The best hifi magazine?

For the American magazines, I still think TAS is the best, and am surprised to see it getting bashed so hard here. I think they are far better than Stereophile, though I do like Art Dudley. My approach to the magazines was to read as much as I could, trying to determine the individual reviewers sonic tastes, as Robert Harley suggests in his book. I did this for over a year before I actually bought anything, and found all of the reviews helpful. It was easier for me to determine the TAS reviewer's individual tastes more quickly than the Stereophile ones - Stereophile tends to be a little more into the technical than the musical side of things, and I preferred the TAS approach of being more descriptive of the sound. It is very helpful to read reviews written by people who have opposite tastes to yours, as well, as you may like something they don't. I also have emailed the TAS staff before with questions and got very quick, informative responses. Ultimately, I let my own ears be my guide, but I will say that I ended up, with one major exception, with a system that consists almost entirely of products that TAS gave their highest ratings to. I do enjoy HiFi+, however they mostly review stuff not available over here, so they are not of as much practical value for someone assembling a new system.

For you 'newcomers' that've ONLY been doing this for 10-20 yrs, you'd be AMAZED if you were to read an issue of TAS from the old days. As I type I'm looking at a few issues from 1976-77. 30 yrs old and they are SO much more fun to read than the current bland, colorless, flavorless mush they currently produce. Really, HP used to have cast titanium balls, totally unrecognizable compared to the Howard Hughes-ish wizard behind the curtain that writes a few pages every few months. Truthfully, do yourself a favor, search ebay and see if you can dig up issues from the 70's thru the mid-eighties, not only are they STILL informative but they are an absolute PISSA!

I read them all and Hifi+ is the best IMO. Although "Haute Fidelite" (from France) is excellent as well. The worst IMO is TAS.

Arthur

I love reading HIFI+. HIFI+ has a way of making me feel good. It’s the best. Lately while reading TAS and Stereophile I find myself getting irritated… with myself… because they’re using words I can't even guess at what they mean. I’ve even resorted to asking my wife what the heck “that” word means… and even she doesn’t know what they mean… and she knows everything... about everything.

UHF has the best overall concept IMHO. They use the same reference system and only replace one component (the one they're reviewing). Every review is done by the same trio of reviewers and they use both measurements and honest feedback.

The knock I have against UHF and a big reason why I dropped my subscription was their inability to review mainstream products that weren't SimAudio, Linn and Totem. I remember one year they must have reviewed 5 products from Copland while everybody else in the industry was reviewing 'hot' pieces from Anthony Gallo and Naim. I quickly grew tired of the same manufactures getting the reviews...SimAudio, Linn, Copland, SimAudio, Copland, Linn... it was a vicious cycle. I do believe however they use the best approach to reviewing a product.