What's up with this, is it for real? :(

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Thank heavens for this! I thought that the electronic components he presented with prices at that time were to good to be true.

So, this is all lies, right?
 
Senseless garbage.
The Fractal has no limitations of the competitors, has killer support, firmware updates frequently, and this forum!
I think they’re on firmware 3 maybe lol

There is no true comparison to the III anywhere in reality!
 
Senseless garbage.
The Fractal has no limitations of the competitors, has killer support, firmware updates frequently, and this forum!
I think they’re on firmware 3 maybe lol

There is no true comparison to the III anywhere in reality!
And yes, all lies
 
Does the bloke in the video even understand that part of the high price is the fact that we get continuing firmware updates to the point where the hardware can no longer keep up? It's not like Big Boss Cliff snaps his fingers and new firmware magically appears. There's a lot of work that goes into that. These hours must be paid for one way or the other. You either pay a lot of money upfront, or you get the situation that Line6 used to have where they had maybe two or three major updates in a whole generation of hardware. You had to buy each and every one of them.
 
I've got some time so let me address these "facts":

- The power supply: The power supply is an off-the-shelf Cincon 40W, triple-output supply. Cincon is a good manufacturer and makes an excellent product. They've been around for a long time. They are carried by Mouser and DigiKey. Those distributors do not sell inferior products.

- The "Keystone" DSP is the most powerful DSP currently available (not was, IS). It was COPYRIGHTED in 2012. Production quantities were't readily available until 2014 which just so happens to be when the Axe-Fx III development started. Tony, despite being a self-proclaimed expert, doesn't understand that the development cycle on a product like the Axe-Fx III takes years.

- The power switch has some glue around it to prevent it from sliding around in the opening. It's an additional step that's unnecessary but improves the perceived quality of the product.

- "Cheap" Aluminum can capacitors. Those capacitors aren't cheap. We use Panasonic FK series which are high-temperature, long-life series. For many applications aluminum electrolytic capacitors are the capacitor-of-choice. For power supply filtering they are unequaled in voltage-capacitance product for a given volume. Yes, MLCCs now offer competing capacitance per volume but don't offer the voltage rating. Also MLCCs are more expensive. You don't simply use something more expensive if that doesn't offer any tangible benefit. For audio coupling applications it's hard to beat aluminum caps. MLCCs have a far worse voltage coefficient for those high-capacitance dielectrics.

- MC7805CT regulator obsolete. No it is not. We use the MC7805CTG which is the RoHS version ('G' for green). The package says MC7805CT. The ordering code is MC7805CTG. Anyone with even a smattering of electronic component knowledge is aware of this. This is just ignorance on parade.

- You can apply the above to the rest of the video. It's all basically lies. Open up a Helix and I'm sure you'll find aluminum capacitors and MC7805CT voltage regulators.


Tony has a grudge against Fractal Audio and this is nothing but a hit-piece. He tried to blackmail us for the rights to www.fractalaudio.uk and I told him to pound sand. He's an angry, evil little man with an inflated ego and little real knowledge of electronics.
 
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I've got some time so let me address these "facts":

- The power supply: The power supply is an off-the-shelf Cincon 40W, triple-output supply. Cincon is a good manufacturer and makes an excellent product. They've been around for a long time. They are carried by Mouser and DigiKey. Those distributors do not sell inferior products.

- The "Keystone" DSP is the most powerful DSP currently available (not was, IS). It was COPYRIGHTED in 2012. Production quantities were't readily available until 2014 which just so happens to be when the Axe-Fx III development started. Tony, despite being a self-proclaimed expert, doesn't understand that the development cycle on a product like the Axe-Fx III takes years.

- The power switch has some glue around it to prevent it from sliding around in the opening. It's an additional step that's unnecessary but improves the perceived quality of the product.

- "Cheap" Aluminum can capacitors. Those capacitors aren't cheap. We use Panasonic FK series which are high-temperature, long-life series. For many applications aluminum electrolytic capacitors are the capacitor-of-choice. For power supply filtering they are unequaled in voltage-capacitance product for a given volume. Yes, MLCCs now offer competing capacitance per volume but don't offer the voltage rating. Also MLCCs are more expensive. You don't simply use something more expensive if that doesn't offer any tangible benefit. For audio coupling applications it's hard to beat aluminum caps. MLCCs have a far worse voltage coefficient for those high-capacitance dielectrics.

- MC7805CT regulator obsolete. No it is not. We use the MC7805CTG which is the RoHS version. The package says MC7805CT. The ordering code is MC7805CTG. Anyone with even a smattering of electronic component knowledge is aware of this. This is just ignorance on parade.

- You can apply the above to the rest of the video. It's all basically lies. Open up a Helix and I'm sure you'll find aluminum capacitors and MC7805CT voltage regulators.


Tony has a grudge against Fractal Audio and this is nothing but a hit-piece. He tried to blackmail us for the rights to www.fractalaudio.uk and I told him to pound sand. He's an angry, evil little man with an inflated ego and little real knowledge of electronics.
Thank you Cliff!
Game over “Chucklehead”
 
Please verify!


Verified - 2 hours of buzzword-flinging that results absolutely no understanding of how intelligent electronic products are designed, built, tested, and supported.

Fractal's official channel says this above - but they are clearly biased, so it would be understandable to somewhat discount their statement.

I'll say it as a neutral third party who has been in the electrical equipment controls business since 1990. What the video says here is mostly random factual observations that have no bearing on the conclusions that he comes to. I'm not a Fractal fanboy - far from it - but this sort of gibberish needs to be called out for what it is.

For example, arguing over aluminum electrolytic caps is just pure nonsense. Yes, you can accomplish the same thing with metal film caps, certainly but they are far more expensive and provide no detectable improvement in the product performance (in the audio world).

Reading through the datasheet of some of the major digital components is just nonsense. What matters is the way in which those components are interconnected, the way various functions are assigned to them, and the timing that controls the dataflow between them. Going deeper, the real "magic" here is in the firmware - the code that resides in each of them.

I'll go one step further and point out that any competent EE grad student could assemble those components and make them work passably - and it would make some interesting noises. Thus, the cost of the BOM (Bill of Materials) is really irrelevant. What matters is having talented engineers and SW/FW developers who understand the musical goals, in turn allowing them to make critical component selections and write the critical code sections that result in a truly outstanding product - high quality analog audio requires real effort to design, and the level of fidelity in modelling in ANY of the top three digital rigs has required many years of study and development to achieve.

You're not buying a list of parts from Digi-Key. You are buying a musical instrument. The guy in this video is the sort of nincompoop who would suggest that you can buy a bunch of wood at Home Depot for $15, and this should determine the price of a Les Paul. Nonsense.

BTW, I cross-posted this as a response to his YT channel. I am looking forward to his response.
 
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Tony is a wanker. A wanker with too much money, too little ability and a lot to say on very little. Not all English people are like him, I swear.

My wife and I travel to the UK frequently and I would wholeheartedly agree with you. By simple chance I met this man on one of our trips. I walked away thinking he was smug, arrogant and completely full of himself. The end.
 
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