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To elaborate a little then......

Audio magazines get plenty of flack because they`re now widely regarded as being part of `the establishment`, whereas at one time they were `our` champions - seeking out the truth among the myriad claims and counter-claims of audio-equipment manufacturers.

Of course an experienced reviewer should have an inbuilt point of reference which has evolved over many listening sessions, but superior experience is NOT a guarantee of superior knowledge, taste, objectivity or wisdom.
Most of us (I`m making a BIG assumption here?) regard hi-fi as our hobby, probably/possibly our main hobby which although a constant drain on the finances - sometimes a strain on relationships even - gives us immense satisfaction by transporting us out of the living-room and into the presence of world-class musicians.

Audio reviewers are a different breed entirely.
For a start their eyebrows meet in the middle and poor personal hygiene ensures no social life whatsoever, the only contact with `outsiders` being at Hi-Fi shows when the aforementioned poor personal hygiene ensures the `sweet-spot` becomes instantly available on entering the various demo rooms.

It is at these shows where alliances and friendships are developed between manufacturers and reviewers; this is the main problem as I see it.
If I personally knew the manufacturer of a piece of equipment being reviewed - which had little musical merit in my opinion - there`s no doubt my review would pull punches.
Positive aspects would be highlighted, negative aspects glossed over or the usual opt-out of "some may prefer this presentation..." used, and most friends actually think I`m too blunt and brutely honest in most respects.
The difference with reviewing audio equipment is that audiophile products are usually manufactured by relatively small companies, run by enthusiastic owners who probably had some hand in designing or at least `voicing` their equipment. Criticise one of their products in a specialist magazine and it would ruin the prospects of that product`s sales and could quite literaly ruin the company, so we should all perhaps put ourselves in the position of the reviewer before being too critical ourselves I feel; however, that`s not to say we shouldn`t be critical at all. If you want to review audio equipment you MUST be prepared to give an honest, undiluted opinion - I`ll admit I couldn`t do it, but then I`d never become an audio reviewer.

What I would also suggest is that it`s the over proliferation of gushing reviews which make the even slightly less gushing reviews so damning, and the perception of those gushing reviews themselves as `just another gushing review`.
I`m sure we all had teachers who praised every kid at every opportunity but who`s praise we held in low esteem; it was invariably the hard to please, stern-faced ogre`s praise which we sought and respected the most.

To my mind, the vast majority of new audio equipment could be described as `slightly different presentation than the Mk1 version, more a sideways shift rather than an improvement`. Sometimes there`s the latest fad/fashion to be exploited such as bitstream/HDCD/20bit chips/24 bit chips/upsampling etc taking CD playback as an example where none of these `technologies` is overtly superior to the other if deployed within the same player with identical analogue components.

Audio magazines have to perpetuate the myth that audio is constantly making massive gains in quality, because if the truth was known we wouldn`t be very interested in reading about the latest and greatest products.
I`ve yet to hear a comparatively priced integrated amp which sounds better than the Sugden A21a pure class `A` which is probably about a 15 year old design, same with the EAR 509 monoblocks at their price point which is around 20 year old; why if audio equipment has been constantly improving incrementally over the years are so may turning to older valve designs, or in general find listening to music through their `Best Buy` components so uninspiring? Incorrect matching of equipment is a major factor admittedly, but at the end of the day people are taken in by rave reviews and rather than concentrate on correct system matching they assume one of their components just isn`t good enough.

I`ve yet to read an issue of Stereophile just in case anyone assumes my comments are aimed in this direction, and will happily admit that I`ve been exploring their excellent website quite often lately for information on DVD players, so big thanks to Stereophile in this respect; in fact if it wasn`t for their technical information I`d never have known that the Philips SACD1000 didn`t output a PCM stereo digital signal and might have ended up buying this model myself.

Finally, I can`t really agree with the statement that reviewers can accurately describe how a system sounds even if they don`t like that sound; if he states a system is TOO bright or TOO warm etc this is not objective or useful to me unless the example of Hi-Fi+ is followed, where their reviewers` own systems are printed so I at least know what they`re using for a reference - and if they can put a decent system together themselves.
If somebody recommends a piece of equipment on this forum it`s usually possible to click onto his own system whereby many a time I`ll raise my eyebrows and dismiss the recommendation out of hand as coming from a cloth-eared gimp - other times it`s apparent someone is fairly knowledgeable and discerning (IMO) so I`ll take them seriously.

Best Regards,
Chris Redmond.


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