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This is what their Website says: "...2004 Stereophile Buyer's Guide lists every high-end audio component available in the US..."I took a look at it today, and was astonished to see the many, many items missing in action. In the TURNTABLE section, for example: No VIP (ditto under TONEARMS), only partial listing for BASIS, no SOTA, etc., etc.
In the CARTRIDGE section: No mention of Audio-Technica, nor of Ortofon or Dynavector.Other names missing include Magnum Dynalab (INTEGRATED AMPS), Spectral, (AMPS, PREAMPS). After this much, I gave up looking further.
"Every high-end audio component available in the U.S.?" What an unmitigated waste of time.
Follow Ups:
They're missing quite a few co's, like Marsh and also the issue is very hard to read because the specs extend to the next page. To be fair S&V is also missing some co.'s like Sound Lab but they are a lot easier to read.
My complaint about their Buyer's Guide should not be construed as "bashing", even though some may feel that Stereophile left themselves wide open for that sort of criticism by making such an unrealistic claim regarding the inclusiveness of the Guide. No one, of course, should expect any such guide to be able to meet that standard. I just wonder why they went overboard when it could so easily have been avoided.
Beyond that, when I noticed that there were SO MANY of the heavy-hitters in the industry left unmentioned, it seemed to indict the whole project as worse than sloppy; I would have expected better from the publishers. Granted, it's their first attempt at such a product, but it's not as if it hasn't been done before, and Audio was the exemplar that Stereophile did not come close to matching. When they realized that their objective could not be met, their claim should have been modified. Instead, they end up looking incompetent.And yes, of course the specifications and other information are provided by the manufacturers or their agents; that is the custom and there is no suggestion that the material is otherwise.
I think that most readers who expect something somewhat more thorough will feel shortchanged
I am also utterly disappointed with their Buyer's Guide.Not only many brand-name products were omitted, their relative company and website info were also left unmentioned. The specs are also very hard to read; I wonder which genius arraned such lame layout.
Although it is their first attemp to release such a publication, many have been done before. So it is not like they did not have any references at all.
I sincerely hope their 2005 issue (if there will be one) will be much improved.
Gang,Look we where all given spreadsheets ask to fill them out and email them or mail them in. If you didn't do it, you where not included.
That said... they did leave me out of a section and some of my specs don't match what they had in the Guide, so I can only imagine that they printed all this stuff out instead of compiling it electronically and made errors inputing the data.
It does represent the first of it's kind since the days of Audio. I did inform SP that Audio would call every year and ask questions about things they where unsure.
It will only get better... Next year more companies will comply and more ideas noted.
Thanks all
Gordon
J. Gordon Rankin
Yup, it's a rev. 1 thing, but that doesn't go far enough.If a manufacturer didn't send me the information, I would put the company name on a list of like ones in the back as a matter of thoroughness. I bet the manufacturer would meet my deadline the next year. But S'phile has a large stake in not pissing off the manufacturers and dealers. BTW, journalists do this all the time: "Roseanne Barr had no comment...." (Okay, unlikely example.)
Speaking of which, their subscription fulfillment company can't even start a sub on a requested or logical month or mail reliably (even allowing for USPS problems.) That should be trivial enough to result in a very small error rate; I know, I used to work in fulfillment.
Lastly, I think there might have been some errors in the listed speaker prices, possibly having to do with confusion over whether the prices are for pair or not. I'm just working from memory after a casual glance, but I don't think, for example, that KEF's Q models are quite that cheap per pair. It makes me wonder about the other data.
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if they give me a break on price becuse it's the first time then I would be more forgiving. The lack of standards and excellence sets a poor tone for my hobby. I don't go for this get it right next time when my time and money are on the line. the fantasy world they create serves them well, but it is a royal pain in the ass when I am out trying to buy something above mid fi.
nt
I'm going to stick my neck out here into the world of Stereophile bashing. It is impossible for the limited staff of this magazine to complete an in-depth review of the audio market. Why not take the recommendations at face value?I live in an area of the country where a quality audio dealer is nearly 100 miles away. The recommended components have been of great value to me. In addition, from my experience the authors have not been wrong.
