<|endoftext|> legal action.
Hock joined the Championship leaders in February after leaving Salford.
But the Red Devils said the 31-year-old would break a settlement agreement if he played against them.
"Leigh and Gareth have sought legal advice and on the basis of that advice consider that Gareth will be available for selection," read a Leigh statement.
Former England forward Hock left Salford after receiving a six-game ban for twice recklessly using his knees.
At the time, Salford owner Marwan Koukash stated Hock could not face the Super League side until the end of 2016 - when his contract was due to expire.
But Leigh director of rugby Derek Beaumont told BBC Radio Manchester that he had no knowledge of the former England forward's agreement with Salford.<|endoftext|>Equipment Reviews
Vandersteen Audio Model Seven Mk.II Loudspeakers and M7-HPA Mono Amplifiers
��Arguably, in the last few years, the most competitive segment of the ultra-high-end speaker market has been models retailing for $50,000 to $70,000/pair. This price range includes such prominent models as Wilson Audio Specialties�� Alexia ($52,000/pair), Magico��s S7 ($58,000/pair), and Vivid Audio��s Giya G1 ($68,000/pair), to name just a few. In short, there are lots of tough competitors.��
That was Jeff Fritz in February 2016, in his review of the Rockport Technologies Cygnus loudspeaker ($62,500/pair). I wasn��t entirely surprised to find missing from Jeff��s short list of contenders my own longtime reference speaker, the Vandersteen Model Seven, even though I could spend some time expounding on the ways it outperforms the speakers he names. Vandersteen products have a way of flying under the radar. Undoubtedly, had Jeff first floated his list by me for my thoughts, the Vandersteen Model Seven might well have made his list. It does beg the question: What does it take to return a speaker system like the Vandersteen Model Seven Mk.II ($62,000 USD per pair) to the awareness of audiophiles -- and why does it so often go unnoticed?
Nothing to overlook here
I have a few ideas. First, familiarity breeds contempt. Vandersteen Audio has been building speakers for 40 years, and many of their models have outwardly looked unchanged throughout that period. Richard Vandersteen is famous for investing his R&D and build costs in drivers and crossovers, not showy exteriors. While the current incarnations of the Models 1, 2, and 3 may look much as their ancestors did in the 1970s and ��80s, each has undergone myriad revisions over nearly four decades that have rendered them completely new speakers under their socks (Vandersteen speakers often lack cabinets). Even the Models 5A Carbon, Quatro Wood CT, and Treo CT look essentially unchanged from the day each was released, again despite significant insertions, over the years, of newer, cutting-edge driver technology, and improvements in sound. Second, the value proposition all Vandersteen speakers represent makes them susceptible to being damned with faint praise. So often they��re described as ��great for the money,�� with the implication that their performance goes ��only so far.�� Third, many associate the brand with the $2000-$5000 price range, within which Vandersteen has sold literally tens of thousands of pairs of Model 2s and 3s. Given the vast body of Vandersteen��s work in the more populist segment of the hi-fi hobby, I suspect that elitists gloss over the brand, forgetting to associate Vandersteen with the rarefied air breathed by speakers costing $50,000/pair and more.
There��s nothing particularly glamorous about Vandersteen, the brand or the man. Both hail from unassuming Hanford, California, a farming community just outside Fresno. Hanford doesn��t conjure images of cutting-edge, 21st-century Silicon Valley (Magico), or the exotic reaches of South Africa (Vivid), or the idyllic luxury of lakeside Maine (Rockport). Richard Vandersteen is the salt of the earth, more reflective of neighboring farmers than of such speaker savants as Dave Wilson (Wilson Audio) or Alon Wolf (Magico), and more apt to undersell the noteworthy technology and performance his designs offer.
Undersell and overperform. Substance over style. Both are Vandersteen trademarks, and have earned man and brand a loyal if perhaps less vocal following -- owners of Vandersteen speakers are more likely to be listening to their music than blogging, or frequenting Audiogon to chase down the audio flavor of the day. Maybe it does take an upgrade to remind