Honesty of the Reviewers

Plato, I find this an excellent and well considered post and have voted accordingly. I've followed the "history of reviewing in the then underground mags" practically from its beginning and hence know, how raving mad manufacturers can get, even with a midly critical review. William Zane Johnson of Audio Research for example, would not talk to HP for months on end... and that was after all those rave rewiews about Sp6 and the 110 tube amp for example. On the other hand, I also remember Michael Fremer raving about the (in)famous Tice clock, which, after getting one for myself out of sheer curiosity, proved to me, that reviewers are humans too, not neccesarily dishonest, in this case especially not, but sometimes prone to attacks of gullibility, which none of us can be sure to always be completely devoid of. That's also, why I like mags, where more than one reviewer writes about the same product.

Detlof, you raise some good points and I appreciate your response. As you noted, even the best and most respected reviewers are not immune to psychological hype and can occasionally make errors in their assessments. We are above all, human, and readers need to be aware of that aspect -- especially condidering how subjective most reviews are. Indeed, at times it's more akin to judging a poetry contest than related to science. That said, I've read many reviews that in my view accurately captured the review item's intrinsic character. :)

You see, my typo above, "condidering" -- just serves to illustrate that we reviewers are human. I wish Audiogon allowed one to edit his comments after posting! :)

You just need to appreciate that reviewers have two main incentives. First, they must have some credibility. Arguably, only enough for their target audience, but if they are ambitious they may wish their name (as opposed to the mag they work for) to stand for something. Second, they have to pay the mortgage like anybody else - ask yourself what conditions you have to place on your own integrity at your place of work. Just appreciate that they are neither altruists or public servants.

I think we have to look at ourselves in the mirror when asking questions of these reviewers. They're just feeding our habit and doing so eloquently. Haven't we spent time carefully listening and researching equipment, buying it taking it home and smiling ear to ear only to find out that something better just came out? And away we go again. I read the reviews to see what somebody with more dollars than cents can buy and occasionally to self-congratulate myself on a decision that I and the reviewer came to. I see reviewers as good authors who talk about stuff I'm obsessed with. Don't shoot the messenger.