Stereophile's 2021 products of the year

Remember the days of yore when The Absolute Sound did not accept any ads? Say what you will about HP, I looked forward to his reviews every 6 or 7 months. 

Sad to see so much hate on the site coming from consumers who think that the first qualifier into their world is price paid! Would bet most the posters here when introducing company to their system don’t just play a track and let people listen while remaining silent unless asked a question. Then first question is what kind of amp do you have? Answer would be a glossed over name quickly followed with how much the have paid for it. I laugh at people who pay 100k for a speaker cable. Yes you must have fu money to just throw away, and I will give you the fact that it sounds better than my $100 cable but can rest assured it does not sound 1000 times better. I am not saying Schiit is the best best all end all of audio but they allows for average people to dip a toe in the water of high end audio. In the end is it not about the enjoyment of the music?!

It's not possibly to listen to everything yourself. It's not possible for anyone to compare everything. Why would anyone assume a list is meant to be comprehensive? It may be far from perfect, but it can still be a good place to start. There are lists of everything from cars to whisky to Michelin starred restaurants that are equally subjective as anything Stereophile puts out. Are you just going to take advice from any yahoo on the internet instead?

If I am starting my research from nothing then reading a list compiled from reviewed items is a place to start. Some of them may not be described as anything close to what I want. Some of them are beyond my means. In looking further into others I may find a trail to something that really interests me and, more importantly, suits me. There is nothing wrong with reading a map or using a navigation app, but you still need to watch where you going.

Stereophile ONLY rates the products they have reviewed, unlike TAS which will give a product they heard at a show but didn’t review a rating as well.  I find Stereophile much more honest than TAS. I do have subscriptions to both and have been a subscriber since 1990.   I do not trust Robert Harley or Jonathan Valin, as anything Uber expensive gets a good write up.  

Harry Pearson is probably shouting from his grave for the way the magazine is run now.  TAS has nice ads and that for me is the best audio porn out there.   I take everything written in both magazines with a grain of salt, but in TAS case, more than one grain. 

I like Stereophile's bench testing. While I don't put much faith in the rankings, etc., I do like having a source for tech data on various products. I don't buy measurements, of course, but I do like to see them.