Recommended components on Stereophile Magazine.

Even if their rankings are accurate, and I'm not necessarily saying they are, how about all the excellent components that didn't get reviewed and don't even show up on their radar?

I guess what I'm saying is that there's a whole world out there that isn't showing up in Stereophile and many of these products may be worth consideration.

The Stereophile recommended list includes only a small percentage of products available. Stereophile may be worth a glance from time to time but you've got to keep this in mind when wearing out its pages.

No, no and no again. You can find gear from smaller companies that will never be reviewed in Sphile. Gear that simply far exceeds much of the stuff in class A for mega $$$.

Sure, the class A stuff is fine sounding and some of it great, but you can do as good and even better for far less money. I have owned quite a few units making class a and through much experience have learned one can do better and pay less.

System matching is so very important as the system works as - a system. Each part blending with the others producing sound that is greater then the individual parts or perhaps less if poorly matched.

All the blah blah blah about class A this and class AB that that, and so very few of us who worry about such things have little more than the most rudimentary grasp of why it even matters. Those who say, "trust your ears" are on to something.
For those who care about such things as class A beyond ego inflation - jump over to Randall's site aikenamps.com and read his piece titled "The Last Word on Class A" - although in reality we all know it'll never be the last word, but you'll pick up knowledge you'll not get reading Stereophile.

I think that, Stereophile and The Absolute Sound Recommended Components are a great starting point, but not an end-point.

If you look through those components you will be able to narrow your search down greatly as to what you're looking for, then you can compare those components to other online review sites, as well as right here at Audiogon.

Then when you get your list down to about 3-4 components that you're considering purchasing, the next thing you must do is to go and listen for yourself.

Rich

The RCL is just a ranking according to taste of stuff they've been able to review in the previous few years. It's a very skewed list. As John Atkinson might put it, I remain puzzled by the rankings and the many omissions.

You also need to pay attention to who did the original review, as your taste and priorities may be very different.

In any case, do not take the rankings literally. I have to make a conscious effort not to do so. Perhaps it's hard for some of us *not* to take rankings like this seriously, at least subconsciously, after so many years of indoctrination with ABCDF grading in school.

I like the TAS "the best" issues a little better, as they don't encourage thinking in terms of ranks like this. But they have another problem: they list by price. While this makes it easier to choose by budget, it enforces the idea that pricier is always better.