Critic's Corner

Posted by fastjazz (A) on February 20, 2007 at 06:30:11

In Reply to: So your TAS and Stereophile... posted by mkuller on February 19, 2007 at 15:38:50:

New TAS - awlays takes up less than 8 minutes at the newsstand - the usual: absolutely nothing of substance (the design of the mag leaves a ton of white space - it appeals to the touch, but not the mind - sizzle substitues for steak or tuna), usual cookie cutter reviews that for the most part ultimately say ABSOLUTELY nothing - and they fail at even being remotely entertaining, the usual pseudo-intellectual drivel in the second half of the thing, and then of course there is the utterly pompous and nonsensical schtick that is HP. All in all a great 8 minute read if I get to Grand Central a few minutes early and need to wait a bit for my evening train.

There is NO integrity to be found anywhere in TAS reviews (HP, JV!!!!!) - except maybe Sue Kraft - but her problem (or virtue!) is she barely understands the stuff she's reviewing - technical details always come from the manufacturer - cut and paste...that's OK though, at least I can get a sense of what she really hears - and there is no pseudo-intellectual drivel to be found in her stuff (I would read Sue in Stereophile). And Fred Kaplan - the first one I look for in those eight minutes - but heck, now he's at Stereophile (thank you JA!)...

Hey - one's person's swill is another person's champagne - love what you will. TAS sucks in my book and I'll never pay for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't deliver awesome stuff to others. Whatever makes you happy makes you happy...

Now Stereophile...long time subscriber, I read it because first and foremost I TRUST JA - the man has built up a swell of integrity that no one - no one - else in the audio mag/reviewer business can touch - a person who knows his stuff from so many angles (listener, recording pro, actually knows and understands the technical issues behind the hardware, knows the testing, makes the connections between ethereal subjectivity and objective test results). And while no magazine's policy systems (yes, plural, they exist in various guises) is ever perfect (or even close to it) at least JA looks to put controls in place. And because of JA I never doubt the integrity of the reviewers - including that of Fremer, the magazine's own king of pomposity and over exposure - but more power to him if he can pull it off and sustain the exposure).

Stereophile has its flaws - lots of pages devoted to fluff I'll never read (records to die for - gag me!) that I would much prefer to always see devoted to high end super expensive stuff I'll never afford - but absolutely thrill to know about. I don't really want to read about stuff I can afford (I've got Parasound Halo hardware (yeah, I'm solid state - I don't like the tube sound, and I'm entitled to like what I like) and the new updated Von Schweikert VR4-SRs and digital sources (no vinyl - superior sound? its all in the mind - but that is just my prejudice and no one elses, and I'm entitled to it) and Runco video equipment - so I don't not spend, but latest Krell, say, is way out of my league - but I SURE do LOVE reading about it all!)

Give me more, JA, much more of the high end stuff - that is what I find entertaining. It is so much easier to downsize to my budget levels from the heights than to upsize from the depths.

Then there is Sam Tellig - snooze - give Fred Kaplan that space - but JA must know something I don't - perhaps Sam scores BIG in focus groups and other content evaluations. Fine with me - but its a 20 second skim I'll gladly trade for Kaplan. And God bless John Marks and Art Dudley (who sometimes I ignore - I could care less about his beloved Quads) - who both write honestly and without pretense - there is no psuedo-intellectual pomposity here.

Music? There are SO MANY other sources I use that it is meaningless to me in either TAS or Stereophile. But again, that is my preference and nothing more. Anyone who finds the music info useful in these pubs - more power to you too!

And Stereophile's Web work cannot be discounted - a huge service and undertaking. Six Moons is awfully cool too on the Web front, as is Srabjen (hmm - did I spell that correctly?), who also gets high marks on the integrity front from me, and the site gets my time and attention as well.