Audiogon/Asylum and magazine reviewers posts

As someone who just started out about a year ago with tubes, I found Audiogon participants to be more inviting and approachable than the Aylum inmates. Though I have a lot to learn, I'm always ready to try to return the favor by giving as much as I can to those who pose questions. Perhaps the response indicates that the people who frequent Audiogon are doing a fine job and don't really need their input.

I saw that post as well and had the same reaction. I find that while a lot of the discussions at AA can be provocative and informative (particularly the tubes forum), too many of them seem to me to be bordering on paranoia and distrust of any established companies or wind up turning into name-calling and childish fights. The Audiogon forums seem a little more civilized to me, and include some interesting offbeat threads (often started by Sdcampbell or Onhwy61 and the like) that you might never see on AA. Maybe a reviewer could find A-gon a little watered down, less spicy, but on the whole I find it more enjoyable.

Well, I don't know a blessed thing about the Asylum (I only have the room in my life for one these monumental time-fritterers!), but I do notice that the ol' StereoPile sure gets dumped on a lot around here (and not always without good reason), so maybe they just stay away so as not to get their feelings trampled. Then again, maybe it's even more of war-zone on the Asylum - what do I know (or care, really)? If I was them (the reviewers) though, I sure wouldn't ignore this forum, however uninformed or poorly-written it might tend toward being at times. Just the mere fact that this site has the extremely successful For Sale classifieds as well as a Forum guarantees its relevance in terms of viewing and participation by the very folks who make up a good portion of not only Stereophile's readership, but also the lifeblood of the high end industry.