When a Reviewer "likes" something

Stereophile Feb. 2013
Records to Die For (!!!!!)

It is well known that the latest Beatles Reissue Vinyl Box Set sounds really bad. So bad, that even reviewers can't deny it (so it must be remarkable bad)
BUT
even describing how bad it is, who cares: It is simply lifted to "be beyond essential"....
The reviewer likes it, probably he got it for free and he has to do someone a favor, but that's not the discriminated listener. Beyond essential is the key....
Some call it a review, don't forget: It is in the listing of "Records to die for" (the best of the best)

I had a conversation with an Audiophile who buys ONLY units the Reviewer like and recommend.

Syntax: What do you think?
Audiophile: I don't think.
Syntax: Ok, I don't get it what they like or not ...
Audiophile: You don't get it because you care
Syntax: Right. And?
Audiophile: Man, you have to read BETWEEN the lines.
Syntax: Uh, I thought I buy a review that I can read what is going on?
Audiophile: That's your problem. They can't write what they don't like, they have to do it different.
Syntax: Ok. I will try to read between the lines now …
Audiophile: Good Boy.
Syntax: Is it possible that those „reviews“ are influenced from their wives?
Audiophile: Of course
Syntax: Does it matter when she is ugly?
Audiophile: Absolutely!
Syntax: Hm, what can I do?
Audiophile: Buy & Sell. After a while you are very experienced
Syntax: Aha, is there a way to reduce Hardware rolling?
Audiophile: Of course. Tell your wife how much money you alreday spent ....

Understanding And Enjoying Audio Reviews

When they say...
(They mean ...)

In spite of the measurement anomalies, this speaker is clearly
a state-of-the-art product.
( It didn't SOUND broken when we gave it our top rating )

It was definitely borderline Class A.
( It isn't that good, but it's sooo expensive,
and they're letting me keep it --- G-d I feel So cheap! )

Better than amps costing three times as much.
( I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I like the amp )

Light years ahead of the competition
( The competition won't give us a review sample )

Despite it's slight problems at the extremes, the products strong point
was it's rendition of the all-important midrange.
( This thing has no bass and treble that actually hurts! )

We hire only the best writers.
( We'll hire any audiophile who recognizes a pencil two out of three tries )

This is an incomplete but promising design from a talented young designer.
( The product sucks but he has some money left in his advertising budget )

This product had me pulling one record after another from my collection.
( I listened to all five of my records )

The images in the soundstage had that elusive and seductive sense of palatable presence
( I haven't had sex since my wife left me and I'm starting to hallucinate )

This product lacks some of the subtle refinements we've come expect from a designer of this caliber.
( The product stinks but we don't want to piss off this famous manufacturer )

Better than amps costing three times as much
( I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I like the amp )

This preamp is the new reference
( We aint giving it back, and we aint paying' for it either )

I'm sure my post will generate a lot of negative push back, but this is where I am holding now until someone cogently explains otherwise.

Cheers.
Bifwynne

Don't worry. You are right and what you wrote is normal common sense. But did you never ask yourself, why Reviewers ignore those basics? Or why they are able to write enthusiastically about a tube amp they "reviewed" with a multi-chassis, low efficient speaker design which needs the first 30W for wake up? And the amp has only 10 ... :-)
But that is only 1 example. Atkinson wrote in that Issue, that in most forums is mainly nonsense written, from time wasters who have absolutely no idea from anything and a professional reviewer who writes in a magazine, is a much more serious source...

Yeah, I found the article....I will quote a few lines

Yes, on the Web everyone has a voice ... 90% of what is said is crap ... a magazine acts as both aglomerator and gatekeeper....

Well, in the first moment it sounds harsh, but he isn't so wrong. Audiogon is probably the exception but there are others out there where you have to be careful not to get eye cancer.But this can also happen with print media, ever read Tone Audio? Here the world is good, no, it is much better than good, everything, I mean really everything promoted there is a ultra-huge recommendation.

Free information tends to be worth exactly what you've paid for...it is not the same information you get from a magazine like Stereophile

Hm, indeed the "I like it" comment you will find everywhere but in a review it is simply the wrong one. What you won't find in forum discussions is indeed the professional Product Placement, here we have facts, comments, enthusiastic and critical comments, sometimes supportive comments from hidden dealers and we have ... religion.
And Tequila :-)

Sam Tellig and Larry Greenhill made their Stereophile debuts in 1984, Michel Fremer, John Marks, Robert Baird (the one with the Beetles reissue recommendation, the essential one), and Art dudley also made their debuts around that time though not in this magazine. Wes Phillips, Bobs Reina and Deutsch, Brian Damkroger, Jon Iverson and Kalman Rubinson first appeard in Stereophile in the 1990's