I would certainly like to see a larger list, like some of the British audio magazines, but it is a quality magazine that I appreciate from cover to cover.
@ a local news stand and doing so only reinforced my long ago decision to stop subscribing to "like" audio mags in the late 70's/early 80's. What a joke, including an analog guru who most likely has but a year's experience with such.How long has this been going on? The mag's I dropped years ago were considerably better then this (while still being lame for their time)?
It might be so,but it also is the premier audio mag that others use.I do look at it for trends. Some stuff in it is worth knowing. For those that can afford such big priced items it must be great!Some people can change over their systems every month. Wish I could!
Another thing I look at is designs then try to find lower priced gear that intergrate things that sound like breakthroughs.
Sen$ibleSound is a mag that I like for more relistic listings of stuff,but I do not agree with much of the things they say like wires are wires and they all sound the same. Not to my ears anyways.
Mags are only good to follow trends now for me. Other than that I really do not have a need for them.
One mag I have been reading is AudioXpress which is really great for design work and tweeks. Plus leading designers place articles in it. Where do you get that kind of reading. Most are based on subjective opinions which is mostly what you find here and I do not have to pay. I get more from coming to the internet audio BB's then I ever did from the mags.
JMO
I think it is a great magazine and I look forward to the 17th or 18th of every month when it reaches my mailbox!A lot of people complain about the "always-positive" reviews, but usually you can read between the lines and figure out if it something the reviewer really likes, or whether it is something that is just adequate. It seems like over the last few years, they have managed to include quite a few good reviews of more realistically priced products, without turning into a Sound & Vision type of magazine. I enjoyed the review of the new Krell CD/SACD player in this months issue. While the $4000 retail is a little steep for me, I am hoping that they will begin to show up used in a year or two, closer to the $2000 range. I will definitely pick one up.
I don't care much for the music reviews, while I know that many people wish they would include more of them. I don't care much for classical, and the blues and jazz reviews that usually take up 5+ pages. I also like the advertisements - as I often like to find out more on a companies products through their websites.
It's also nice to see what the state of the are really is. Even if I can't afford that kind of technology, it often trickles down to less expensive products in a few years!
I would like to subscribe to some other mags, as my local magazine stand does not carry any. If anyone has subsciprion info for other mags, please let me know!
for a change of pace you might enjoy "the audio critic'' a kind of obscure magizine that is very different than what you might be able to get at your newsstand. they don't list a web address but phone is 215 538 9555 fax 215 638 5432. in the issue I have in my hand, letters to the editor contains very nice letters by distinguished people . one says "glad you are out there battling the fakes and frauds",(Dr. R A. Greiner, emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering, university of wisconsin) another says "Shines by the absence of the typical technical nonsense that I find in all the other audio magizines"(Siegfried Linkwitz-he of the Linkwitz-Riley crossover- this guy has his own
linkwitz lab for gosh sake. I throw this information in so you can see I'm not alone in suggesting this magizine might have some merit for you. I also like the english magizines ,generally,
if you overlook the (somewhat understandable) strong bias towards english products.
Hi-Fi Choice and Hi-Fi+ , both English mags, have very straightforward reviews, and don't require any special reading technique to interpret their writing. Their websites have subscription info.
_____________________________"But this is the plastic age,
the quiet rage
is damned and civilized."--Echobelly, "Ondine"
nt
Do you have a point, or is this ad hominem name-calling supposed to be a substitute for one?
_____________________________"But this is the plastic age,
the quiet rage
is damned and civilized."--Echobelly, "Ondine"
I would like to subscribe to some other mags, as my local magazine stand does not carry any. If anyone has subsciprion info for other mags, please let me know!Here's my fav. Love this magazine! Canadian and been in business a long time.
This will help you understand.
reviews I read (namely the combo music/3 speaker system review). However, being familar with one of the speakers I did not see that portion of the article as being accurate and/or informative (never cared for nutshell reviews in general.Think you may be referring to the Gillet Musical Fidelity reviews that rubbed some the wrong way.
I knock the single issue I recently went through as compared to like magazines 20+ years ago.
