Example of a piece o’ crap, useless review

Reviews are full of crap, i.e. you have to dig thru it to get to the earth.

I just re-read the Cayin review I posted above, and I had forgotten my impression then: "it seems he is paid by the word". When I find a review that seems helpful, I read it a second time, skipping the extra and finding the meat of it, like I now remember I had to do with this one.

I am supposing I found other sources to help me decide, but this is the one I remember, probably the opening and closing lines.

I wanted a tube amp with remote volume, it had to sound as good as my Fisher 80z 30wpc mono blocks or I was going to re-sell it. Luckily, happily the Cayin does. I didn't even know Cayin existed.

Soix, Did you write a letter to TAS complaining about the quality of this and other reviews they publish? 

@lewm Yes.  A while back I wrote to them about these issues but not surprisingly didn’t hear back, and obviously nothing changed.  I’ve also spoken to a couple of their reviewers and they both spouted the same company line that product comparisons aren’t useful because it’s unlikely most readers own the exact component used for the comparison.  This is just an absurd rationale used by them to try to excuse themselves from the considerable amount of added work it takes to do comparisons and the inherent accountability that it brings upon a reviewer — much easier/faster to just wax poetic about what you think a product sounds like in a bubble with no check and balance of a comparison.  One of their reviewers said he’d consider doing more product comparisons in the future, but I’ll believe it when I see it and not holding my breath. 

soix

Sorry for the rant, but especially as a former reviewer this piece of garbage pushed all my buttons and really ticked me off.  

Are you often this excitable?

I will read them because I like hearing about new products on the market, but would not buy something without a demo in a store or at a trade show.  To me, the music reviews are the worst.

TAS and Stereophile (to a greater extent) have  been changing their editorial approach in the attempt to attract a younger demographic. Personally, I don't like the writing style of the new crop of journalists. However, at the same time, age is a major existential threat to audio. Just go to any hi-fi show and look at the attendees - predominantly male, over forty and usually a fair bit older than that. The high end depends on people coming from entry/mid level hi-fi, so if younger people are not coming through that is a major concern - and not just for magazine sales.