Streophile: Sucks, TAS: Sucks Worse, What Hi-fi: Partial to Brit gear, The worst: Audio Critic (all wires and amps sound the same?, yea right!). Sorry to be so negative, but when you have a close friend that is a reviewer at one of these mags, you get the inside skinny on each of the reviewers biases, and learn that most are far from impartial. Based on the aforementioned information, it is virtually impossible for the average layman to know which reviewer is giving great advice, based on reading a review. I've now visited 7 reviewers homes, and you would not believe how little care is sometimes taken, as they "review" a product. Additonaly, I know of two entry level high end manufacturers that could NOT get their gear reviewed, until they had signed on advertisments, in these so called "unbiased" rags!. Again, sorry to be so negative, but the magazines are only a good start at best. Those people that assemble a system based only on reccomended equipment choices, are really missing out on many other fine, and many times, better sounding speakers, components and wires.
Rate the Audiophile Publications
What's your experience with recommended (or trashed)systems in the audiophile publications (Stereophile, Absolute Sound, What Hi Fi...)? I just read a nice thread by [email protected] (gregg) asking about the highly rated BEL 1001 and he got a couple of negative replies. That got me to thinking -- which magazines (paper or online) are trustworthy according to fellow audiogoners? Any opinions or experiences? Everyone has a different ear, but are there obvious omissions or differences of experience? Thanks.