Aha. Plenty of time to hear differences and to think about why something is different. 20 wasted years? 20 years cheating subscribers with recommendations which are based on "I like it" or to quote Mrs. Fremer while listening to the Caliburn: "That's better than Sex" (see in Class A recommendation, turntables)

Stereophile has an online Archive of records to die for, and reviews and measurements ...

ok, the records to die for is the answer to HP Super disc list but honestly, HP list is something totally different, those records are really top, and Stereophile didn't discover all the years the wrong typo in their Headline, correct is Records to die from...
6Moons has everything online, so what? Measurements are ok, but sometimes the tests are shortened because a unit does not survive it, but that is not written later in the recommendation list (see the Momentum amp "review" from D'Agostino..but Agostino has a huge ad in that mag...) Never saw measurements from Turntables about correct speed, about quality or parts,wow and flutter, correct geometry about tonearms (a lot of the longer ones are wrong), the discussion about Arm materials, distortion datas in the inner grooves or what's the reason for gold coils in cartridges....or the difference from Phono cables to regular RCA cables...

Summary: Where is the advantage?

10 years (!) ago one of my friends asked me about my opinion because he thought about starting a High End Audio shop. And only with real good sounding components, some which really moved something (he had good knowledge and the money for it). I said, that he will fail when doing it. The customers today (Y2K) are no more the same from 1980, today you will only survive with a pocket calculator, people want review winners, will catch your time and will look in the internet where they can get it cheaper. But that was only my opinion so I asked a well known professional reviewer about the way to go with such products (he has 2 opinions, one for business and one for his own) and his final comment was "Syntax, when your buddy really cares for sound, he will fail"
He was right, all my good dealers are out of business, very sad...

Harry Pearson 2013:

Ironically, I had sold the magazine to save it, from my ineptitude in business manipulations, to someone accomplished in such matters and someone whom I presumed I could trust to put the love of music ahead of the love of considerable profits. In return, I was to put out a first class magazine that continued to define the art of high fidelity.
I was told I would still be in complete editorial control. But I was not. I had been replaced by those who had turned my magazine into something I would not subscribe to....

The Absolute Sound was no longer what I had dreamed it would be: A magazine about the love of music and the highway to an appreciation of the real thing. But the highways, the audio equipment, had become more important then the real thing, and had become an end in themselves.

Understand I have nothing against TAS. But it no longer seems to adhere to the principles for which I founded it: Namely, to promote music as the goal of all audio equipment. The audio gear is a highway that can lead to the music, not an end in and of itself. I also have nothing against advertising per se, just against its use in exchange for favorable reviews. And one thing as controlling editor for TAS, I had always refused to do, was arrange swaps of reviews for advertising.

... we decided to go at it online, and named it HP Soundings. I knew I had the reputation, based on long-time credibility. I knew I had the right partner in Mr. Weiss. I knew we shared the same philosophy to carry it on; that of the love of music itself. I believed then, as now, that the music needed me, but not, perhaps, as much as the other way around.

Well, what can I say?

Never read anything better and honest in the last 10 years.

Kudos Harry

... and would love to own, but because he cant afford it on his meager reviewer income, does that mean he is not allowed to get an industry discount, or must he refuse such discount to avoid the impression of bias.

Of course he can buy any item for the socalled "reviewer pricing" (there are more steps out there than the usual Distributor, Dealer, MSRP ...)
A lot of them do this "job" to find their personal peace with Hardware.
But of course some units are still expensive, even with all those rebates..so he can dream about it or he can write, that he would buy them when he would be able to afford....what is that sentence worth?
Nothing of course. But it sounds competent. And that is what's all about.

Life is good ...

When they write...
(They mean ...)

In spite of the measurement anomalies, this speaker is clearly a state-of-the-art product.
( It didn't sound broken when we gave it our top rating )

It was definitely borderline Class A.
( It isn't that good, but it's sooo expensive, and they're letting me keep it --- G-d I feel so cheap! )

Better than amps costing three times as much.
( I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I like the amp )

Light years ahead of the competition
( The competition won't give us a review sample )

Despite it's slight problems at the extremes, the products strong point
was it's rendition of the all-important midrange.
( This thing has no bass and treble that actually hurts! )

We hire only the best writers.
( We'll hire any audiophile who recognizes a pencil two out of three tries )

This is an incomplete but promising design from a talented young designer.
( The product sucks but he has some money left in his advertising budget )

This product had me pulling one record after another from my collection.
( I listened to all five of my records )

The images in the soundstage had that elusive and seductive sense of palatable presence.
( I haven't had sex since my wife left me and I'm starting to hallucinate )

This product lacks some of the subtle refinements we've come expect from a designer of this caliber.
( The product stinks but we don't want to piss off this famous manufacturer )

Better than amps costing three times as much
( I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I like the amp )

This preamp is the new reference
( We aint giving it back, and we aint paying' for it either )