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SO your place/magazine/ site only does reviews of stuff offered freely, but only if the company happens to have a guy who can offer it to the other guy in certain situations?.
NEVER of stuff not offered for review.
Now this is a totally biased system. One where in the past a single company had a dozen of it's products reviewed... It actually was a joke that yet again another one of "that' companies gizmos got a review. True that is in the past, and I hope it never happens again.
Naturally this a product of SCHMOOZING.Not buying, or tit for tat. but just plain old fashioned schmoozing. See the distributor at a show, have a conversation, offer a product, accepted. Schmoozing at it most mundane. And what about products from companies where you just despise the guy? I bet none...
Is this any better than actually money under the table? or buy an ad so I will review your product?
IMO no.
A neutral system would be reviewing products a lot of audiophiles were interested in, and not just ones the manufacturer wants to get press on.For example, the famous case of no Magnepan review. Due to favors for the manufacturer, who 'does not want measurements'.
Now I know the way it is done is the way it is. I just want to write that the current way it IS done, is also a problem, and not a pretty one.
So the way it seems to work is the manufacturer has to 'run into' this guy, so they can get around to talking about loaning a product for a review. Is that any more 'legit' than other means of making a reviewer and a product bump int each other?
Note I am not condemning the practice. Just writing that it is just as biased, and fraught with problems. Different problems, but real issues.
Edits: 05/23/16Follow Ups:
What's keeping you?
"See the distributor at a show, have a conversation, offer a product, accepted. Schmoozing at it most mundane. And what about products from companies where you just despise the guy? I bet none..."
Have you ever spoken with Alon Wolf of Magico? That company gets plenty of reviews, and he's a nudnik.
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They call me The Kosher Butcher. I only fight in Orthodox stance.
Last November, Magico Operations Manager Dave Shackleton was gracious enough to give me a full tour of the Magico Audio manufacturing facilities. He also treated me to a listening session in their excellent listening room, with very high end electronics and their wonderful S7 speakers. It was getting late in the afternoon. Mr. Wolf came in, introduced himself, and politely said that we needed to wrap it up and power down the system. He was very cordial to me and we chatted for a few minutes. I found him to be a very interesting and insightful person. He was clearly in "business mode", but quite personable and definitely not rude or 'short'. It would be nice to talk with him again when we have more time.
To your description of him as a "nudnik" (a word which I actually had to look up!), I would disagree. Observers are often put off by people who are intelligent and focussed on what they do, especially in the sciences arena. Sometimes, this is because the two people are just on different "planes of thought", and it doesn't mean that one or the other is a "nudnik".
:)
Too many words used for a very clear situation: most reviewers, nearly all, are very heavily biased for one of several clear reasons, which involve a combination of friendships, favors, influence from those who run the site or magazine, outright graft.....and throw in a large dose of incompetence in most cases.Those who go by the reviews instead of careful listening end up with what they should expect to get when going by the advice of others who they don't know at all and who have large potential vested interests.
So, Smelly Socks, it is indeed a messed up system, and full of bias, as you suggest.
Edits: 09/30/16
n
Not how it works for me. I approach companies about a product I want to review, either because I heard it at a show and though it had promise or I have liked a company's product in the past or whatever. We start a dialogue and then they decide if they want to give me what I asked for to review. Often they do.
So, I review what I want to review and not what is "supplied" to me.
...products get selected for review.
The manufacturer/distributor may offer it to the publication.
The reviewer may hear it at a show and request it.
The editor may hear some buzz about it through the internet or letters and ask the equipment person at the magazine to call the manufacturer/distributor to request it.
Some companies do not want a review. They may have difficulty meeting current demand. Others don't want to chance a negative one.
And then there are those like Magnepan who put conditions on the loan so the full review will not happen.
If you want a publication that goes out and buys products for review, I'm afraid you're stuck with Consumer Reports.
Nt.
For Smelly Sox to step to the plate, purchase stereo equipment, and then send the unopened equipment to Stereophile, et al. to review. I won't be holding my breath.
If car review places (in particular MotorWeek) can easily have cars loaned not only by automotive companies, but also dealers AND enthusiasts..
Why not stereophile?
...friends of HP's would bring new equipment by for him to listen to, especially when he was unable to procure it for review.
One period in the mid-1990s when William Johnson of ARC refused to loan the magazine equipment, he asked me to write about the new ARC line-stage I had purchased (which was disclosed in the article) and its update.
They had to come up with the equipment somehow, they had to figure out what was best.Neither Stereophile or the ezines are on a quest for anything. What's best isn't important to them. It's enough to receive and review equipment through the regular channels, and keep it coming.
Daniel
Edits: 05/26/16
Though it was an odd thing. TAS 'MADE" Audio Research famous and successful/
IMO without TAS Audio Research might have never made it big time.
Then the tepid review of the SP-15. Which was basically damned with faint praise.
((PS I Own a used SP-15 I bought for $1,500 used. (new price was $6,000.) And I can thank TAS for the great deal on a wonderful preamp.))I know HP would 'keep' stuff he was sent for review.. Sort of on permanent loan... Though between Infinity and ARC, he really gave them their money's worth in sales.
