|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
108.35.176.9
In Reply to: RE: A second review? Why? posted by hahax@verizon.net on April 24, 2015 at 21:16:07
There are differing views of many products amongst reviewers. As just one example, here's what Tone Audio said about the Coffman GA-1:
"So with that in mind, we award the Coffman Labs G-1A one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2012 and look forward to the company's future offerings."
It was panned in S'phile.
I've heard a number of products subsequent to reading very positive reviews of 'em and my ears told me they were mediocre or worse, and not even remotely worth the asking price. I don't suggest a follow-up in hopes of a different reviewer agreeing with me.
The last thing I want is for hifi mags to base decisions/assessments on the effect they'll have on the success or failure of a product or manufacturer. I want mags to serve the needs of their readers and hifi buyers, not manufacturers. I sure as hell don't expect/want every single reviewer to react the same way to every product.
Jeez, as it is the % of negative reviews in any hifi publication is tiny.
Follow Ups:
One case in point, perhaps ironically enough, is that I heard (using headphones only, but also using tracks I had recorded) Bricasti's M1 DAC at a pro audio show and asked for a review unit when they were ready. I wrote up the Bricasti M1 in my column. I was knocked out.
My recollection is that when I sent the M1 to John Atkinson for follow-up measurements, he was so impressed that he turned what I assumed was to be a follow-up into a complete review, and the Bricasti M1 was shown on the cover of that issue.
There was one other case in my experience when this happened, IIRC it was the Vivid B-1 loudspeaker, which again I covered first and then JA was so impressed he gave it a full review and IIRC it also was on the cover.
I don't recall whether JA did a full review of darTZeel's NHB-108 that I had first covered, but I do remember laughing out loud when I read in the Measurements that due to a test-bench mishap, "the transistor performed as designed, blowing itself up to save the fuse."
Or words to that effect.
JM
The poster I responded to seemed to think products that receive *negative* reviews should get a 2nd look if someone somewhere had a differing opinion of it, and considering that a negative review could hurt the manufacturer.
My point was that I doubt he'd ask for a 2nd look for every product that gets a positive rec just in case a different reviewer would NOT like it.
You missed my point. I don't expect bad reviews to necessarily get a follow up. I thought it made sense in this case because of comments in John's measurements that seemed to expect a better review. And since the conflict was within the magazine itself from 2 established sources, I felt further investigation was warranted. And I suggested a follow up, not a full second review.
Edits: 04/25/15
To my knowledge it has never come up, but, I would LIKE TO imagine that if there ever was a case when I went ga-ga over a piece of gear that another writer had significant experience with and thought was poor sound or at least poor value for money, that writer might get in touch with JA and suggest that he be given an opportunity to rescue our readers from my out-of-control enthusiasms.
So to that extent my examples are I think relevant because they show that Stereophile under JA does not have a "Rome has spoken and the discussion has ended" attitude about a product that has already had ink spilled on it.
I will also say that while I have had a few occasions where I had qualms about the value-for-money (either absolute, relative, or both) about certain pieces of gear praised in Stereophile, I have always ended up thinking that especially for components that have been measured, the relative value proposition should be self-evident, and also that it should be obvious to anyone bright enough to have successfully applied for their own US passport that for X amount of dollars, let's say $15,000 because that is what Vivid B-1s cost when reviewed, you could spend a like amount starting in St. Petersburg Russia and for two weeks going to classical-music performances every afternoon and evening, working yourselves back through Berlin and Amsterdam and Liege and Paris to London, and stuff yourself silly and drink once-in-a-lifetime wines.
All that should be self-evident. In one of my earliest (2001) columns for Stereophile, I suggested many ways to bring music more deeply into your life rather than spend lots of money on cables.
Link attached. Very well worth reading!
JM
and no other instrument to learn and learn from? any reason?
thanks for interest.
roger wang
I chose classical guitar for the combination of factors I mentioned. Orchestral and band wind and brass instruments have varying degrees of difficulty in just getting a good sound out, and involve breathing. Clarinet is probably the easiest but some people might never be able to get a good trumpet or French horn sound, and the oboe and other double-reed instruments are probably the hardest of all to get good sound out of and they are expensive.
Violin, viola, and cello all involve holding your body hands and arms in unusual positions, and the first few months the sounds you get are likely to be scratchy.
Anyone can pluck a classical guitar string and get a nice tone. Keyboard is another option but that very soon gets complicated with harmonies and counterpoint involving both hands having to choose the right notes. On the classical guitar, the left hand selects the note and the right hand sounds it.
A career path I was kind-of on and bailed out on decades ago was music education, so of course I am aware that pentatonic recorder (straight wooden or plastic flute) and pentatonic harp are the "easiest" instruments, but they are also limited. I of course admit that a master can get very impressive music out of either, but even more music out of recorders and harps that have all the notes of the Western scale.
I did not consider mandolin, but I know that it has its advocates. You play it like a guitar but it is tuned like a violin, so there are more notes under your fingers in the first position. And since I wrote that, the ukulele has made a major comeback, surely a Sign of the End Times.
jm
Buy a good guitar from the outset.
$5100 gets you a very nice guitar from that chap. But that's large investment that depreciates as soon as you take delivery.
25 years ago or so I bought a German classical guitar for $400 and the teacher involved was very impressed with it. With the internet and the economic malaise, I am sure that the Yamaha classical guitar Sweetwater sells for $279 will play easily enough to let a person find out whether a larger investment is justified.
jm
Fantastic -- great inspiration for an aspiring recordist!
Vbr,
Sam
Chances are that the folks who can spend $10k on cables can also afford your suggested trip - they can probably afford both 5 times over.
I think that in the High End Audio Wars (spoiler! That is Star Wars Prequel No. 37!), there are as many middle-class or even working-class questers as there are plutocrats.
I know you are a musician. Do you know anything about big-time bass-boat fishing? Yes, you can go fishing for bass in a $399 rowboat with a $29 fishing rig. But a serious boat can easily with all electronics and gear, cost $40,000. And that is (pardon me) basically a working-class hobby.
I once filled in at a foreign-car garage, writing work orders and cashing out customers for a friend whose life was falling apart as his wife died, and he had built a Spec Miata tube-frame race car for a client, and that car ended up costing $120,000.
First time I ever beheld in the flesh a Hewlett swappable-gears rear end, or Carello remote-reservoir adjustable shocks, $1200 each. External-belt cam drive. One could have spent half the money to get around Lime Rock faster in a Sports Racing D car like a Radical--but this guy had to win the class he was in. And he was doing OK, but not über-rich.
PEOPLE HAVE HOBBIES.
As the Irish song goes, "If there's food in the house, and nobody's sick..."
jm
have a $40K pick-up, a $10K trailer and two snowmobiles, $10-15K each.
I have a 1997 F-150, some cross-country skis, and a $10-15K stereo. But somehow *I* am the elitist!
Middle class folks can afford a system like mine, it just means making it a priority. Music is important to me, a shiny new car and motorized toys are not.
I use the analogy: if a guy who can't afford it borrows $43,000 for a new Audi, his neighbors say, "How nice for them!"
But if a guy who can afford it spends $20,000 on a pair of loudspeakers he will listen to at least 10 hours every week, the neighborhood ladies quietly hand his wife divorce-lawyer business cards.
jm
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: