Thin Line Between Critique and Courtrooms: A Dialogue on the Recent Audiophile Drama

There are ways to assess and compare products thoroughly. It can be based on both subjective opinions and/or objective data. Those are the reviews I like. They help inform me as a buyer.

As long as that, I don’t mind if the reviewer then gives their own personal thumb’s up or thumb’s down determination. THey did the work and are entitled to that. But that’s just their personal opinion based on the data. Others may well judge differently. That’s just how things work.

There are a core set of measurements - FR, Soundpower, directivity, dispersion, waterfall, etc that a) in combination b) if one knows how to interpret them and c) has enough points of reference, could get one into a fairly good ballpark of whether it it matches his tastes (or not) and how it could work out in his room (or not). It would be more reliable to proceed with the decision for trying it out (or not).

The subjective poetry spewers are a bit harder to decipher.... You may have to buy the crud he recommended at times and return it to figure out that your tastes don’t match. For example, there are a couple of reviewers out there, i know i most probably will like the opposite of what he liked. And, of course, there are those who’re paid to sing poetry on anything and everything...There ain’t anything that didn’t make his jaw drop ever.

I did see Erin’s review before he took it down. Subjectively, his tastes and mine don’t match..I would not buy any speaker he strongly recommends subjectively. But, he throws the measurements out there and makes it a bit easier for folks with differing tastes.

The zero fidelity YTer was a guy who would actually get close to the sound signature of things. He’d make an effort to subjectively describe its sound signature as accurately as possible (in case it suited a different guy’s tastes). There are other clueless "reviewers" who are unable to do such a thing. The latter is the type of guy, who will start describing an upstream component, when in reality he’s describing the speaker and so on....It’s mostly a goofy path, trying to navigate around the subjective poetry spewers.

@abnerjack You're forgiven as if I have anything to say about it and its all good. 

I agree, I am not nor are my products beyond reproach. A lot of manufacturers I know simply try to do the best they can, but none of us are perfect and there's always something new to learn about how we can do better.

I've been wrong plenty of times! Sometimes I feel like I spend most of my life being wrong... When I have doubts about a topic I usually keep my mouth shut. This isn't one of those topics- I've seen others experience unethical reviews and I've experienced them myself (in my case, it was because I couldn't afford a 6-month advertising contract with the magazine).

I have raised this issue of negative reviews being unethical in the past, and I always get some pushback. I think we all would like to think that a negative review is always honest and hard-hitting journalism at its best; that story died an ugly death for me. We are all human and prone to human imperfection; the best reviewers I know all just don't say anything when they encounter what they think is a bad product. Fortunately they are the majority out there IME.  

I am not patient as atmasphere is with people insulting others..

I came here to learn patience reading poster as you displaying insult to well know useful member with no argument...

For the moment the cure is not effective ... 😊

@mahgister

Have you considered professional help?

having read and catalogued 97 speaker manufacturers' stories, I feel for them. This is not an easy ride. But I were in the business, I would be happy if someone reviewed my product and I would learn from the feedback. It's like the movie Chef - focus on your craft, not on attacking the reviewer.

@atmasphere Your reply is part of the issue. A good reviewer is there to give information to their audience, not stroke the egos of the manufacturers. That was the way IT USED to be. 

I will use a car review as an example. How would you deal with a review like this?

Her Name Is Rio… And She’s Crap | The Truth About Cars

I remember reading this after I had a Rio as a rental - I totally agreed with it.

How can products improve if no one is there to give honest opinions about them?