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In Reply to: RE: Some are and some aren't, as implied in scores of professional reviews posted by genungo on September 03, 2016 at 12:21:10
I agree but it would be helpful when the reviews specifically list a few speakers they think are bettered. If I review a $300 standmount and claim it beats speakers at two to three times the price - which ones? Bose or B&O? Or Sonus Faber? There is a bit of a difference.
And it does become somewhat subjective. If a speaker is well reviewed by virtually every publication on the planet and costs $10k that doesn't mean you personally will like the speaker. For me personally if I am spending $10k I am buying an Audio Note E over a B&W or Revel or most everything. I consider the E to be VASTLY superior to those two without a hint of regret. But at the same time - I certainly can't argue against the glowing praise in reviews for the B&Ws that say they are the bee's knees of speakers at $10k. Nor can I force others to like my choice at $10k (begrudgingly learned this over the years).
In other words - someone is going to dislike out favorites.
So I am going to pretend to be an American capitalist for a moment and say - the market dictates what is valued and no valued. If company XYZ sells and keeps selling for 5 decades - it's making a good product in spite of my personal preference about said speaker. And if said speaker comes on the market lasts 10 years - no one really buys them - they go out of business - no rich audiophile comes along and resurrects them into a going concern - then the market decided it wasn't a particularly wonderful products. Wonderful products sell and sell for a long time and fetch good second hand values (because people still want them). Even if an "individual" doesn't care for them.
Follow Ups:
I cant tell you how many times in my younger days in this hobby that I took a reviewers recommendation, and usually it had to be glowing, that I didn't like what I heard. Now maybe the reviewer hears differently or these items didn't work with my gear or the room was to much different than his. Reviews should be taken in generalizations and not as cold hard facts....
Well it depends on the music as well. If the reviewer only listens to string quartets at moderate to low volume his choice in gear may be very different than the reader who likes AC/DC at 100dB. Indeed, like you I would read reviews go out and listen and then be roundly disappointed by some of the rave reviews (usually handed out to gutless small panels or 4 inch woofer standmounts for over $2k (back when $2k was about $4k now).
I became a reviewer and I bring the hard rock to the reviews.
I think that some reviewers hate to post negative comments in reviews if they can possibly help it. So they tend to publish full-blown reviews of products that have cleared the hurdles of positive preliminary mini auditions or investigations.
Yes, it might be helpful (for us) if they plastered the name of every under-achieving component on the wall for all to see, but doing so might also be bad for the industry in general. Better to highlight the names of good performers and simply ignore the names of bad ones?
Well yes the advertising dollars is important to all magazines print and on line - and we don't go after anyone. If I am going to sit down and listen for a month or two I am not going to torture myself to review stuff I don't like. There are certain designs that in general I don't much like so I avoid them. I respect that people love those certain designs.
With speakers - designs have certain inherent advantages and disadvantages and it's more a matter of what your ear latches onto as the "reference" which will make other designs weaker in comparison. A single driver has superior cohesiveness but has less dynamics, bass and treble. If your ear focuses on the cohesiveness and likes it and is used to it - the 2-way or multi-way may have more drive or bass and treble but will seem more disjointed (out of step). But you don't get both from one speaker - you are forced to make a choice over which one sounds better to you and to the music you listen to. If you listen to Oboe mostly or you listen to a rock band mostly - the choice may be quite clear to you. If you listen to a huge variety of music - you probably choose something that is more balanced - if you only listen to big band and percussion maybe those massive horns will only work for you.
Are $3.5K speakers this good? Salk Sound Silk bookshelf speakers?
I certainly hope they live up to the hype. The hype sounds wonderful.
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