Newbie - Hi-Fi Mags

ooooh

now you've got me !

actually yes .....the ones that will try something and then still say it wont work ..unfortunately most just say can't work so I won't try it ..
 
sideshowbob said:
Hi-Fi Plush - illiterate drivel written by a Harry Pearson wannabe, mostly. The worst magazine in the entire history of the universe. It makes me laugh, so I still read it. The review of the new ££££££££££££££££ Nordost cables in the current issue is one of the most hilarious things I've ever read.
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Quote from memory: 'They make the Valhalla cables look like a bargain' which translates: 'they are even more laughably over-priced than the Valhalla cables'.
 
So does that Audio Critic guy only review loudspeakers or what?

Seems like all his amplifier reviews should just say:

"It works."


LS
 
Lynn SkeptiK said:
So does that Audio Critic guy only review loudspeakers or what?

Seems like all his amplifier reviews should just say:

"It works."
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Sort of ... I just skim read his survey of various preamps ... does it work? How does it work? does it have low distortion? is the RIAA accurate (if there is a phono stage)? what's the build quality? are pretty much the criteria from what I can see (I skim read it because the survey was over 30 pages long and contained a lot of sums). Basically its objectivist heaven from what I can see. Its the Anti Plush. They would complement one another ... well they would if I believed a word I read in Plush.
 
i buy them peroidically,appropriatly i guess. They're mostly not very good and the writing is poor, but what's that got to do with anything?
 
Spot on Sideshowbob.

Largely given up on Hifi Choice and Hifi News - it has to be a very long train journey!
Still enjoy Hifi World, despite the occasionally 'iffy' English. Would like more DIY/kit stuff from a range of manufacturers, but unlikely given the links to WAD.
Favourite is probably Stereophile. Art Dudley is excellent. Letters section can be amusing - angry subscribers!
 
johnhunt said:
ian

i must try and read that silly money cable piece

John
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Please refrain from using the words "silly", "money" and "cable" as there are those here who would call you a naysayer, for not buying it to try first.

I do not trust hifi mags, especially since they rely on the advertising money from the manufacturers who's products they review to pay their wages.
 
Actually, looking back on what I used to read in the mags in the 80s and early 90s, I think that they did more to undermine hi-fi than anything else. I remember when as a newbie to the scene, not an issue passed without 'the greatest CD player ever' or 'the ultimate budget super-amp' was announced. Invariably, they turned out to be virtually indistinguishable from the model that they superseded. People with a lot of experience would have realised this, but I'm sure that many a newbie, myself included, was taken in and wasted money on upgrades that made no appreciable difference to the quality of their system. Eventually, I think this overselling led to a lot of disenchantment with the hobby. Remember, this was pre-WWW, when a friendly poster with a bit more grass flattened couldn't deconstruct the hype for you and direct you towards a more worthwhile upgrade. If in this age of i-pod and multi-channel audio, the mags are struggling to entice the young back into quality reproduction, then they must take a lot of the blame themselves IMHO.


LS
 
johnhunt said:
i must try and read that silly money cable piece
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You'll love it. £8.5K for a 1 metre pair of ICs, £17.5K for 3 metres of speaker cable. So Roy Gregory loves it, obviously, and prattles on at great length about its "harmonic weight and complexity", all very amusing and meaningless, and about how it makes Nordost's slightly less hilariously priced bits of wire seem like a bargain. I was reading it on a train and had to stop, I was laughing out loud and getting funny looks from the other passengers.

-- Ian
 
So.... based on the standard 10% budget rule for cabling, that would make your hifi £260,000 - haw haw!!!! :D:D:D
 
Lynn SkeptiK said:
......... looking back ... Invariably, they turned out to be virtually indistinguishable from the model that they superseded....
LS
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Interesting observation. Read what this mag said.

sq225917 said:
hifi critic: is this guy on crack..

"Every low-distortion electronic signal path sounds like every other. The equipment reviewers who hear differences in soundstaging, front-to-back depth, image height, separation of instruments, etc., etc., between this and that preamplifier, CD player, or power amplifier are totally delusional. Such differences belong strictly to the domain of loudspeakers. Depending on the wave-launch characteristics, polar pattern, or power response of the loudspeaker (those are overlapping concepts), the stereo presentation of the program material can vary greatly. It cannot vary as a result of the properties of a normal (i.e., low-distortion) electronic signal path. The only exception I can think of would be totally inadequate channel separation (less than, say, 30 dB) between the left and right channels of a stereo device, which is hardly ever the caseââ'¬â€and certainly not when high-end components are being discussed by said reviewers.

Beware, therefore, of electronic audio components with a personality. If they have a personality, they are either defective or the brainchild of a reviewer without accountability. "
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It does makes you wonder who has been smoking funny stuffs isn't.
 
Hi Wolfgang

I didn't mean to imply that upgrading from a Sundung Kaboomo CD Mk 582 SE to a Wadia wouldn't bring improvements, just that reviewers who exaggerated the differences between this year's model and last year's were misleading buyers into making unnecessary purchases.

I think this led to many people being sceptical about hi-fi. Remember the Smith and Jones sketch anyone?


LS
 
Lynn SkeptiK said:
Actually, looking back on what I used to read in the mags in the 80s and early 90s, I think that they did more to undermine hi-fi than anything else. I remember when as a newbie to the scene, not an issue passed without 'the greatest CD player ever' or 'the ultimate budget super-amp' was announced. Invariably, they turned out to be virtually indistinguishable from the model that they superseded. People with a lot of experience would have realised this, but I'm sure that many a newbie, myself included, was taken in and wasted money on upgrades that made no appreciable difference to the quality of their system.
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An important point, and very well made in my opinion.

I bought products at first based on magazine reviews. It didn't even cross my mind that 'what hifi' or 'hifi choice' (which were the magazines catering for my price range) would say something that couldn't be taken at face value.

After all, I'd read ''which'' reports on things like dishwashers, t.v.'s etc and thought they made fair and reasonable comment. Why should a hifi magazine be any different?

The only really true ''free press'' is the internet.
 
Question is does it really? I am not talking about using this or that measuring tools but if people really listen using their ears only, without looking the labels in front of the boxes? I think I have over stayed my wellcome again ....... until my next visit.
 
wolfgang said:
Question is does it really? I am not talking about using this or that measuring tools but if people really listen using their ears only, without looking the labels in front of the boxes?
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I think it's a good question. IMO, recommendation from Internet forums is no worse than from certain magazines. The most important thing is to listen to kit in your environment and then decide. Having said that, I often buy kit without listening to it:(.
 

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