Altmann Tera-Player? Anyone? - Page 5  

No go for me, this is madness. 

Perhaps I am delusional and that this temporary madness occurs when the sublime sound of the Tera-Player permeates through my ears. Wonderful... 

 

I guess you're right since to each his own hears differently. Price tag is too high for me so I will have to pass. 

This is head-fi!! :b

I am off too

Even if it does sound good, 840 euros is a lot to ask for such an inflexible device. Has the price risen? I swear it was 500 just a few days ago. For the price, though, you could buy an iPod Touch and Fostex HP-P1, and that alone makes the Tera Player much less attractive.

A better name for this little gadget would be "The Emperor's New Clothes".

You are pointing your attention to the world's only portable music player, that is not made in China - but made in Germany !

 

I have nothing against China and chinese products, actually I love many of them.

 

However - made in Germany - means more expensive compared to made in China.

 

And backing up a product with a 5 years warranty certainly is more expensive, and that's the reason that all the other manufacturers don't do it.

 

And making a digital audio player with superlative sound quality is more expensive, and it is extremely difficult, and that's the reason that the other (big) manufacturers are not able to do it.

 

But I am an idiot !

 

I can do it !

 

And therefore I do it.

 

I make the Tera-Player, each single one, by hand, and I love it.

 

It is maybe a luxury to have superior sound quality everywhere, anytime, on the go, but I am all for luxury.

 

And my Rolls-Royce needs a lot of gasoline, so please don't be so miserly.

 

High level trolling mode ends here.

 

Charles

 

Probably not, but imo you've genuinely compromised your credibility by suddenly increasing the price from €499 to €840 without addressing any of the feature wishes voiced in this thread.

 

I can't speak for dfkt, but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd withdraw his review offer in light of this development.

oh i see what this is about.. controversy -> free publicity

 

 

i'm still waiting from headfonia about the review though. i'm definitely not buying, but still, it's interesting to see how the review will turn out

Edited by i_djoel2000 - 1/7/12 at 8:06am

 

Hi James,

 

please be a little more attentive.

 

If you may take a look at page one of this thread:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/586056/altmann-tera-player-anyone#post_7983839

 

I have clearly stated here and on the Tera-Player website that EUR 499,- including shipping and 5 years warranty is a limited time introductory price.

 

That was an offer on my side, and some have taken advantage of it (which is very good), while others did not, no problem.

 

Charles :)

The final price is finally revealed. 840€

5 years of warranty, hand crafted and made in Germany. Even with its magnificent sound, I personally think 840€ is extremely expensive.

For someone who has a $10000 home setup and wants to have a portable player, this player may be the answer. But then, I still dont have any sound explaination for the pricing...

The market defines price, nothing else. At least for companies, who try to survive on their products ... if it's just a rich man's side-hobby, then the price might be anything. It's up to you to decide if you want to pay that price for a few standard components glued together and if you think you can hear the difference between a 192k WAV and a 96k FLAC or whatever. I've never noticed any negative influence of a screen and it's extra electronics or a "lowly" 24/94 FLAC on audio quality on TF10 earphones. But I must have wooden ears, that didn't hear the flea sneezing at the backwall of the orchestra in its grand finale, don't I :) But it seems hand crafted, so that ups the price usually, if you try to calculate in, what someone needs to ask to survive on it without mass production.

 

The "audiophile" world is an oddity to me, personally. I've never seen so many adult people switching off their brain and rever products, whose quality over others had no base in reality or proof whatsoever and then form a fierce religion around it, since it just "sounds better" and later refuse any sensible ABX comparison to prove their point. I always love to cite things like http://highendnovum.de/Homepage at this point. They used to sell this, too: http://www.audiophil-online.de/energiewirbel/highendnovum-ot.html .... I can only guess, why they no longer have it on their own homepage :)

 

But everyone of us has a different brain and ears. Maybe this player the thing for you. Maybe it does deliver THE audioexperience for you or someone else.

 

Edited by voon - 1/8/12 at 10:28pm

It is disappointing that Charles has hiked up the Tera-Player price so steeply, as I paid 499 Euro's for one and even though the sound quality is superlative, I'd have baulked at shelling out over 800 Euro's. 

 

Perhaps Charles would consider offering head-fi members a substantial discount?!?

 

 

Edited by smial1966 - 1/9/12 at 3:23am

 

 

Let me reach our for a moment of clarity.

 

This is a wonderful world in all and every aspect.

 

You can get a Sansa-Clip for about 20 bucks:

It has a screen, it has an SD-card slot, it has EQ, it comes with cool earbuds, it does not hurt you in the first place, it sounds very good actually.

 

Or in case you don't already have an iphone or do not want an iphone, you could buy for about 200 bucks an ipod touch, and hey, that thing is nothing short of fantastic. It lets you do all kind of things, including surfing the internet and playing music, it comes with cool white earbuds and the sound quality is great. There is slam ! There is action ! There is detail ! And even though the final volume may not be very high there still is penetration !

 

You can also chose from a variety of other great players, in all price ranges, and you can improve those players by adding amps, or dacs, or amps and dacs and of course by swapping headphones until you arrive ... where-ever you want to arrive.

 

There is every reason to be extremely happy, and happiness should be valued over anything else.

 

So why would you want a Tera-Player ?

 

99.9999% of everybody don't need a Tera-Player and there is nothing wrong without it.

 

But from time to time you will meet somebody, he or she maybe a musician, she or he may be a singer, or just a music lover. Somebody who wants to listen to music all the time. Somebody who has a developed ear, someone who knows exactly how an instrument sounds, somebody who can precisely distinguish between an exciting distortion and a true timbre.

 

Those people I am talking about do need a different sound. They need purity of reproduction, complete absence of digital artifacts, integrity of tone, effortless flow of rhythm and soul.

 

I am not talking about audiophile sound, I am talking about a much higher phenomenon.

 

And you will all reach to this state. Don't feel in any way humiliated because you are enjoying the sound of a Sansa Clip. Enjoy and be happy !

 

The process is completely automatic: The gear that you are listening to right now will actually improve your listening level right to the point where it pushes you away. Then you know, you need something different, something better, but only then, not before.

 

If you hurry it, it will not work. You cannot enjoy the sound of your iphone and then expect you will enjoy the sound of the Tera-Player even more. This is impossible.

 

In fact, you will not understand it, as you cannot omit steps in a growth process.

 

(If you want to know more about listening levels you may read the listening chapter on the mother-of-tone.com website.)

 

You cannot define sound quality without taking the listener into the equation.

 

At the very high levels of audio reproduction there is all the loudness, all the dynamics and all the space, but there never is penetration, only seduction.

 

An effortless effort on the part of the listener will realize the absense of resistance to the sound, and this will promote the merging of the listener with the music, which is an expansion of consciousness.

 

Let's take smial1966 as an example. He got his Tera-Player and his first remarks about the sound-quality was: "Its okay, nothing special".

 

If you then follow is comments on the sound quality thoughout this thread, you will clearly see his expansion up to the point where he somehow seems to loose connection to obvious reality, as he is melting away in parallel-universes of sound and music.

 

The sound of the Tera-Player actually has pushed him over the cliff and now he swivels in ecstasy, but this will not work with everybody right from the start.

 

You have to be prepared for it. Your ear needs a certain training.

 

So all my job now, is to explain as good as I can, what the Tera-Player is, and what it is not.

 

Charles :)