Look, I'm sorry for robbing some of you guys of your innocence, here. Harvey has agendas, but they're not nearly as clear-cut as you'd think. Yes, he's a great guy, and yes he's about the closest thing to objective as you'll get on this board. Yes, he's a legend, and I am in debt to him for the knowlege he has so unselfishly shared.
However, he does come from a very tight knit, close group of old-school engineers, designers and manufacturers. They are friends, and they help one another out when they can. Alan has sort of been on the outskirts of this group and has his ties.
Harvey himself has admitted to the difficulty of being objective in his comments because of the amount of free gear that is offered to him. Both on this board, and to myself in personal conversations.
That's not to say that he doesn't do his best. And I'm not saying the guy is going to make bogus claims about something in order to help someone else out. Not at all. He is far above that kind of nonsense. What I am saying is that, in some way, his judgement can't help but be at least a tiny bit affected. We all want to see our friends and acquaintances succeed, so we might look past some of their faults without even knowing it.
Lastly, how many budget pres do you even think this guy has worked with and compared it to? Do you honestly think Harvey has any interest at all in taking his VTB-1 and pitting it head-to-head with an ART Toob MP, a Joemeek, a Mackie board, a DMP3, etc. etc. Don't you think he has better things to do and bigger toys to spend his money on?
Wake up. Harvey's admittedly never even so much as seen a DMP3 or just about any of the budget pres that the VTB1 is competing with. How the heck can you honestly say something is at the head of a pack of products, when it's the only one of it's type you've even bothered to use?
I don't have anywhere near the reputation or skills that Harvey has. Same goes for Steve at Mojo Pie. Yet I'd say we're both one up on him in terms of knowlege on
budget pres, because guys like us have actually used just about every one of them.
Honestly, some of you guys are so damn happy being naive, that the truth can be sitting right in front of you with a spotlight, wearing hunter's orange eating your leftovers and tongue-kissing your wives and daughters, and you still refuse to see it.
And note to Recording Engineer: perhaps reality does seem rather odd and foreign to someone who's never bothered to look at it.