Stereophile's refusal to review more low

Stokjok, I think a reality check is in order here. Stereophile consistently gets flak for reviewing mid-fi or "consumer" level gear. Case in point: their recent covers of the Denon AVR-4800, and the $600 computer speakers(I forget the brand at the moment). The audiophiles scream bloody murder if they are contaminated by the sight of "low end junk", the "regular guy" type reader wants more reviews of equipment they can afford. They can't be all things to all people, but they come about as close as possible in my opinion. They have a consistant and logical paradigm, if it sounds good, they'll write about, whatever the cost or format. Yes, I think that a few improvements are in order such as not including 3 1/2 year old, outdated components in the "recommended" components list simply because they haven't reviewed some of the newer pieces . Just don't include it. Why have a discontinued 1998 Class AAA DVD player that has no progressive scan, and is outperformed by at least 3 different DVD players that I can think of. Even though they can't review everything, and it is nearly impossible to get groups of similar gear in one place at the same time, I think that greater efforts could be made to compare current choices. As for their advertisers, I think that their critics should grow up. I don't care if I see a BMW ad or an ad for high end oatmeal, if it supports the magazine by increasing their budget, I get to subscribe at about a dollar an issue. How can anyone complain at that price? Read what you like and use the pages you don't like to line the puppy's poop box.

I agree - there are many who ridicule Sound & Vision which is typically of much more "affordable" gear. If Stereophile reviewed considerably more pieces that were "affordable", I think they'd lose a lot of readership. To me, they review a lot of stuff that is $2-10K, which is where their greatest value / differentiation is. I get tired of some of their coverage of ultra-expensive stuff, but it's not overbearing. And, as stated, for a buck an issue, it's a great deal. -Kirk

My point is I think that they review whatever the big manufacturers that support them with much of their advertising revenue want them to. Proceed, for example, is part of Madrigal, which includes Levinson,Revel and even JBL. Companies with that much money to spend have essentially bought Stereophile and will get pretty much whatever they want in terms of the treatment of their products in reviews. So, if its expensive products which the manufacturers need to be reviewed, they will. If its budget or mid-fi products which the manufacturers need reviewed, that is possible too. Just spend the required advertising dollars with Stereophile. By the way, I have no problem with BMW ads either. BMW is not in the audio business. Although it is interesting that they did review the Mark Levinson sound system in the latest Lexus in the current issue. They had much more to say about the car and precious little to say about the sound system. So, maybe there is some new advertising/review angle which they intend to exploit here.

This suggestion may be anathema to the high-enders, but the magazine "Sensible Sound" has many reviews of gear in the $1000 - $2500 range. While the reviewers may not be as technically sophisticated as some of the writers for TAS and Stereopiles, they still have valid opinions. I subscribe to "Sensible Sound" solely as a counter-balance to the extremely expensive gear reviewed by other publications. Here's the link to their Web site:

http://www.sensiblesound.com/

Its unfortunate that "Sensible Sounds" seems to think that speakers are the only componants that sound different from one another. The reviews usually consist of detailed descriptions and techno info. If your lucky they might include one or two vague references to how the product actually sounds. I read it anyway, mainly because they do look for high value products.
As far as Stereophile is concerned, they do review lower ticket items from time to time. Rotel, Adcom, PSB, Parasound, Creek, and others have gotten a fair amount of ink on some real world affordable products. I must admit at times the reviews sound almost like ad promotions (especially Sams Space). Most of it is pretty fair(IMO).
Taken with a grain of salt, most of the rags are useful.