I recently emailed John Atkinson of Stereophile

Sorry Ferd,
I can't buy that. I've been a manufacturer seeking a review. I've been to HQ in Santa Fe. I've been wined and dined by JA and Tom Norton. Then I've been called repeatedly and hounded for advertising by Laura Atkinson.
Stereophile and Bob Harley busted Timbre Technology right put of business by favoring the heavily advertised Sonic Frontiers juggernaut at Timbre's expense.
Stereophile does far more harm than good and their pretense of concern for the advancement of high end audio belies a sickly corporate self-interest.
Saying that something worse used to exist does not make them better.

Macrojack, I know nothing about Timbre Technology. Maybe you could explain how Stereophile 'favored' Sonic Frontiers (who are no longer in business themselves, I might add), and how their doing so could have put any other company (especially one particular company) out of business. What did they do, run a review comparing an SF product to a TT product and proclaim the SF stomped it? From the tone of your post, I would guess that the TT product wasn't even reviewed at all, but enlighten me.

More to the point, maybe you could get specific on the question of an alleged advertising-for-reviews quid pro quo.

Mac, you are entering dangerous waters by challenging Stereophile's integrity! Most of these folks on the A-gon own gear that Stereophile recommended and ultimately 'TOLD' them to get.

I think Stereophile should change the Recommended Components classification to price ranges. Most of us have budgets, and will buy, e.g., the best $2k speaker we can find, so long as it is good enough to improve our systems. I don't care if it's class B or C, just so long as I don't overlook some other choice that is better, at least within a few hundred dollars.

Zaikesman -- Timbre submitted their well made, beautifully packaged and technically astute DAC to TAS who placed it in the hands of Jonathan Scull for review. He then jumped ship and became an S-phile reviewer.
This made little difference as he loved the product and said so in no uncertain terms on paper. However, RH, the digital guru and reviewer in chief saw fit to introduce caveats to the circumstances. It so happened that Sonic Frontiers also had a DAC for review at the time and SF was a product line that RH was actively promoting. Nothing they offered was anything short of a breakthrough.
So Timbre was used as a patsy, a springboard to the wonders of Sonic Frontiers.
I know about all of this because I was a dealer for TT at the time and I was in close contact with the Timbre people.
As for the quid pro quo, I told you what occurred and I am not in possession of a taped conversation so you'll need to take or leave mty tale as you see fit.
The TT review is in the April, 1994 issue.