Rank Stereophile, & why no Von Schweikert reviews

I don't get it. One of the most common comments about Stereophile is that advertisers get great reviews and other perks. We now have an advertiser saying he didn't get any perks from Stereophile at the RMAF and people use that as a point to further criticize Stereophile. You can't have it both ways. Either the reviews are independent opinions written by journalist, or the entire mag is one big paid for ad. For hardcore audiophiles Stereophile is somewhat irrelevant since it really caters to a mass audience, but at its subscription price it's hard to pass on. Regarding Musical Fidelity, it could just be that their room was more "fun" to hang out in. Free alcohol to entice journalist, what an original idea!

When magazines never say "this product sucks" - or the socially acceptable equivalent, they can't be taken seriously. In real life, isn't it more likely that we don't like items we review? Cars? Computers or software? Aren't critics of most things critical instead of supportive? Not so with Stereophile.

They can't take themselves seriously... but yet they do when it comes to turntables. So they get all bent out of shape over products that maybe 10% of their readers and 1% of all electronics customers may purchase. This misses the mark, in my mind.

So, they have content for 10% of their readers and are bound to like almost everything they review... better hire witty, edgy and controversial writers (like that one liberal idiot) to take the focus away from the formulaic reviews each product gets.

My subscription lapsed and I don't miss it at all.

Let YOUR ears do the review.
Don't forget to enjoy the music.

My dealer said that Stereophile has a VR4jr they are reviewing!! and he's not nuts - could this be true?

If it's true I guess the pressure is finally getting to them. And the fact that the absolute sound gave the jr's stunning review might make readers wonder where Stereophiles priorities are. Maybe the jig is up!?!?

The 3 best audio magazines I know of is
1.Hi-Fi + (usefull,well written,lot of reviews,outstanding pictures.
2.Absolute Sound (Well written if you read between the lines,H.P. is amusing,takes a stand on ocassion.
3.Stereophile(Good bathroom reading,everything according to them is great,refuses to offend anyone,just once I would love to hear them say something sucks.

Hey Larry, I can't believe I just noticed this thread. Let me first say - LSA-1's are awesome! Seriously, they are particularly musical, I don't know how you do it. They are one of the few elements of my systems that I never consider "rotating" out to something else that I pick up on Audiogon.

As for credibility of magazine reviews, as was mentioned earlier Sam Tellig in particular seems to just like certain brands. As a hobbiest I need to learn to calibrate my taste against each reviewer, and I can tell you that when I've tried gear that Sam gushes over, I usually like it but not remotely as much as Sam does. It does leave me puzzled, but that's my calibration FWIW.

The Absolute Sound has historically had a bit more credibility over all than Stereophile, but, I have no idea about demographics, volume of readers, etc.

Some online 'zines have high credibility: Soundstage, EnjoyTheMusic come to mind. Positive Feedback. 6Moons has useful reviews but frankly I have such a hard time navigating that site that I'm not sure of the value to an advertiser. 6Moons is the only place on the entire web where when I try to find what I'm looking for, I usually fail (and all I'm trying to find are the latest equipment reviews!).

IMHO, deciding how to allocate advertising dollars is no easy matter.

As for how the magazines decide what to review, there are certain objective criteria that they usually establish, like, how many dealers carry the goods. There is a subjective component I'm sure. I would guess that you need to have one or more people at a magazine that "champion" your cause.

Thank you for your great work. I hope you totally succeed because I think you've created an outstanding "family sound" for your speaker line.

Art