Are you serious? Or just seriously deluded?
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Classic Audio MC Pro Phonostage Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
At least the order page still shows US$900! US$30,000 was a bit of a leap on the price!
It all just seems odd and could make MF less credible as a manufacturer. Not sure if the pricing was a joke or not, but the whole affair just seemed odd. Even if Michael wanted to discontinue the MC Pro on grounds of principle, there had to be a more elegant way to do so.
"At least" seems so inappropriate, tho. What a seriously deluded product/price point.
Very glad I got mine when I did!
I suppose I could possibly be persuaded to sell it for £10k
JSmith
Master Contributor
MC Pro Moving Coil Phono Stage by Michael Fidler
Low noise discrete input moving coil phonostage, with linear power supply, high RIAA accuracy, mono switch and low-frequency crossfeed
michaelfidler.com
JSmith
It's interesting that MF seems to be blind to human nature given the extremes of his engineering prowess. It's more likely that an audiophile would give up a specific phono brand than switch from their preferred cartridge type, in my opinion.
To not actively continue to address the LOMC market with a superior MC phono on the basis that HOMC + MM phono is better from an engineering basis seems to be walking away from a large part of the vinyl market before you'd really become well-known in the space. Makes it harder for me to recommend MF's MM products, as well. It's not like we don't all know that vinyl is already an anachronistic technology.
But, perhaps it's just a stunt.
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Could you explain a bit more about the "slight" changes in stock levels and especially the market developments?
manisandher
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Oh, I thought this was a play on the TE affair. Is it really not?
In any event, I'm still very happy with my MM Pro (dismissed MC carts a while ago now).
In whichever direction Classic Audio goes, I wish Michael all the best.
Mani.
In any event, I'm still very happy with my MM Pro (dismissed MC carts a while ago now).
In whichever direction Classic Audio goes, I wish Michael all the best.
Mani.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
He's taking the piss.
25,000 pounds is the price of the Tom Evans Mastergroove which has been exposed and ridiculed recently.
@Michael Fidler You're a funny guy.
manisandher
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Yeah, but the export tax into the EU is a tad high.
Excellent
antcollinet
Grand Contributor
Good that you're including post and packaging. That way you can ensure it does't arrive as matchsticks.
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Brilliant! Made me laugh. Of course, with the "SLAPP" on Mendit Mark, some people may miss the British irony.
Lordy, 25 Grand!
But a WAY better deal than that other guy's, I think. Me, personally, I stick with MM.Lordy, 25 Grand!
Ha, I didn't know much about this product when I saw his revised price and at first I thought it was serious and he'd meant just £25 and forgot to use a full stop rather than the comma he used, and then I read some more posts and saw it was a joke in reference to a competitors product & price of the competitors product. Ha, either way I knew he didn't really mean 25 Grand, ha!
Sir, if I am deluded for offering a product at this price, then you should be aware that you may also be calling the creator of the 'Mastergroove' deluded! No serious audiophile would agree with that kind of opprobrious assertion.
Well, I only ordered the parts to make a certain number of them, and I always prefer to deal with the MM side of the business. As demand for the MM products is strong enough to consume all the time I'm willing to spend making boards, I decided to give it a rest for the time being at least.
Low-output cartridges cause so many setup issues that would be innocuous at MM levels to become objectionable when the gain is increased + the user compares the setup hum against the noise floor with the gain up, so a lower noise floor product is perceived to have 'more hum' - a nightmare from a customer-service perspective!
I posted my views about this last week. I was already declining 90% of orders to prospective LOMC users who hadn't yet got a working setup, especially if a Rega turntable (no ground wire = big hum liability) was involved. But then I received quite a few e-mails after the last one was sold from people who weren't exactly happy with the decision. Following feedback from the market, I decided to make a few more MC Pros as part of a special batch.
Having learned that tantalum capacitors dramatically improve the mid-range refinement and dynamic slam of a product, I decided to use some very high-end new-old-stock parts, originally intended for a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile system. Unfortunately, these are very expensive parts, and the chap in Russia who I bought them from wanted 392,000 Rubles a piece - roughly GBP3035. In pursuit of ever-improved bass authority and top-end crispiness, I begrudgingly paid up, but being a magnanimous fellow I decided to do the best I could to shield the customer from the increased parts cost, by adding no margin on top of this. With eight of these capacitors in each unit, this has sadly increased the total price by GBP24,280 - from GBP720 to GBP25,000. I definitely have a batch of these units on the shelf, ready to go as soon as somebody pays for the greater parts cost, I just can't show you a picture of them as my SLR and phone camera don't seem to be working.
I thought you boys would be proud of me for my commitment to continuous improvement - it's very disappointing to hear that some of you are not taking me seriously here. Any parallel to the Tom Evans debacle is purely coincidental. In fact, Tom is to be commended for his generous use of beneficial tantalum capacitors while keeping the final price of 25k so very reasonable. As there may be new developments underway, I have decided to review the price again before the 1st of April 2025. Hopefully, the addition of this deadline will have a soothing effect.
Very "british" humor...
@Michael Fidler are you indeed considering phasing the MC Pro out? Will there be a new product introduced for low output MC cartridges? E.g. a "MC Pro II" with balanced inputs?
@Michael Fidler are you indeed considering phasing the MC Pro out? Will there be a new product introduced for low output MC cartridges? E.g. a "MC Pro II" with balanced inputs?
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