HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

As it say in the title:



It were ever so.

Gramophone magazine in its heyday used to abandon reviews of bad products, so everything they reviewed had good reviews as a result. Other reviewers had commercial consultancy interests (Martin Colloms for one). Ken kessler said one thing in HFN and I remember other things in trade parers we used to get.

I'm sure they admitted in Hi-Fi World that if they got a real poor sounding product they did not proceed with the review. I don't think it's completely fair to say commercial interests mostly cause this. I'm sure however that they either assume they got a faulty example or are worried by the maker taking legal action. Anyway no review will hardly help sales in most cases. I think Rega in the old days were the exception but had more orders then they could make in those days without an official review. On the other side of the coin it's possible certain magazines give 4 or 5 star reviews to certain major brands even if they sound pretty uninspiring. This rather undermines the genuine 5 star reviews that some products may deserve.

The argument sometimes given is that people don't want to read bad reviews, but I suspect the reality is that it's manufacturers/advertisers who don't want to read them. The worst example I can recall is from HiFi+ some years back. An expensive amp, from a frequent advertiser, was given a lukewarm, indeed by HiFi+ standards a scathing review. The very next issue, the then-editor re-reviewed it and gave it a glowing write-up.

Effectively, readers are expected to read between the lines, looking out for faint praise and 'codewords' to spot poor products.

So you see why mainstream manufacturers hate forums and try to damage them with plants glove puppets shill and spammers.

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote: ↑Sun Aug 05, 2018 11:15 am So you see why mainstream manufacturers hate forums and try to damage them with plants glove puppets shill and spammers.

I don't see much related to 'mainstream' companies. Only that guy from Rega on PFM. Linn and Naim don't need glove puppets as there are plenty members who they brainwashed 30 years ago. Most of the problems come from small manufacturers and upmarket retailers who inhabit the forums. (I'm excluding manufacturers own forums from those comments).

I was introduced to NVA amplification years ago via a glowing review by Ken Kessler in Hi-Fi News and still enjoy listening to music through my NVA amp. I have bought various bits of kit as a result of reading reviews but as with album reviews, they can never tell you whether you will like the item you have bought or not!

I just stumbled across your post, and I wanna say that many of those reviews in magazines are just prepaid ads. I'm pretty sure many authors didn't even see those hi-fi systems alive.

I totally get what you mean about magazine reviews - it's hard to know what to trust sometimes. It's pretty sketchy when reviewers have commercial interests or when magazines only give good reviews to keep their advertisers happy. But you know what I've been getting into lately? Book reviews! I feel like they're a little more honest because the author actually has to read the book before reviewing it.I recently stumbled across some info about literary magazines accepting submissions, which might be helpful if you're into reading like I am. I love finding new books to add to my reading list, and these magazines can be a great resource for discovering up-and-coming authors.

There's an oxymoron in the title of this thread.