Reviewing the Reviewers

I have spent a lot of time reading through Arthur's site. Jctubes put it better than I could when he said that this is a breath of fresh air. Jctubes also says the one thing I read in Stereophile that I most agree with, "You had to spend more to realize you didn't have to spend more..." Arthur says A LOT that I agree with. Some that I do not. Nothing that I am in major disagreement about. The one thing that I believe he is limited by is being only one person. Unlike lists gathered from groups of people(Stereophile, and even we here at Audiogon), you are only seeing one person's opinion. At some point, that becomes a detriment. Sean, it is nice to hear that Michael Fremer is not the same guy in real life. He just picked up a couple of big points in my book based on your comment. It seems Moncrieff has never engendered a lot of support for the Nobel Peace Prize, but he has caused us to think more about the capacitors, solder, wire, etc that we use. Fremer doesn't have anything like that on his resume.

Most of the site is his opinion, but his equipment reviews are based on the opinion of several people. He actually mentions that he hasn't had a chance to hear several of the components himself.

Trelja, have you ever had the chance to "rummage through" any old IAR's to any great extent ? I'm just curious as to what your thoughts on them were. Sean
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Sean, I do not have any old IARs. I have read from them in the past. But, it has been a LONG time. And I was also reading with different eyes back then. I used to read for different things back then. I take your word on his personality. Was he at least informative, on top of the bluster? I cannot recall any negative reactions to him that I had. From the Wonder products I used, I have nothing but the highest praise. I later found better, but they got the ball rolling for me.

I too lament the changes in the audio press. Used to look forward to the reviews as much for what they said about the immediate subject as the comments on products it was compared to. Martin Colloms, Anthony Cordesman, Corey Greenberg, Tom Norton and Robert Greene always gave meaningful insights into related issues and the high-end in general. This is no longer the case, as stated by Mr. Salvatore. Can you remember when the C.E.S. report was nearly the full issue and judgements were made about the products IN the rooms? Now all you read is a capsule describing the look and price with inevitable caveat about hotel room sound. Many of the displays are even static! Money corrupts and big money corrupts absolutely. As far as the equipment recommendations on the critique site, I have no frame of reference, save one. The Parasound 1000 is listed as a sort of "best buy". Having owned one I can state that it's virtues lie mainly in rolling off the treble which makes it sound more analog-like but also less truthful. I think Mr. Salvatore has a long road to travel before he comes to grips, as many of us have, with the abandonment of the analog RIAA curve and the greater frequency extremes of digital.It could be argued that much (most,all?) of the amplification equipment designed today is voiced with CD's and would necesarily sound less truthful with vinyl records. I will leave that for someone more knowledgeable.