09-01-09: OzzyThere used to be negative reviews fairly often when J. Gordon Holt was doing most of the reviewing. But you also have to remember that in the '60s when Stereophile started, there weren't many high end products and a significant percentage of them *were* awful. It's also why they reviewed startups pretty frequently. The readership was desperate for something new and better.
...This could be because it could be the kiss of death if a small manufacturer submits his lifes work for a review and it is not reviewed favorably.
Saying that however, I cant recall when was there was a really negative review in Stereophile???
These days there are so many good products it seems pointless to single out the few bad ones and trash them. Every audio magazine I know of, whether in print or online, can't get around to 1/10 the *good* products they know of.
Stereophile requires new vendors to have at least five or six retail outlets in the US to get reviewed, or a well-established mail order business with reasonable trial and return policies, for them to review the product. This helps to avoid becoming the free beta tester and advertiser for startups.
That said, they obviously have their prejudices. They shy away from mass-produced items regardless of how good, in favor of the "audiophile approved" industries. They did give a glowing review of the Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp, but I think the product is better yet than they let on, and it seems that every subsequent ratings issue has backpedaled a bit. Same goes for TAS, who also gave it a favorable review. You'll never see Stereophile or TAS review a Denon Dl-160, Audio Technica AT150MLX, or even a Denon DL-S1 (at about $1K) cartridge.
Another thing I've noticed is that some of the reviewers are so accustomed to their high 5- and 6-figure systems, they're uniformly surprised with--and overrate the quality of--entry-level equipment. I feel that Michael Fremer did this on the Bellari VP-129 phono stage and Outlaw RR-2150 stereo receiver.
The Bellari is $249 and wound up as a class B phono stage among all the $1500 units, yet it is extremely limited in application given its low gain (29 dB). The RR2150 wound up in class C with the Onkyo A-9555 and many of the excellent British integrateds. I owned a 2150 and eventually returned it. I have an Onkyo A-9555, previously had a 50 wpc Musical Fidelity integrated, and have helped friends put together systems that used Cambridge and Creek integrated amps. No way is the Outlaw anywhere near as good as the other Class C integrated amps it's lumped with. The measurements section even shows how mediocre its noise level is, and how slow it is, compromising treble response and overall clarity.