Stereophile "coverage"

Stereophile is about half the size and about half the cost of what it used to be. Sounds about right.
It's unfortunite that the mag that " started it all" has continued to decline in size and quality over the past several years. As audiophiles, we need publications like Stereophile, TAS and several others to represent the high end viewpoint to the Sony's and Phillips of this world. I continue to subscribe and will probably continue to do so but I think they would be well advised to listen more to their readers comments.

Two times a year they do their recommended components nonsense, now they have records to die for, good for one more issue, car stereo should be next, then their is a need for an annual product listing (October Audio, remember?), maybe an annual music recap issue would be good, that's six issues, home theater,seven. We only need ideas for five more issues and we'll be able to recycle content with minor changes every year. Cut and paste, baby.

You got that right, Steteophile is a joke! Just look at Audible Illusions and Transcendent class A reviewed but gone like magic from this years list (No advertising can't be the reason can it ?? ) Look at SoundStage on the net for honest reviews from real people who do not owe their careers to advertising giants. Also The Absolute Sound is great and just kills Stereophile for info.

What do we expect for a magazine which costs us $1.50 per issue? Every other month it is Krell or Levinson plastered all over the cover in a way which dares to surpass the most garish ads you can find inside the magazine. This entire magazine, including the articles, is an ad. As for this issue, the $37000 Krell speaker with inaudible deep bass and, if you look at the graphs, with the rolled off treble, is not quite perfect, but at least it has excellent fit and finish! Please! They loved that Sony SS-9 speaker which they reviewed. They said it was nearly flawless. I heard it at the New York show at the 5 channel SACD demo and while it wasn't horrible, it certainly wasn't memorable. They definitely did get one thing right about it. The speaker was thin sounding.

Stereophile continues to sink to ever lower depths. It reviews the same old manufacturers' stuff while ignoring new, innovative or even classic and highly respected equipment in favor of nearly, if not completely exclusively, those manufacturers who advertise with them. At this point, it would appear that they don't even care that we the readers even can plainly see their strategy. Needless to say, I won't be renewing my subscription.

I sold all my Stereophiles a while back and didnt renew my subscription.I got frequent mail from them to come back and finally gave in when I saw I could get a year for $11.95 I guess its worth a buck an issue and it will keep them off my back for a while.