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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: more on "negativity", which I consider critical thinking posted by doesnt_suit_me on June 12, 2002 at 16:57:01:
Your last two points have nothing to do with the topic. Standard sales technique for any product is not to disparage the competitor -- for legal and psychological reasons. So what if John Curl is still ticked off at Thom Holman about the demo. What does that prove about reviews?I agree with you that some of the stories in reviews about malfunctioning components or ones that blow up are not encouraging. But, after reporting that a certain component failed during the test, what do you expect Stereophile to say? That it was a P-O-S? Beyond reporting the fact of the failure (which they don't have to do, BTW), they have no basis to draw global conclusions from the reliability of one sample.
As has already been mentioned by a number of people from the magazines, to some extent they choose to review stuff because they heard it at a show and it made a good impression. No magazine (other the Consumer Reports) purports to collect up all available examples of a given product and then rank them. So, it's not surprising that most reviews are, in varying degrees, favorable. What's interesting, in Stereophile at least, is that JA seems to operate as a check on the enthusiasm of some of his colleagues. Last fall, the magazine reviewed Joseph Audio's latest speaker and gave it a huge rave. But Atkinson did a sidebar and complained about the lower-than rated sensitivity and the bass, which he apparently didn't like.
Finally, I don't think you should lump the e-zines and the print zines in the same box. I agree with you that some the of e-zines, Stereotimes, in particular, have little credibility. Just for fun, try reading all of the Stereotimes reviews of wires back-to-back. Why does Stereotimes continually flog to Talon Khorus loudspeaker, which seems to garner no accolades from any other corner? Why did Stereotimes do a second review of the RGPC power conditioner after it was pretty thoroughly panned by Stereophile?
As for the Brits; I don't read their magazines enough to have an opinion about whether they are more or less critical than the Americans.
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Follow Ups
- Re: more on "negativity", which I consider critical thinking - Bruce from DC 10:35:46 06/13/02 (2)
- You wrote: - Kal Rubinson 11:52:49 06/13/02 (1)
- Re: Sure, Kal - Bruce from DC 14:18:22 06/13/02 (0)
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