Stereophile's 2021 products of the year

Get some horns, let ya hair down and rock the house. You‘ve got to have one pair, even if not for anything else but to punish your neighbours.

This thread is funny.  I'm quite sure for 90% of the contrary responders of one thing.  Had one of the components in their system been named to Stereophile's product of the year list, they most certainly would not have come onto a similar thread and denounced Stereophile and the practices and rooms of the reviewers. 

They either would have posted how they've had the component for 2 years already, or they would have said nothing.   Sometimes human nature is so funny.

I own two components on the Stereophile A list. However, I still have a problem with its commercially driven content and the insidious manner in which it influences consumer spending and dealer‘s decision making.

There are some things that got on there, like the Exposure 2010S, which beggar belief. I know I had one, and the old Farlowe XV super stomped it in terms of music making. Personally, I would have given it a borderline B, with the caveat that it isn‘t the most musically engaging of amplifiers out there.

@mesch Speaker sensitivity AND impedance/phase angle are to be considered jointly as to the ability of an amplifier to power the speakers unlike the @millercarbon statement. I own speakers with a 98db sensitivity that have a low impedance of 3.2 ohms and sharp phase angles there which allow 30 watt tube amps to play it beautifully and 200 watt solid state amps which cannot. Apparently, the impedance/phase angle has more impact on amps and my speakers than sensitivity.

Also, I personally know of reviewers who publish high end equipment reviews so that they can have equipment to resell.

As to the VAC 170IQ review, I was also shocked at how poorly it measured which reminded me of the recent Cary amp review of similar disrepute. In the Cary amp instance, the reviewer found that it sounded very good. There is a dictum which states that if something sounds good but measures poorly, someone is measuring the wrong thing. However, there could be a defective product (EAR Classic had such a review, later corrected-it is a very good sounding CD player) which caused the poor measurements. I want to hear from users and the manufacturer as to why the VAC 170IQ measurements stunk.

I have no opinion as I have not read the review, however it may be sample variation, as you have surmised, because Stereo Magazine found that it measured well

https://stereo-magazine.com/archive/articles?tx_archive_pi1%5Baction%5D=download&tx_archive_pi1%5Barticle%5D=69341&tx_archive_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=Archive&cHash=b63605b6cab9c40ddc6dbc5e2d1dd3ed

‘Low distortion, low noise, high bandwidth and
an enormous attenuation factor for a tube amplifier.’

Hope this helps.

Did they measure-the same one they reviewed?