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In Reply to: RE: Oops. posted by Rick W on March 23, 2015 at 13:10:16
Likely NO ONE that reads Stereophile and they KNOW that.
That's the point - it ain't for "us", it's for people with a lot of expendable $$
that look to Stereophile for guidance, which is the only purpose they serve.
"We" need to look elsewhere.
Was going through some old boxes of stuff yesterday and found a couple 20 YO
copies of Sereophile someone gave me then. Took a glance at them before recycling.
NOTHING has changed except the slickness and cost of equipment has sky rocketed.
You and I weren't their target audience then and still aren't.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure
Follow Ups:
Of course I do agree about what's been going on in recent years, and it seems to getting more and more skewed towards higher priced gear. But my pre ("full function" w/phono) was reviewed favorably by S'phile when I bought it in '91. Adjusting for inflation my pre would cost $1,754 in 2015 bucks, and was rated Class B at the time.
In those days there were certainly more listings below Class A, including tubed "full function" pre's like mine.
Anyway, you're correct. S'phile definitely is not aimed at me :-)
SP rates what they review and unfortunately they have not reviewed many lower priced Pre-amps lately. Yes, it would be nice for them to review more but this is just the way it is.
Don't let SP be your only source for referrals. There are more rags out there, online forums, dealers and friends systems. Also, looking back in past reviews is a great way to get an idea of what was great 5-10-15 years ago, and many of them are still great sounding.
The only thing I wish SP didn't do was come up with a class A+ rating. In this case just push everything down a grade and you have their traditional grading system of A,B,C,D without the (+).
Finally, price is not a factor of rating, sound and performance is. That is why a $5,000 pre-amp can be rated in the same class as a $25,000 pre-amp. After comparing and listening to them, I'll leave it to you to decide which is a better value and truly worthy of a class rating of A, when factoring in ultimate performance and value.
I have enjoyed SP for 30 years and find it a great read and resource, not for buying new equipment. I have a beer budget and champagne taste, so I read it for enjoyment, dreams and for future reference when picking up used equipment. For that purpose it never disappoints.
I find John A. to be very approachable and responsive to his readers. I'll miss Sam, as what he brought with his writing flair was pure entertainment. He is the Dicken's of the audio journalist world. SP or Sam should release a book, complete with all of his columns. Really, I found it that entertaining. His stories resonate far beyond the equipment he reviewed, e.g., "Lars and monkey picked tea leaves" just to mention a few. I even enjoyed Corey, Lisa Astor and Mejias.
Final, for the price of admission it has got to be the biggest no brainer, value available today.
SP, never was and never will be the last word in audio. It is just another point of light in the audio sky. For that you have your own two ears!
Ray
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