Will Harris:Tom Moreno:
Will Harris:Now the Cambridge is released the fight is really on. Any news on a confirmed price? At this rate, you'll have reviewed the Cambridge Oppo clone before reviewing the Oppo. Which would be a tragedy in terms of Oppo having come to market with their product months before Cambridge. But if you won't release the review until they confirm the price one has to ask "what the blazes are you playing at Oppo?!"What I don't understand though, and this is where it looks less clear, is why What Hi-Fi are saying absolutely zip about the Oppo. You've had it long enough to review, and an uncomfirmed price is not enough to totally hold you back from releasing some form of blog or first impressions review. If you had no steer on price at all, that'd be understandable, but as you have a fairly firm impression that it'll be priced at £450 with a possible £500 if things change, I'd say that gives you plenty enough pricing information to go on. Holding back just looks like you don't want to release whatever you've got written.
My Lord, I thought we'd gotten past this now? We all know that they are waiting on pricing and availability. If the pricing and availability haven't been confirmed then they won't be posting a review bereft of critical CONSUMER details as it is after all a consumer magazine. Why would it be some great travesty if the CA deck makes it to the market before the Oppo one does? Perhaps the CA unit has better circuitry in it that will give us a better audio experience? Perhaps it is only Oppo and Oppo alone that might be shooting themselves in the foot as far as the UK market is concerned? Personally I'd prefer there to be more than 1 "be all and end all" machine, if that is indeed the case.
For precisely that reason. It's a consumer magazine. The wised up consumer could have been enjoying an Oppo since May/June but most won't even realise that this is possible and will buy a Panasonic or Pioneer thinking that for their budget this is the best they can get. It's the very fact that this is a "consumer" magazine that I'm constantly pushing to get the review out. FOR the consumer. It is less important that it's immediately available in a UK Oppo Shop, than that people know what to look out for, have some idea why they're waiting and that it is worth waiting. Or are presented with the alternative UK supplier as an option, based on whether the performance advantage (if WHF deems there to be one) make it worth jumping in through the alternative route.
Great that there are two players now using the same base hardware and therefore bringing universal players to the masses, but the reasons for holding back on a verdict are NOT consumer reasons, that's why I keep asking. Not here to annoy you Tom, but it is a review that's being waited on by many more than me. I happen to think that the hard work in getting a product this good to market at this kind of price DESERVES a bit of early editorial publicity. And frankly, this thread and the occasional mention on other threads doesn't amount to a review or editorial. We all know the difference some column inches can make to a manufacturer. It's hardly as though films aren't marketed months before their release. It is not unheard of to release editorial before a product hits the shelf.
Will - I doubt it is that the Oppo doesn't 'deserve' the coverage, however you are asking the team to make concessions for this product that other products aren't subject to. If they put out editorial on every product that looked good without pricing details, then WHF would cease to be a factual magazine and would also lose a lot of it's value to the consumer.
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