I recently emailed John Atkinson of Stereophile

here is my take on Stereophile and the rest of the audio magazines; they don't add anything other than reviews of vendor provided equipment, and any vendor that won't provide a no cost component will not reviewed or acknowledged in the magazine. Audio magazines don't do feature articles like photography / automobile / sport magazines. When was the last time an audio magazine tested the 5 leading power chords? Or presented an article on the various ways to isolate components? I can't remember when I read an article that actually taught me something....Unless you are in the market for a specific piece of equipment, Stereophile is useless..with the possible exception of Fremer's column, because I am a dedicated analog user....

you would have to see pictures in polish audio mags (nude women and audio), Stereophile would be closed after publishing even one such ad :)

Where can we subscribe to these Polish Audio magazines?

Macrojack writes "I went to a gas station recently that didn't sell "regular" gas. The choices were:Premium, Extra Premium and Ultra Premium. Grade inflation"

Reminds me of a story a while back where the Russian Military ordered a bulk supply of condoms from a well known American Manufacturer in EXTRA Large only. maybe wishful inflation?

Triumph, really you must forget about the rating system in Stereophile and think more on the lines of what is is you want to hear in your audio system and match your components accordingly. Stereophile should only be used for 2 purposes, entertainment and sound characteristics of components. The problem with the later is there are few writers that can articulate the differences where one can get a sense of what that might be. It wasn't always like that...once upon a time..

For opinions on the current audio magazine industry, try :

http://www.high-endaudio.com/index.html

or

http://www.audioperfectionist.com/

.