The old mag's often included test measurements, that while not always useful, were nonetheless there when needed. If nothing else the measurments helped to weed out major flaws/problems one was likely to encounter when system matching.
I also prefer to see equipment reviewed in multiple systems (a practice that seems to be falling out of style). There is a British online mag that used to do this, but they stopped aprrox. 1.5 years ago during/following reconstruction. I realize that doing this is a lot more work for the reviewer (like 6 times as much work to use three systems), but it's still the best way to gather info for an accurate (more accurate) review. This requires time spent that the writers/reviewers need to be compensated for which is probably why such reviews are no longer popular.
I never understand the "having to read between the lines" review style. I have heard many people say this. If I have to get out my secret decoder ring to understand what exactly they are saying, why should I give them my money as a "trusted" review source.I consider their reviews pretty much useless. I killed my subscription about a decade ago.. still look at the news stand... but do not miss it at all.
mdl.
You might have saved yourself a lot of embarrassment. Even rudimentary research would have showed that Fremer has been writing about analog since the 1980s and worked in pro audio before that (he was music and sound design supervisor for Disney's Tron twenty - one years ago, for example).
Fremer confused (or some of his work confused) with another writer for an online magazine. I just searched for for the old review I had based my opinion on and could not locate it. The product reviewed was the MMF-5 TT.Did he do an online (meaning free) review of the MMF-5? If not them I am mistaken. If so, and I got the name right then it's one of the most laughable pro reviews I have read to date.
The November issue of the mag is still a joke, especially when compared to the format/content of like mags 25 years ago. Don't know if this is a typical issue or not.
Tron?
has for years been a knowledgable and heat-felt advocate of analog. His love of the medium - which is obvious in his early writings and continues today - is infectuous. Whether they agree or not with his taste and conclusions about particular equipment, many people credit him as a major influence in growth in interest in vinyl playback.
> > Did he do an online (meaning free) review of the MMF-5? < <I doubt it. Mikey wrote some music articles and interviews for Listener during that magazine's last couple of years but I understood that his commitment to Stereophile prohibited him from writing about equipment for us. I expect that same restriction is in place today.
I'll check out some of Fremer's work, once I can rid myself of the Tron images that suddenly emerged from the back of my mind.I'm bad with names, but think that it may have been Soundstage or Enjoythemusic, definately not Listener (certain of that as I have never read Listener, just heard about it).
Tron?
There were a couple of nice thick equipment annuals available in the late 70's (one from the UK and one domestic), but I don't know what happened to the mags/publishers. Both carried basic info, but were good sources for initiating one to new gear (lots of entries).
I chose my first set of mini moniters from one of them (Ls3/5a's), but ended up having a friend bring them over from England as I could not locate a pair in the LA area (she carried them on the flight in a Harrod's shopping bag). She brought me a Harrod's kitchen apron (looked like raincoat material) her next trip as I had enjoyed the bag so much.
BTW, where can I find your writing these days?
~~b
My literary output these days is confined to the mainframe software I write for a living, rants on Audio Asylum, and emails to friends. The editors of the world's hi fi magazines didn't exactly queue up outside my door when Listener was killed off. Also, Art Dudley and I have been friends for longer than either of us care to remember; I'm sure that writing for another editor just wouldn't be the same as writing for an old and close friend. And, to be honest, writing hi fi reviews is a hell of a lot of work and I'm kind of enjoying the break after 8 years of doing it.
No one would hire you.Marty
... loathsome, even.
æ
You might as well just be nice if that's the best you can do.(Of course, I'm taking the supplied explanation at face value. He's writing code, was fond of the previous situation, wants a break from it. Seems plausible enough. I've written film reviews - that can be a kind of grind after awhile...but I'm not exactly a born writer.)
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or just "used cat litter."scratch, scratch . . .
maybe you should sweep up the place, huh?
nt
Nice dig Marty. And just who would hire you?
> > And just who would hire you?Actually, Marty's a darn fine lawyer and he's at the top of my witness pool.
-Joe.
Enjoyed your reviews, tho. At least continue ranting around here, you know, just to keep a hand in. :-)
~~b
Michael Fremer probably has more experience with Vinyl than a lot of us.
Matthew
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