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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
elmuncy
64 posts
 
At one point I thought that Stereophile, and especially their "recommended products" was written in stone, for once and for all. When I'd shop for gear I'd always check to see where it was in the lists. If it wasn't there I didn't even consider it. I've learned something in the past year. The people here, in these forums are light years ahead of ANY of the rags. Yes, you have to be careful of the advice from any of the people in the forums, but a trend can be found. I say, read all the mags for fun, but when the time comes to put the money down, check here first.
calgarian5355
145 posts
 
UHF (Ultra High Fidelity) is one of my favorite magazines. They use a panel of three to four people to review any piece of audio equipment; each reviewer is allowed at the end of the review to add their personal comments on the piece. I've read several comments in this thread about magazines that contain a glowing review on particular piece of audio equipment followed by a full page ad by the manufacturer. I believe this is a normal business process; a magazine is in the business of generating ad dollars as well as a means of survival. I would only be expected that a manufacturer should be given the choice to advertise in a magazine that paints their product in a positive light. With that said, UHF magazine has conducted reviews on several Copland products; they rave about the Copland 305 preamp, but absolutely hated one of the Copland amplifier models. In my mind, UHF tells it like it is. By the way, Copland still advertises in their publication....

Calgarian5355
fotis_k
128 posts
 
UHF is my favorite. I like the panel discussions by all three reviewers and they use the same two reference systems always, so they are all hearing the same equipment.
charlie101
57 posts
 
This is like asking who is the most honest politician. There's a certain amount of truth within all but not enough to trust any.
brianhutch
55 posts
 
I like hi fi+ magazine.They use a much better quality paper than most of their competitors.Photography is of a high standard, most of the contributers seem articulate.The last issue I read reviewed equipment from the States,Canada,UK,Germany France,Japan and China.Eastern european equipment is often featured and they do a good job of mixing articles covering all price ranges.The record reviews [at least for the kind of music I look for]seem spot on.They also introduce lots of little known fi and I will for sure audition the Elac 4pi super tweeters instead of just buying the Townshends but 4 pairs of euro audio team 300b,s for my vac at 528 UK pounds a pair not within my budget even with the rave review.
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