Industry accommodation, shills and lining your pocket.

So after nearly a decade of telling us about the importance of cables. After five years of putting to us how significant the improvement to be had by spending more than 50% the cost of your house on wire for your hifi could be. After telling us that Nirvana lay with a wire from a particular manufacture who charged truly exorbitant prices for what accounted to silver plated copper in hollow tubes with string. He's off.

It is with great sadness that I read today that Roy Gregory will no longer be waxing lyrical in the hifi press about how magnificent Nordost cables are, and that he'll no longer be able to inform us of the importance of a "coherent cable loom from socket to speaker"tm.

Why?

Well, because in what strikes me as being the most underhand, long term example of product shilling for commercial gain, (ie my opinion)Roy Gregory has become the VP of Marketing for Nordost.

Not only do I find it abhorrent that he has apparently been able to abuse his position within that magazine for so many years, by promoting a product that it turns out he now has a commercial interest in, but the publishers haven't had the sense to tell him where to get off and kicked him off the team for good.

I hope this backfires on both him and Nordost. This is the most odious example of apparent commercial bias I have ever seen and I will be completely unable to believe a single word of his opinion on any review item ever again.

I hope Alan and the publishers take a much closer look at these events and consider their position with regard to keeping the 'esteemed' Roy Gregory on as a reviewer. In my mind they have not only better writers on the staff but also reviewers who appear to be much more trustworthy fullstop.

A magazine lives and dies on its advert revenue, I can only begin to imagine how competitive brands to Nordost feel about the potential disadvantage they have been placed at over the years of RG's tenure.


Should anyone from HIFI+ have any legal interest in my opinion, feel free to take that up with me directly.

 

quite right, sir

What strikes me forcefully is that it is not just independence that is critical to the position of reviewer, but the perception of independence. Having spent years giving Nordost's products favourable reviews (and favourable mentions in other reviews and editorials) it is obvious that for Roy Gregory to take a paid position within that company will open him up to exactly the kind of criticism as made above.

Regardless of whether or not he has acted independently in the past, without doubt the perception of independence is shattered. This damages his credibility as a reviewer, not only in respect of cables but in respect of all hifi equipment. For HiFi+ to choose to ignore this and keep him on as an active member of the team is, I believe, a woeful decision. HiFi+ have just lost me as a subscriber and I sincerely hope others follow suit.

 

As a subscriber I see no reason to punish the other employees for his actions, but I hope that the publishers see's how people view this travesty...

 

Let's hope HiFi+ give Nordost a bad review in their next issue, just to even things up a bit.

 

Perks.... haven't they always had them in return for ...scratch scratch

 

Oh no, fist I discover that my local MP has been claiming for back issues of Razzle and now this.

Both sadly predictable. I haven't bought Plus for a while, largely because of the power regenerator / balanced PS review.

I can't think that this will do Nordost or Gregory very much good to be honest but I'm not so sure either of them will care about my opinion very much.

However, HiFi+ has an opportunity to re-focus and improve. I personally think Gregory's writing had become self-parody and the endless succession of 'system approach'-focussed stands, tweaks and cable reviews just kind of grated on me.

If you look on the Nordost Website, they list 17 product reviews, every single one is a HiFi+ award or review.

 

As I stated in my editorial, Roy's change of status removes him from ever having to do anything with anything either from Nordost or a rival to that brand. He is not allowed to mention the company (or, after this issue, its rivals), under any circumstances.

When last I looked, Nordost does not make turntables, arms, cartridges, CD players, CD transports, DACs, iPod docks, music servers, preamplifiers, phono preamplifiers, power amplifiers, loudspeakers or equipment supports. There is no logical reason why RG's position with Nordost should influence his opinion about the performance of a CD player, for example. That he will end up connecting said CD player to a preamplifier using £56,000 worth of Frodo interconnects and £20,000 worth of Boromir mains lead is a given... but it would have been a given irrespective of whether he worked for Nordost or not, because he's seriously (read: weirdly) passionate about the stuff.

I would prefer to have a magazine with no such accommodations. But as such accommodations are almost an inevitability within the industry, I prefer them in the open.

 

Hi,

Roy Gregory has done well out of that. Being a big fan of the cable over the years then landing a plum job with the company.

One concern people will have is when did he started to work for Nordost in relation to his employment as editor HiFi+? Have Nordost been courting him for some time?

SCIDB

 

AFAIK, no. I replaced Roy as editor in early February. At that time, a job with Nordost did not appear to be on the radar for him. He went to the US in late March (if memory serves) and he announced that he had a shiny new Nordost badge about a month ago.

 

Hi Alan,

I suppose from Nordost's point of view, he is the ideal man. Roy has waxed lyrically about the product for a long time. At times, too much.

BTW What's your opinion on Nordost cables? Will you be reviewing the next lot that come up for grabs?

P.s. All the best with Hifi+.

SCIDB

 

Not directly, no. But regardless of whether RG's past reviews of Nordost cables were written in good faith, he has opened himself up to a perception that they may not have been. This damages his credibility and that applies equally to RG's, and by dint of association and editorial policy, the magazine's, current reviews of any item.

 

There is a steady trickle from journalism to PR and marketing (and, occasionally, back again) in all walks of publishing. And there are many marketing people who have worked or are currently working as journalists (not just in hi-fi and AV) who limit their output to recuse themselves of potential conflicts of interest. Most do this under the table. I choose not to do this. If someone who writes for the magazine has industry associations, let them be known.

 

As a relative newcomer to this I am not necessarily qualified to comment on the HIFI-related stuff but I am self-employed and as such, a bit of a mercenary! I regularly work for both sides of the fence and to be honest, in the current climate, I would probably take an offer of employment if it came along. This is slightly different, so far as I can see in that RG was (I assume) employed.

Being less cynical, I would prefer to think that someone who has seen the positive values of a certain manufacturer's products is head-hunted.

However, there are big bucks at stake here...

Alan, I am glad you see fit to post here. I will still buy HIFI+ if the content suits my interests that month.

Regards to all

 

To be perfectly honest, I've not really fiddled around with Nordost cables in a decade. When last I had a set, they were bright purple, had very sharp edges and came in a really nice wooden box, which I lost. I don't recall having any religious experiences while using them.

I wouldn't hold your breath for the next Nordic Tale in Hi-Fi Plush.

 

Not sure that I see the natural connection between journalism and PR/marketing but I'll take you at your word that such practice is insidious. I definitely commend your openness but it doesn't affect the underlying point.

 

There is a big thread on this in Pink Fish Media.

It has also come to light that for a time during his tenure at hifi+ Roy's wife worked at Nordost.

I think this is an important enough fact to re-iterate on this forum too.

 

And, as I also said on that forum, during that time, there was a moratorium on Nordost reviews. But I do not want to be drawn further into events that took place before I took over the magazine.

 

I think you should have a little look back at his expenses claims, in the spirit of the age.

The only thing I learned from a Nordost demo was that, as the price increases, the sound gets progressively worse, and the rather fat salesman wobbles with a higher amplitude. Quite a canny strategy.

 

I bet you don't even tap your feet when listening to Naim, you cad!

 

It's a sad world, Joe, full of difficult truths at times. Who, for instance, would have believed that the prepubescent "Alfie" would turn out not to be the father of his beautiful & talented girlfriend's child?