Home Critic's Corner

Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry.

RE: The audio odysseys of professional reviewers

I believe in the system approach. Not necessarily a one company system approach but rather - audition complete systems - compare those - have an idea what the best sound is and then take note of what was in said system and then buy it. If you have to do it one at a time so be it but at least you have the end goal in mind.

The throw money at an amp that was well reviewed by some reviewer who has an entirely different system is a big fat waste of time and a waste of a lot of money.

First step: Know what the company you are listening believes is the best sound reproduction.

The only way to do that is to hear their "system" or at least what they recommend for speakers (if they make source and amps).

I am currently writing a system review that will cover some of the thoughts here but "know the sonic Aesthetic of the company first"

For example - someone will read a review of a Meridian CD player and rush out and buy it - but wait - have you heard a complete Meridian System - maybe you're after neutral or open and lively while when you hear a complete system from them it is warm and polite.

Second: Once you have the baseline knowledge of what they're about (and everyone says their about neutrality and accuracy blah blah blah) the way to know what they believe is to audition! So if it's bright and you're system needs a bit of bright then maybe you opt for that over the other system and components that sounded decidedly warm and overly thick.

And you can't really trust the review either because while they may say AMP A is warm - well that's relative to what they own. Maybe they own an amp that you have found to be shockingly shrill in which case everything will be deemed a degree of overly warm when in reality his amp is just shrill and the supposed warm amps are neutral.

Reviewers are just audiophiles who can write a little bit. Before people became reviewers they were reading the magazines of others. It dawned on me, however, that when I auditioned stuff that was clearly LEAGUES better than what the magazines were raving about that it was time to pause.

For me it started really with the Sugden A21 which I very much liked but I ended up buying an Arcam integrated amp because it was getting all the rave press. The amp was poorly built and sounded "ok" - better than a receiver - better than most of what I heard from the likes of NAD and Bryston. So I understood the positive press. But I passed up on that 1995ish version of the Sugden and hearing it a second time it was very clear to me that I didn't need the audio magazines to influence me in any way - I had ears - and since then well it always wins the blind level matched sessions it's been in at Hi-fi Choice. Come to think of it my current stuff also won their blind sessions as well.

Except I knew that after about 4 minutes of listening to the Moonlight Sonata - it is so strikingly blatantly obvious that is so vastly better that I could no longer stomach reading reviews telling me about some massive overpriced SS amp or some 5 way stone henge impersonating loudspeaker sounding great when it almost invariably sounds like someone ran over the family cat with a lawnmower.



Jack Roberts of Dagogo actually does do this in a series of articles over the years. Beatnik's journey







This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Kimber Kable  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.