Wrong direction?


The few "threads" back, a young man was inquiring about class "A" amp. And of course, most of the responses were in regard to class "A" amplifier, also understood by myself as such. Later, the same individual mentioned if able to "...find amp like that, he would further look for class "A" speakers!" Class A speakers? Well, i was wondering what could that be?...For a second i realized that he is referring to a Stereophile grading of the audio equipment! While i have and will be guilty of buying the audio products, unheard, i sure didn't base my decisions on one reviewer opinion or another! Stereophile sale doubles, and sometimes triples during the months of October, and April. "Recommended components" run those months. And the biggest offender, i think, is What HIFI, which reminds of audio "Swap Meet" periodical, with their little flags of "Best buy", or "component of choice" etc, etc...! Stereophile rates their components in class A, B, C and on.... Let see,... between class A and B, what was the determine factor to place the certain product to one or another? Room, cables...mood? So many variables, and controlled and uncontrolled events to "make or brake" one company, or sway one potential customer from buying the pre-amp, that he thought and felt was the ONE. But just changing his mind to purchase another, which was graded one STAR higher! I think, the magazines would be doing the consumer a favor, if those ratings and grading are eliminated. Let the consumer to decide! Especially audio components.
eldragon
Dragon: Many people feel the same way about the Acadamy Awards, the Grammy's, etc.. Some people can walk into a wine shop and select an excellent bottle of wine without memorizing Robert Parker's or The Wine Spectator reviews. Some people can walk into a Hi-fi shop and select excellent equipment by its sonic atributes. Some people cannot and must rely on the scores to feel that they are getting either value or a trophy for their money spent.
Excellent points Dragon. I remember reading quotes in Stereophile regarding how price factored in to the equation. I even think it may be in the description of the scale. Something about Class C being "affordable"(I could be misquoting them on some level.)... Which to me is flat out WRONG! If Product A($599) sounds superior to Product B($25000) doesn't it deserve a higher rating??? And now that we are in the dark days(Jonathan Scull), class would be more related to cost than ever before. Dick Olsher called a spade a spade, regardless of price or marque. Scull will review something for twenty grand and rave until he has utterly embarassed himself. But have him review something for $799(and those are less than few and far between - even for his cables), and he will wonder how any company could market such dreck.
You are right Joe! And most of the reviewers(including Scull) are fifth-rate writers, whose talent fell several notches short of their bloated image of themself.