My Monthly or sometimes Weekly Comments I, Lou Tumolo, president of L A T International, will use this forum to make comments and observations on a monthly or more frequent basis. I may not have comments every week or every month; but when I do, I believe they will be of interest to audiophiles. I invite any comments or contrary opinions to my comments. e-mail latinternational@verizon.net

The recession. I speak to customers every day. Many are frustrated with the recession. People do not have a lot of disposable income. Some are holding back spending on vacations and other recreational activities. Some say rather than shell out a lot of money now they will wait. During the meanwhile, they plan to spend some money on upgrading there equipment and staying home to listen until times get better- interesting philosophy.

We will always leave posted here below, prior weeks comments:

07-15-11
Hand Crafted. Often in manufacturer’s product descriptions and advertising, you will find the word "hand crafted". This no doubt is intended to imply that the craftsmanship in its manufacture is superb because an artisan has put his heart and soul and his own twists in the product. Obviously the worker's own twists and nuances are in the product since he/she is not a machine that uniformly produces all units the same. This is true whether it be a high-end cable or any other high-end product.

But is this a good thing? I for one would not like to purchase a high-end product that someone has put their own twists and nuances in the product. How many individual workers are making that same product –two, three, four or more? How many variations are there in the ones they make – I say as many as there are assemblers. Some cables may be better (or worse)among them; but they will all be different and will all perform differently in some small or large way.

When I buy a high-end product, I want to know that I am getting a product that has been made exactly as the manufacturing design specifications require and that it will perform exactly as the design engineer had intended. If I want to buy an objet d'art, I will buy it from an art gallery or museum store.

All L A T International cables are machine made. You can rest assured that they are consistent from cable to cable and from foot to foot and are made accurate to the design. You can take a specific cable from any production lot and the same model from any other production lot and they will both be identical in construction and will perform the same – excellent as did the original prototype. Where as with “hand crafted" cables you might a good one or a not so good one.

06-20-11
China With so many cables being made in Asia, we believe that it is refreshing, that our USB 2 cable is the only USB 2 cable made in the USA. All others are made in china. We also believe that there is none better made anywhere. Nor none as professional looking.

06-01-11
Silver Connectors: Silver connectors are better than copper, really? Some cable manufacturers advertise silver connectors on their cables and that they produce better sound than copper or gold plated copper. This also implies that this is true because silver is a better conductor than copper or gold. I beg to differ with this claim. While it is true that silver is a better conductor, it does not matter. It does not matter because there is much more metal in the connector than in the wire connected to it. So, higher conductivity of the silver serves no purpose. The resistance of the wire is far greater than the resistance of the connector. We actually believe that the silver connectors add harshness and brightness to the sound as does silver plated copper wire... It is simply an advertising ploy.