Example of a piece o’ crap, useless review
I’ve harped on how crappy and useless many “professional” reviews are because they lack rigor and omit critical information. This one is from TAS that is a main offender of pumping out shallow/unsupported reviews, but most of the Euro mags among others are guilty of this too IME. One key giveaway that a review is crap is that after reading it you still have little/no real understanding of what the piece under review actually sounds like or if it’s something you’d like to consider further. I mean, if a review can’t accomplish those basic elements what use is it? This review is so shallow it reads like it could’ve been written by someone who never even listened to the review sample and just made it up outta thin air. In addition to failing on this broad level, here are some other major problems with the review:
- There is no info regarding any shortcomings of this “budget” turntable — everything is positive. Sounds like it was perfect, ehem.
- There are no comparisons to another product in the same general price category or anything else.
- The reviewer doesn’t even share what equipment is in his reference system so we can at least infer what he may have based his impressions on.
In short, in addition to this review being so bad/useless for all the reasons stated it actually reads more like advertisement for the product than an actual unbiased review. I can think of nothing worse to say about a review, and sadly many reviews out there are similarly awful for the same reasons. Sorry for the rant, but especially as a former reviewer this piece of garbage pushed all my buttons and really ticked me off. What say you?
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sota-quasar-turntable-and-pyxi-phonostage/
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The problem is that people confuse at least three vocabulary : Audiophile vocabulary. Acoustic vocabulary. Musical vocabulary.
The most important concept in hearing acoustic about playback system experience in a room, or about live performance listening in a great Hall is listener envelopment and his relation with the auditory source width LV/ASW. ( crosstalk with playback system and timbre are the other two) Now if we try to understand what it is and how to control the related physical parameters reading audio threads or audiophiles magazine we will go nowhere...😊
During the solar storm this week end i just put my final important last device to create this LV/ASW ratio in my system/room. ( i already created it in my first room/system few years ago) The first time it was a grid of many resonators located in a bigger room.Now it was a single but more complex resonator with two other smaller resonators inside and many little open one around it.. *I put this complex closed Helmholtz resonators behind my listening position , I created it with an abandoned long big plastic pipe i pick walking. 😊With cardboard and many types of straws, i inserted in the tube two others smaller resonator tubes of different lenght. I also inserted around it open tubes resonators without absorbing floor. I tuned them by ears. The result was so stunning that no other modification could compare, even the two big modification on my speakers, nor the isolation/coupling damping load for the speakers, nor the shielding of EMI nor the introduction of a tube preamplification etc , Nothing compare in impact for the listener envelopment factor improvement and auditory source width ratio improvement as with this resonator set. And i winned also at the end with a better "timbre" experience. ( acoustic passive treatment with a balance between absorption reflection and diffusion is not enough.Resonators are active not passive treatment of a room pressure zone distribution ) Helmholtz resonators are not only absorbing some frequencies band they also are diffusor for some frequencies band ... And open resonators are powerful diffusor... Cost : peanuts... Reading about acoustic vocabulary and concept matter the most ...Experimenting is funnier than buying and more rewarding.
By the way i get this idea about putting a resonator inside a resonator by contemplating my room : two speakers especially with porthole are simple Helmholtz resonators which are in a room open with a door then the entire room is a resonator with speakers resonators INSIDE it. My two ears canals are also resonators ... I decided to create a resonator inside another one. 😊 |
As a follow-up, here’s another crap review by the same reviewer that I only read out of morbid curiosity as I never bother reading TAS “reviews” (aka product ads) anymore, but at least this is a little more like a review than just a pure product ad (although it’s pretty damn close to one). But still and yet again, in the end I have very little idea of what the speaker actually sounds like, which is about the worst thing that can be said about a review. It is so generic it reads like it could’ve been written without even listening to the speakers at all, and all he does throughout the review is extoll the speaker’s apparent virtues in a bubble and reveals no limitations or qualifications whatsoever so apparently they’re perfect!?! On top of that he never compares them to anything else or even bothers to disclose what speakers or any other equipment is in his reference system!!! It’s ridiculous and about as rigorous and thorough as your typical crappy youtube video review, but sadly this type of unsubstantiated and basically useless garbage is par for the course at TAS so this dude fits their mold to a “T.” |
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- 87 posts total