Reviewing the Reviewers - and the decline of HiFi

If you're writing for enthusiasts, then a) you better be enthusiastic, and b) you better create voyeauristic experiences with unattainable objects. Otherwise your audience will choose a different purveyor.

The audio press supports the illusion that there is a vector towards better and better that is moving far faster than actuality, which feeds the underlying consumerism that supports the industry, but after fifty years of variation on a theme it is far more likely that these are mostly just variations in subtle differences. There will be a next AR preamp, heralded with rave reviews of 'better' and calls to consume it, but it is unlikely to be better than all that have preceded it.

Just found this thread. Not followed every post, however I concur with Mofimadness (2nd post) and Electroslacker post. If Hifi is in decline it is not for lack of great gear. Nor are the reviewers at fault. Who wants to spend time with and write about something that one is not interested in? Especially when there is so much worth writing about. My interest in audio is not in decline, I enjoy the mags, and am having more fun in this hobby than ever.

As an afterthought, think about how many TTs, phono stages, cartridges are available even after the rise of digital and how many approaches to digital exist. Is this indicative of a decline?

The editors of the online blogs and the glossy mags need to up their integrity levels. What are we to make of an editor/reviewer who states that the latest DCS stack is the ultimate in digital playback, and a few months later says the latest Berkeley DAC is the new state of the art? The journalistic sources of information have devolved into glorified advertising services for the latest cool gadget.

Psag, I think you are correct in what you say about the magazines. This may seem a daft comment, but does it matter that they are in thrall to the manufacturers? It only matters if you do'nt know this is the case. I suspect every seasoned "Audiophile" does, or should know that.

Who is at risk then? Well I suppose the newcomers. Those who have heard a great system and think they would like some of that. Well where do you start? For me in 1977, I started buying the magazines, in good faith. To be honest, I did'nt go wrong following their advice.

Now I use magazines as a, hopefully, interesting read, making me aware of new products I might want to research or audition

I think some of these last few posts kind of hit the nail on the head. I was not saying the decline is due to the magazines alone, but if in '77 mags gave useful info, why is that not so much the case now. Bloggers really do lack a bit of integrity, but they don't have what I think is an industrial responsibility so to speak. When Hi-fi was more central to our home entertainment (ie we now have playstations, computers etc) there was more of the average persons budget dedicated to buying good and decent hifi. For instance the top end of turntables, although expensive as at the time Technics SP10 mk3 springs to mind, it is not vis a vis as expensive say as an SME 30. So where products are financially in the middle ground, there is a real competition to make the best product within that cost parameter. So we have more products competing within a sector and a need for reviewers to be more critical. Have read of a good car magazine - Autocar/Car/Top Gear - they are not scared to give a genuine opinion positive or negative - and the motor industry continues to thrive (yes I know it is a different industry dealing with 'essential items'). Currently we do have all out cost no object products - with a price to reflect this too. The problem with this is that whilst I love statement products, they do not occupy the real world, and worship within magazines of such products is seen as over-indulgent to the normal consumer. In car programmes, and I use top gear once again, they aren't scared t criticise such products. The average consumer need not have to read between the lines and get to know the writer first - I work with the spoken word all day as a lawyer, and I like precision (honest -lol). In the uk, apparently HiFi World have the highest ownership (of equipment) to reader ratio - it tends to contain a lot more realistic priced products - I must say I think the writing in that magazine has really gone south since it gives out 4-5 globes to just about everything. HiFi News are, unfortunately, just going backwards from the days of Colloms - hardly anything gets less than 75% score in sound tests. Same can be said of HiFi Choice which, if you pick up an edition 25 years ago, against something in the last 5 years, you will see that the old editions weren't scared to criticise a product. I went to the High End Show in Windsor and couldn't help but feel that it felt a bit like the last throes of a dying animal - there were some astonishingly tasty bits of kit that bore no relation to most of the buying public that were in attendance. When I went to my first show in 2002 (I think) I came away and set up auditions for several products, many of which I then purchased - I don't have an ultra high end rig but most peoples eyes water when I tell them the price of it. Even then the magazines were less critical than 10 years before, but are positively harsh to those out now.