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Most Honest Audio Magazine?

I subscribe to Stereophile and I really enjoy reading it but something happened last year that made me raise an eyebrow as to the authenticity of their intentions. Remember the review of the B&W Nautilus 805's? The original reviewer raved about them and rated them "Class A Restricted Low Frequency". Shortly thereafter they demoted the same speaker down to "Class B Restricted Low Frequency". This really hurt the magazine's credibility in my eyes. My first conclusion was that they didn't want to upset the other manufacturers who produced "Class A" products at far higher prices. Shouldn't a trade journal give credit to the truly remarkable products especially when they are produced for relatively decent prices? It's unfortunate that the advertising dollars of the megabuck manufacturers bullied a stellar product into receiving a less than stellar final rating. I'm wondering if this hasn't happened before. I've since heard from some of my audio buddies that corruption does indeed exist in the audio press; everything from reviewers being related to manufacturers to reviewers being offered products for a song (pun intended). Please share your thoughts and experiences when it comes to audio magazines and let me know which ones you'd rate best and worst. Putting together a great system is hard enough without having to sift through the sometimes suspicious advice of those publications who purport to advance the hobby.
canadianguy
redkiwi
1,092 posts
 
Honesty does not come into it. Altruism does not exist. They are all businesses or have an agenda. As a review mag you need to make some kind of trade-off between being credible so that you get read, and supporting your advertisers so that you can get money for being read. Sadly the most successful press organisations have proved the addage that "nobody ever lost money underestimating their audience". It is nothing to do with honesty. Some mags are just deluded enough to place more emphasis on credibility than they should. My comments relate most accurately to the larger businesses where the only moral thing to do is maximise returns to shareholders. It is a little different with the smaller concerns where the owner is directly involved and cares also about his (or her) personal credibility, independent of its worth to the company. But this just alters the nature of the trade-off. I occasionally read the mags, and have done so for decades - but I do so mainly because they are good reads, secondly because they may give some pointers about which products I should make an effort to read, and occasionally the reviewers let go of some good setup tips. Call me a cynic - you will not be the first.
thomasheisig
568 posts
 
Money makes the world go round .....

even for TAS now. Since they changed their format and had financial problems I say : forget it.
I ve read them for more than 10 years now, I will cancel it.
Too boring.
Stereophile.
A discussion about this magazine is a waste of time.
Listener is very competent in so much honest than possible.
Vacuum Tube Valley is really excellent, they go their own way.
In my< opinion the really best is a new one from Great Britain: Hifi +
These guys are really independent ( They have their own systems .....)
stereokarter
185 posts
 
Redkiwi, "honesty" DOES come into it in the sense that magazine writers must be able to support the opinions they expound whilst at the same time being able to relate same to a reference system. Try UHF Magazine out of Montreal...every new reader seems to like their direct comments and explainations. The only drawback is that they lean a little too much to the European gear...then it is nice to learn about that stuff too!
mcne
113 posts
 
hummmm! Most Honest Audio Magazine. Is that not an Oxymoron?
I enjoy going to the local bookstore and looking at them all. I am glad there are many audio rags published because that gives a lot of pictures to look at. But when it comes to shelling out cash for it, I am a little reserved. I have bought some of each when it has a review or article that is interesting. The English mags are very biased against American equipment. Stereopile is infected with the "Julian Hursch" virus.(is that the way it is spelled?) I get tired of Listener’s "we are so much not like Stereopile) attitude.
And I still have 2 years on my TAS subscription and still enjoy it. But let's face it. These magazines would not exist without the advertisers dollars. We have seen more then a few rebel mags go down in glorious "we will not submit to your filthy money flames". And my guilty pleasure is, I don't waste any time grabbing the new Stereopile (when it magically shows up in my mailbox) and going through the whole thing at once. I don't read the whole thing through anymore but I still enjoy it and give up the overly inflated price. So I guess that I am guilty and I am part of the problem and not part of the fix. Dale
eds2978
1 posts
 
If you live in the tweak kingdom you will be happy with most magazines. If you are an engineer, or demand that all claims be proven you will be served better by Audio Critic. In the end, just enjoy the music, show off your new stereo, and enjoy the music. Music is after all the point isn't it?
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