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In Reply to: Re: DUT Return Policy posted by andy19191 on February 21, 2007 at 12:11:53:
>All started appearing in the mainstream after the end of the hi-fi boom and shortly after mainstream magazines switched to using reviews without controls.>Pray tell, when did mainstream audio magazines do reviews with controls?
Follow Ups:
> Oh, Mr. audiophile expert...I am afraid an on-and-off informal interest for about a year in the phenomenon of audiophiles does not make me an expert. Chatting occasionally on the internet is about the limit of my expertise on the subject.
To address your question, by switching from normal reviewing practises for technical products (e.g. reviewers with a technical knowledge of the products they are reviewing, using measured data to reason about technical performance, etc...) to what tends to be described as "subjective" reviews the consumer effectively lost the controls that keep the reviewer on the straight-and-narrow. This does not mean all subjective reviewers are utter scoundrels (which also depends on what behaviour one would classify as such) but it does mean the consumer can have little confidence in the results of the "subjective" review process itself without something else to support them.
The measurements in Stereophile, for example, provide a control on the statements of the subjective reviewer which are regularly commented upon in these pages. It is noteable that this check is not present for cables which is another indication to the OP that this type of audiophile product often receives special treatment.
Another form of control would be the use of a reference that the consumer or, possibly, the industry is familiar with. This does not mean a reference that the reviewer is familiar with.
Other controls that act on behalf of the consumer are simply following the rules of the scientific method which, of course, leads back towards conventional reviews for technical equipment.
over and over.
and knows whereof he speaks. he, like some of the rest of us, recognizes BULLoney when he sees it.
...regards...tr
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