Fred Manteghian

Are you looking for love in all the wrong places? Picking a preamp/processor is a lot like picking a wife. Lots of guys (not me &ndash; almost 25 years and ticking, thank you) can be fickle. You marry a girl and you're leaving the church, waiting to get into the limo and you look over and see someone who makes you think "Hey, I didn't see <I>that</I> one! " It's sort of the same thing with pre/pros. You get one and the next time you're back in the store, it's "Hey . . . " You get my drift.

A good friend called last Saturday morning seeking A/V advice. Lots of friends do that. Very few of them actually <i>take</i> my advice though. Why? Preconceived notions, for one - once you think Bose is the best, the road home is a slow go. Polk? Don’t they just make car speakers? Rotel? Sounds like Mattel. Then there’s price. You say $500, I counter $1,000. That’s my rule of thumb. Always spend twice what you wanted to spend, and you’ll never be disappointed. But mostly, it comes down to wives. Mine is an angel. She just steps over wires and puts her tea mug down on the only corner of the end table not covered by a projector and remote controls. Boys, eat your heart out.

Three shows, “Invasion,” “Threshold,” and “Surface” all made a big splash with their hyped-up summer ad campaigns. I bit. Before the first episode aired, I had moved them to my Tivo’s “Season Pass” list, meaning each episode would be recorded, non-fail, each week. After eight or so episodes, here’s the prognosis.

I need to get this off my chest. The Bryston amp is hurting a bit. As is the ARC preamp. The SP-14 preamp won’t go <i>out</i> of “bypass” mode into “normal” mode anymore. If you flip the “bypass” switch to “normal” you get nothing. No sound whatsoever. Never mind that I never listen to it in normal mode. I always use bypass, so, for me, it still works. There’s just the angst of knowing it doesn’t work in a mode that, frankly, I would never use. And what does “bypass” actually bypass? Well, the balance control for one, and the mode switch. If you’re in bypass mode, forget about reversing the left and right channels. I never did understand the need for that feature. Now, an absolute polarity switch – there’s a two-channel hot button topic that could easily fill a Rosetta stone. But alas, that’s not to be had either, even when “normal” worked, well, normally.