I STILL want to own the Infinity RS
Edits: 05/25/16
...that TAS also nearly put ARC under with their much less than enthusiastic reviews of ARC's first line of solid state stuff (SP4/A, D100A-Z etc). The reviews made me wonder who at ARC had pissed off Pearson and Co. so badly they would trash ARC's SS adventure to the point of near death.
Steve-O I believe the folks that " pissed-off " ---{your words, not mine, as I would have said extremely disappointed, not pissed off}--- the reviewers at Pearson & Co. were the engineers at ARC that designed, what turned out to be a poor attempt at a developing a line of solid state stuff such as: SP4/A, D100A-Z, etc. In the end it was the fault of these folks at ARC who designed a line of audio gear that was weak sonically in comparison to both ARC's tube offerings and to the comparable solid state offerings by other manufacturers at that time! I actually remember reading those reviews. IMHO I personally don't believe anyone at TAS was out to " get " ARC the company or anyone in ARC as you're stating you believe was the reasoning behind the poor review that ARC received. Instead I believe TAS simply honestly reported the findings of their reviews and let the financial cards fall where they may...
I'm listening to: Make Someone Happy by Sophie Milman
Thetubeguy1954 (Tom Scata)
Central Florida Audio Society -- SETriodes Group -- Space Coast Audio Society
Full-range/Wide-range Drivers --- Front & Back-Loaded Horns --- High Sensitivity Speakers
.
Why do you believe it's lucky that's no longer true?
a) It certainly isn't lucky for folks who ended up purchasing a piece of audio gear that was released too soon and had sonic problems that still needed to be resolved.
b) Nor is it lucky for folks who purchased a piece of audio gear that still had reliability problems that needed to be resolved!
Perhaps you've forgotten how before TAS & Stereophile were around to tell their readers about those types of issues surfacing during some of their audio equipment reviews ---{ often it was by a new start up audio manufacturer }--- steps a & b while not common, occurred more often than it ever should have! It was the realization by new audio manufacturers that a bad review of their audio gear because it fell into either one of those two categories in particular would almost certainly destroy their company financially. It was almost certainly due to that type of honest reviewing by TAS & Stereophile, despite where the financial cards might fall, that brought that practice by audio manufacturers to an end!
Personally I believe ANY audio manufacturer that would knowingly release a piece of audio gear that fell into either of those two categories, choosing to use their clients as guinea pigs to review the sonic merits of their audio gear or even worse to test out just how reliable their audio gear actually was, all the while attempting to make as much money as fast as they possibly could before "the word" about them got out to the public at large, deserved to die financially!
Now perhaps I'm mistaken as I cannot recall a name, but I seem to think I remember that exact thing happening with some amplifier or with some speaker in the 70s or 80s. Does anyone remember anything like that occurring or am I fooling myself with fake memories that I honestly believe occurred?
I'm listening to: Make Someone Happy by Sophie Milman
Thetubeguy1954 (Tom Scata)
Central Florida Audio Society -- SETriodes Group -- Space Coast Audio Society
Full-range/Wide-range Drivers --- Front & Back-Loaded Horns --- High Sensitivity Speakers
...it shows how independent HP was when the sound sucked.
For anyone who knew him...
...I suspect there was a lot more to it than just that sucking sound.
...besides Infinity and ARC many would not have heard of without TAS.
Magnepan, Marantz, Advent, Dahlquist, CJ and many other high end companies.
I heard the IRSs in HPs samllish room a couple of times and they were amazing.
Marantz? was big *WAY* before TAS. Ditto with Advent.
_
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...perhaps.
I discovered TAS in 1977 with issue #6 or #7.
I had never heard of either Marantz or Advent.
That issue rated stacked Advents along with KLH 9s as the best.
I owned a system I had purchased in 1973 at Pacific Stereo in Long Beach, CA (the only stereo store I knew about) consisting of a Kenwood receiver, Infinity speakers (I had seen the brand favorably reviewed in Stereo Review in 1972 back when Julian gave letter grades) and a Dual record changer.
I was looking for new speakers when I heard a pair of Dahlquists at a Federated Store and was blown away.
Then I ordered TAS back issues and discovered Saul Marantz helped Jon Dahlquist build his speaker and HP helped them do the final tuning in his listening room.
"I discovered TAS in 1977 with issue #6 or #7.I had never heard of either Marantz or Advent.
That issue rated stacked Advents along with KLH 9s as the best."
Ah, that at least partially explains your lack of knowledge.
I'm guessing that you still haven't opened "Music, Physics and Engineering", nor "Why You Hear What You Hear", nor "Acoustical Designing in Architecture", nor "Music, Acoustics and Architecture", nor "Master Handbook of Acoustics", nor "Loudspeaker Design Cookbook". Am I right?
:)
Edits: 05/27/16 05/28/16
...when I retire and decide to build loudspeakers, I'll ask you for your reading list.
Have you read Harley's "Guide to High End Audio" yet?
I thought not.
Sounds like you weren't trying. Marantz had been around for a quarter century and Advent for a decade by 1977.
Saul was making headlines with Marantz in the 50's. Not sure when Advent started, but I remember seeing/hearing/lusting after the large Advent in a Lafayette Radio shop around 1970 with my dad.
_
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