Most Honest Audio Magazine?

Just as an afterthought, I would hope all of us are wise enough to take whatever ANY audio magazine says with a fairly large grain of salt, for all of the aforesaid reasons. Where they are useful is in bringing new things to your attention. You should be using all the info you glean from all the magazines you can read by synthesizing the bits and bytes and then once youve formed your own opinion , go and listen if possible. I know some of us live in areas where there arent distributorships of certain manufacturers, and there I can see the magazines being more relied upon. I certainly dont think any of the magazines are out there to purposefully deceive us, but Caveat emptor applies to them as well as the equipment.--Mrmitch

A tale of woe and deception...
Back in 2005/2006 I was in negotiations with Daniel Khessin who was the DK of DK Designs. As I was starting LSA Loudspeakers, I knew that having a 'hook' or 'entry' into dealers and distributors would help lower the 'barriers to entry'. (The economics term for 'gee it's tough to launch a new product, no matter how good it may be.')
In the negotiations, DK pointed out the Positive Feedback glowing review, of his all aluminum loudspeaker, which was to be part of the purchase price of the company.
Admittedly, that was a very small piece of the equation, since I had my own line...nevertheless...
I bought the company, we inherited dealers, distributors worldwide.
Then came the time to get the loudspeakers, which I had renamed LSA10 to put the LSA name on them--I believe Khessin had named them the X-Dreams.
When they arrived in Louisville it became apparent that these speakers had never had a signal through them. You may ask, how can one tell that? Good question...WELL, there were no drivers in place, and none had ever, ever been in place...no pathways for wires, no screw marks (easy to see on aluminum)...they were simply 'shells'...magnificent shells to be sure. No holes for wires for an external crossover, or binding posts on the rear of the speakers...plate aluminum, and cost a fortune to have built in an aerospace facility which had CNC machines capable of cutting such. At the time, I asked Jim Thiel, if I could contract to use THIEL's CNC's and he said, "I'd be happy to Larry, but ours, with our blades couldn't touch that. You need CNC's set up to cut plate aluminum, sorry."
Why this lead in?
The magazine Positive Feedback had written a 'See God' review of these speakers, going in great detail as to how they were the 'Holy Grail' of loudspeakers...several pages, conjuring up 'halucinations of...' and such along the way.
The 'writer' of the story was named, if I recall, Jimmy Olsen'...funny now, cub reporter for the 'Daily Planet' and all, but what the hell, noone expected the whole thing to be an out and out lie.
I contacted the editor/owner, frankly sent several emails asking for information about the review, reviewer, and never got ONE RESPONSE!
Due dilligence, I didn't fly to California and look first, my mistake, and again, that was a very small part of the whole...yet that just makes a great point about reviews, well, reviews by Positive Feedback. Don't believe anything unless you're in the same room as they first listen, then watch them write it...then still don't believe it.
This was a cautionary tale for me--life is that way--we learn as we go, and this was a remarkable deception by a supposedly 'real magazine'.
So...as to 'honest magazines'...NOT POSITIVE FEEDBACK!

Good listening,
Larry

Consumer Reports has it right. They buy the stuff in the store like a regular consumer.
Hi-end reviewers get free samples, dealer visits to set up the speakers, goes out to dinner with the reviewer, gives reviewer a factory tour, reviewer can buy for an "accommodation price".
Maybe the reviewer is totally objective and honest but it's way to cozy a situation IMHO.

UHF has been consistent for years, with no apparent sell-out.
Bound for sound was(is) great too, but I haven't seen it recently.

None this week.