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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
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.
robm321
932 posts
 
Another hi fi+ vote. They will tell you the faults without any reservation. And you don't have to listen to foofy liberal elitism before getting to the review (actually I do enjoy that part of the review just for the bombastic fun of it).
cosmic_void
142 posts
 
I also like UHF for the reasons listed above.
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
sensible sound
astock
30 posts
 
Yet another very big hi fi+ vote. I honestly can't wait for their issues to appear at Barnes & Noble or Tower. (I choose not to take a subscription so as to compel me to visit the book and music stores more often.) The down side is that the distributor never seems to hit their U.S. shelf date. I gave up reading TAS first, so offended with their editorial slide to the more, bigger, fine wine, fast car approach to all things. Stereophile followed, although I do hit their website. Brianhutch is dead-on with regards to hi fi+ and their record reviews, broad ranging and terribly international selection of equipment and, rightly pointed out, their paper and printing quality (if you are going to spend $10 on a magazine it ought to feel like $10). But what I like most about the publication is the frequent use of the word “whilst”. When will these Brits learn to “talk real good” like us?!
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