The MoFi Mess and TAS rolling over for them

I’ve been reading both of these mags for years and not taking them so seriously as to harsh my entertainment mellow. Who cares really? If you need another Magico rave there ya go! The only thing recently that brought me unbridled happiness and glee was when 2 of my own pieces of gear made the Class A designation in Stereophile...a Freya and a Pass XA-25...so I’m TOTALLY in agreement there. Fremer, who if nothing else provides a detailed 156 step guide to azimuth setup requiring microscopes and other bits of lab gear ad nauseum, once gave a rave review to the utterly worthless $200 Synergistic Research "PHT" (phony hyper trash?) turntable accessory aluminum jujubes, and proceeded to never mention using them again. I prefer actual jujubes as at least they’re edible. If your own ears can’t help you choose gear and you wait breathlessly for each A’sound or S’phile issue for guidance...well...that’s OK. Otherwise you can only hope for entertaining reading and some music reviews. Speaking of which, some AS reviewer noted Joni Mitchel’s guitar sounded very different from James Taylor’s on the classic Blue album. Outraged, I sent a message telling them she was primarily playing an Appalachian Dulcimer. Outraged!

For many years now, I've considered The Absolute Sound simply to be a "high end" boutique magazine like the fancy design &  fancy boating - mega yacht publications. They're fun to look at & see what's out there but offer little to no objectivity on what they review even though TAS has made an effort to regularly cover more reasonably priced stuff in recent years. 

How can you truly learn anything useful from a review that doesn't mention what ancillary equipment is being used & never makes any direct comparisons to similarly equipment in design/ build and/ or price?

The only occasional exception is Steven Stone who can be better at that & now seems to primarily focus on "bargain priced" equipment which I think is appreciated by many of us. It's to bad too because I think many of the TAS writers do know a great deal about hi fi & have lots of experience that would be helpful to many of us. 

@yoyoyaya   I figured you were being sarcastic but I felt an  urge to complete the circle.  I have really enjoyed the help you gave me in my Direct Drive thread.  

@wolf_garcia   I lost respect for Stone when he declared all non MQA DACs were obsolete

I lost respect for Stone when his review of the JA Pulsars was mostly done using them as desktop speakers in his computer setup.  Who does that???  What an utter joke. 

Thanks Mahler - and I loved your embedded in a slab of petroleum and extracted with a needle reference!