glupson,
"British magazines had comparison tests of speakers. I am not sure how believable they were and if they ever had high end"
In my experience they were never high end. No one does high end group tests - for anything. It can’t be for lack of interest, can it?
Hi-Fi World (prob the most quirkiest of the bunch), Hi-Fi Choice, Hi-Fi News (best for vintage gear) and What Hi-Fi? (though I’m not too sure if this one is an audio magazine - nice pictures though!) all do feature the odd loudspeaker group test.
These are always current flavour of the month budget designs. You’ll find never a top model from the likes of B&W, Harbeth, Monopulse, Kerr, Spendor, ATC, Tannoy etc featured in a group test - let alone anything from abroad or the pro audio market.
They will also never include a familiar classic design such as the Quad ESL, LS3/5, Spendor BC1 etc for comparison.
In a word or two these tests are mostly useless. At least for any meaningful critical evaluation purposes.
As entertainment, they have their purposes. Ken Kessler for example, in person or in print, is always interesting.
When it comes to sound quality, some of the reviews here on Audiogon are far more relevant.
In fact it was initially stumbling on something that @prof had written about his Thiel CS3.7s timbral and textural qualities that led me to sign up here.
Here was someone posting online on a forum about essential sonic qualities that hardly any journalist had ever considered worth writing about!!
The only one exception I was aware of was the one and only Harvey Rosenberg.
I guess, like most of us, the best we can all hope for is that our words are of some help or interest to others out there.
So yes, my thanks too to @mid-fi-crisis for sharing his experiences. I’m certain they could be of great benefit to those still at the lower end of the audio ladder.
Or is it just a never-ending merry-go-round?
"British magazines had comparison tests of speakers. I am not sure how believable they were and if they ever had high end"
In my experience they were never high end. No one does high end group tests - for anything. It can’t be for lack of interest, can it?
Hi-Fi World (prob the most quirkiest of the bunch), Hi-Fi Choice, Hi-Fi News (best for vintage gear) and What Hi-Fi? (though I’m not too sure if this one is an audio magazine - nice pictures though!) all do feature the odd loudspeaker group test.
These are always current flavour of the month budget designs. You’ll find never a top model from the likes of B&W, Harbeth, Monopulse, Kerr, Spendor, ATC, Tannoy etc featured in a group test - let alone anything from abroad or the pro audio market.
They will also never include a familiar classic design such as the Quad ESL, LS3/5, Spendor BC1 etc for comparison.
In a word or two these tests are mostly useless. At least for any meaningful critical evaluation purposes.
As entertainment, they have their purposes. Ken Kessler for example, in person or in print, is always interesting.
When it comes to sound quality, some of the reviews here on Audiogon are far more relevant.
In fact it was initially stumbling on something that @prof had written about his Thiel CS3.7s timbral and textural qualities that led me to sign up here.
Here was someone posting online on a forum about essential sonic qualities that hardly any journalist had ever considered worth writing about!!
The only one exception I was aware of was the one and only Harvey Rosenberg.
I guess, like most of us, the best we can all hope for is that our words are of some help or interest to others out there.
So yes, my thanks too to @mid-fi-crisis for sharing his experiences. I’m certain they could be of great benefit to those still at the lower end of the audio ladder.
Or is it just a never-ending merry-go-round?