with THE amplfication corp's then TOTL preamp and poweramp.The speakers were low cost offerings of the turntable manufacturer.I was appalled at what I was hearing and the dealer was moved to ask "Have you ever heard anything like it?"meaning of course "Isn't this just the pinnacle of reproduced sound quality?"
I indeed replied that I'd never heard anything like it because, to this day I've never heard music so mangled by any device anywhere.
I often recall this because whenever someone comes forward to say that they've heard these brands and doesn't like what they heard,the faithful trot-out the party-line that the turntable has to be set-up by someone with the magical knowledge which unlocks the hidden potential.Therefore by extension anyone who says that they've heard the product and didn't find it to be the 'best' was disqualified because the turntable hadn't been set-up by The Priests of their religion.
The propaganda machine had an answer to everything,even when their Emperor was exposed to be wearing no clothing.
I'm glad the Japanese never stooped to these gutter tactics in the promotion of their products,and I laugh today when I hear the 'faithful' still trotting out the well-worn cliches about these products.
I'll expect some criticism for what I've just put forward,of course.
Don't get me started on the way horn-speakers were denigrated.
We all know which brand was responsible for instance for the assumed(and wrong in my opinion)attitude that belt-drive is automatically superior to direct-drive.That brand did such a good job of denigrating the opposition that even to this day adherence to the the notion that the company's turntable is the 'best in the world' is more like a religious following.Acolytes of the brand will hear no argument that there can be any possibilty that any other turntable might be able to bear the title of 'best'.To the blind and obedient followers of that brand there will only ever be one 'best turntable in the world',the one which they worship.
To suggest to them that it's overrated is sacriledge.:nono:
All other turntables(so the faithful have been told) are incapable of music and by extension only capable of making sounds.The triumph of the corporate marketers over commonsense.
The eager many who swallowed the party propaganda about this turntable were convinced(in my opinion)by journalists in the pocket of that coporation to shun the opposition,and also convinced to reject utterly any notion that competing technological approaches to the problem of vinyl reproduction posessed any validity.
Now extrapolate that attitude about turntables to amplifiers and the same stance was put forward about another company's amplification products.i.e. the only amplifiers capable of music reproduction came from this particular company(when mated to the above turntable.No other).
The worst demonstration of hi-fi gear I ever heard was in the showroom of a dealer of the above two products.The demonstration was of THE turntable manufacturer's TOTL TT/arm/cartridge,mated with THE amplfication corp's then TOTL preamp and poweramp.The speakers were low cost offerings of the turntable manufacturer.I was appalled at what I was hearing and the dealer was moved to ask "Have you ever heard anything like it?"meaning of course "Isn't this just the pinnacle of reproduced sound quality?"
I indeed replied that I'd never heard anything like it because, to this day I've never heard music so mangled by any device anywhere.
I often recall this because whenever someone comes forward to say that they've heard these brands and doesn't like what they heard,the faithful trot-out the party-line that the turntable has to be set-up by someone with the magical knowledge which unlocks the hidden potential.Therefore by extension anyone who says that they've heard the product and didn't find it to be the 'best' was disqualified because the turntable hadn't been set-up by The Priests of their religion.
The propaganda machine had an answer to everything,even when their Emperor was exposed to be wearing no clothing.
I'm glad the Japanese never stooped to these gutter tactics in the promotion of their products,and I laugh today when I hear the 'faithful' still trotting out the well-worn cliches about these products.
I'll expect some criticism for what I've just put forward,of course.
Don't get me started on the way horn-speakers were denigrated.
