what's your opinion on the magazine 'stereo review'??

HiFi News and Record Review -- Yeah!  I ran across it one evening while cruising a newsstand near where I lived.  Superb, subjective reviews of both classical LPs and hardware.  Loved Ken Kessler.  Not much later, I became buddies with Kevin Conklin, a regular customer at the classical records department where I worked at the time.  Kevin turned me on to The Absolute Sound.  Later, of course, he started writing for Harry Pearson's rag.

I also read Stereo Review in the 70s. I got married & started farming in 1978. The first load of corn I sold that fall went to purchase a new Sansui AU & TU 717.   Stereo Review had highly recommenced them.

I enjoyed "Stereo Review" back in the 70s, and it certainly piqued my interest in newer/better equipment as well as gave reviewers' perspective on artists or albums of interest. I always took reviewers' opinions as just that, and make my own buying and listening decisions.

As for the "Specs are everything" principle, I never bought that. Published specs are sensitive to test & measurement method and represent what is thought to be most important, not everything that actually is. Marantz used to point this out in their literature, saying in effect "Our specs may not be the most impressive, but we sound better." That of course is a matter of opinion and taste, but my experience bore it out in comparison with friends' gear.

Design decisions on the inside, such as the resonant frequency of a tank circuit, filter characteristics, or the precision of resistors may or may not be reflected in output specifications, but they all play a part in making the sound.

Great Magazine with wonderful reviews of gear and music.  I can still see in my mind the pages that contained the reviews of many of my albums / CDs.

Then along came 'high end audio', the folks with many dollars and not so much knowledge.  So, in order to make the millions, sitting there ready for the taking, they first, had to discredit mags like stereo review.   And so they did.  Destroyed the reputations, or tried to, of many of the great pioneers in audio, in favor of a bunch of charlatans whose research and evidence was:   Specs don't matter, (unless they help us), it's what I hear that counts.  Now everyone was an expert. 
Took surprisingly little to conquer and dominate the herd.

Stereo Review and other mags help build the industry, the so-called ''audiophiles' have just about destroyed it.

Cheers

My first encounter with SR, was after being hired at Audio Lab, Indian School Rd, Phoenix AZ. I was hired to sell audio gear for the store. Took home back issues of SR and Audio Etc. Read them cover to cover, including the ads. As the new and only salesperson in the store, I needed to get up to speed. Not just the products, the jargon, specs. Edward Tatnall Canby classic reviews got me into classic music.
 +1 rok2id