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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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In Reply to: RE: Critics being critical: 10 Audio pans the Krell S-275 posted by Inmate51 on June 26, 2012 at 19:35:15:
RGA = Richard G AustenAnyway, I agree with most points. I think people put WAY WAY too much stock into what reviewers have to say.
Let's take movie reviewers - What is a good criteria to be a film critic - maybe a literature degree - maybe a deep interest in film studies. Certainly a love of movies.
I considered becoming a film reviewer - and got some tips from professional movie critics on outlines to effectively engage the reader. Far easier IMO than writing stereo equipment reviews.
People often ask why the critic hates a movie the average population loves. And the answer boils down tot he sheer number of films they see. If the average person sees 10 movies in a year and say one romantic comedy they may go easier on it because it's the only one they saw. The film critic has seen maybe 40 romantic comedies that year and perhaps rate on a sliding scale. So they rip it to shreds if it doesn't do anything truly inspiring. Which in turn means they also like the odd ball foreign film no one else quite gets because again sheer number of films they likely latch onto anything that is remotely original.
I understand why posters want audio reviewers who are recording engineers, or pro musicians, or people who live at the symphony. But honestly - none of that means a damn thing. Those are simply things that make people feel the reviewer has more weight or credentials.
Here's why it doesn't mean anything.
Lets take speakers.
1) You will have professional monitoring speakers - say ATC, PMC, Genelec, B&W, Yamaha as examples of speakers used in recording studios world wide. You will find audiophiles, musicians, recording engineers, reviewers who attend live events (or not) regularly and of course the manufacturers themselves who will swear up and down by these speakers. They will tell you this is the only thing that reproduces the live event or recordings properly.2) You will have a very similar group of people who will say swear up and down about Electrostatic and Planar Magnetic loudspeakers and will tell you this is the only thing that reproduces the live event or recordings properly.
3) You will have a very similar group of people who will swear up and down about High Efficiency (often horns) loudspeakers and will tell you this is the only thing that reproduces the live event or recordings properly.
And there are many other camps (Active versus passive, omni-directionals, line arrays, single drivers, Open baffle, large diameter versus single point in space, various hybrid designs, sub-satellites) and we've not even started on analog versus digital or SETs and Tube amps. I was just in a debate about EL34 versus KT88 so people have specific takes just on the output tubes of PP amplifiers.
I don't think it is wise to "go by the reviews" and other reviewers have dogged me for saying that but when you take 1-3 into consideration there is NO CONSENSUS AT ALL on audio equipment. No consensus in the audiophile world or in the review world.
Magazines are generally smart - they have reviewers in camps 1-3 on staff - those reviewers typically get what they "prefer" and thus everything gets a good review.
People, I think, use reviews for affirmation of their own purchases and seek out reviews that support their preferences.
The problem with reviews is that virtually every product on the "audiophile" market will have a rave review by someone. When I started out I put a lot of trust in the reviews and wound up with pretty mediocre sounding gear. It was when a review publication raved about a speaker that was best in class that I went out and auditioned the speaker. I was excited as it was in my price range and looked nice. I was roundly unimpressed - it was mechanical and overly polite.
Add to this the fact that when I wrote into the magazine asking advice on a loudspeaker they write it off as being suspect because it was undamped and liked to be placed in corners. They judged it without ever auditioning it. The fact that it utterly trounced the speaker they recommended in every conceivable way (the speaker and company no longer exist and the speaker I wrote in about is now so popular they can't keep up with the demand even after opening a dedicated plant). Just saying. And even that magazine finally heard them at a show and raved about them.
I digress. You hit the nail on the head with reading for fun and fantasy. I think reviewers can be helpful for buying decisions - reviewers - NOT magazines. You find a reviewer who you consistently seem to agree with and you consistently hear stuff the same way. I put more stock in them and if they rave about something then I will try and make the time to hear it, After all if I agree with him/her on the last 5 then chances are I will on the next one.
The overall magazine doesn't work because if I typically agree with the reviewer who likes SET amps and HE speakers and TUUUUBES and single driver speakers - then what is the point of reading what the reviewer who thinks all that is obsolete junk and instead owns and claims that ONLY 1000 watt SS power amps and 6 way 8 foot speakers are the way ahead? And vice-versa.
I did and still do two things with reviews.
1) find a reviewer who hears it the same as me
2) consensus.Consensus is taking different reviewers at different magazines and if enough of them rave about something and illustrate they largely hear it the same way then they're probably onto something and at the very least it's worth auditioning.
Edits: 06/27/12
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Follow Ups
- RE: Critics being critical: 10 Audio pans the Krell S-275 - RGA 07:14:24 06/27/12 (3)
- Reviewers... - mkuller 08:48:01 06/27/12 (0)
- RE: Critics being critical: 10 Audio pans the Krell S-275 - Inmate51 08:18:07 06/27/12 (0)
- Good Post (nt) - Jack G 07:27:05 06/27/12 (0)
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