Recommended components on Stereophile Magazine.


1/ I'm gathering thoughts, if you read Stereophile's recommended components pages, would you buy a "class-A" comnopnent for $3K or spend $8K for a "class-B" ?

2/ Do you fully trust Stereophile's recommendation?

3/Just to be safe, I think I would go with their rec. "class-A" unit for $3K.
nasaman
In my opinion if they say something has a slight flaw,it
may be a lot more than that. It does help to find those flaws when your not listening to it at home on your system. That helps when buying a non returnable item.They have a tendency to like a lot of products I wouldn't recommend to any tone deaf friend. The reviewers disagree with each other too.I use them to help pick out some of the flaws first.But I'm definitely at the point if they give it a top recommendation,it may turn out to be a class C or D component in my opinion.I've herd components at a fraction of their top recommend components price outclass them in every way. That's my 2¢.
I can't imagine buying anything but the $3K class A in your example over the 8K class B. They sometimes put quirky products in their listings, but they usually mark them as such. An $8K horn system that Dudley likes comes to mind. But if you only have one shot at one system,, get the class A.
There was a time, long ago, when Stereophile's short RC's was a fairly reliable guide. Then they went corporate. IMHO, now it's close to useless, if not worse.
1) I'd probably buy the $3K Class A rated component.

2) Absolutely NOT!!!!

3) See 1).

Cheers,
John
1/ no & no

2/ no

3/ no

Stereophile's attempt at impartiality is demonstrated each and every time by John Atkinson vs whatever reviewer has their thesaurus out that week. After their component reviews filled with superlatives (that sometimes resemble a wine review), Atkinson closes the review with his measurement numbers and often finishes with something like this, "I don't know what reviewer X was hearing, but.."