Sterophile's not so nice review of Bryston

Do you actually believe reviewers buy equipment? Their equipment is either on long term or permanent loan. When a reviewer says he likes it so much he is going to buy it, you can bet it was a gift.

In the late '90s a well known and trusted reviewer started his own magazine. In his review of a speaker he said he was buying the review sample because he liked them so much. The speakers immediately showed up in a classified ad for 50% of retail. I recognized his phone number because I sent him interconnects which were never returned.

It is unfortunate when a product receives a bad review. It is unfortunate for the manufacturer and for anyone that owns that product because it would make it impossible to sell. Maybe the manufacturers should be more careful about what reviewer they send their products to. If you have a product like Bryston don't send it to a reviewer that only reviews the most expensive equipment because that is what he will compare your product to and if he mainly listens to tubes, forget it. It's all relative.

So, who is at fault in the case of the Bryston amp? Bryston didn't like the review, so they cancelled their ads or Bryston stopped advertising and got a bad review? Which came first?

Agree with those members who believe that audiophile mag component reviews are for mere entertainment & glossy pix. Nothing more! Read them with this in mind.
I know a reviewer who works for a audio e-magazine & he told me that the editor of that e-magazine denied him any further opportunity to write component reviews after that editor read some of my friend's reviews-to-be-published & saw just how candid my friend was re. the audio components. My friend wrote it like it was calling good, good & bad, bad. That just did not fly at this e-magazine!
So, you can imagine how it is at S'phile, TAS & other glossy rags......

As another member wrote, learn to read between the lines - that's key! You can tell if the component is good, bad or ugly in its sonics.
FWIW. YMMV.

By far all of the above is far more entertaining than any of the audio mags could ever hope to be.

Thanks!

OK, so perhaps reviewers don't exactly "buy" the gear they keep around for reference. But they do keep certain pieces around to compare with review equipment, and it appears to me that they try to keep gear that is particualrly good at one or two things, and/or better than average overall for a particular retail price point, even if this "choice" is colored by manufacturer "discounts".

That said, I don't always agree with reviewer's "choices" based on my (very) limited experience. But it is a "choice" on their part nevertheless. I guess I doubt very much that reviewers universally accept, keep and tout crap gear just because it is free, or worse, incentivised.

Since I have never owned or reviewed Bryston, I can not comment on them; however, I have owned and auditioned equipment reviewed be Stereophile. There have been times when I thought a component should have gotten an "A" rating as opposed to a "B", but in general I have found their reviews to be accurate.