Check Jay's Audio Lab on YouTube, I think this is what kicked it off.
Magazine Ethics - TAS
I found the "From the Editor" piece by Robert Harley, in the most recent issue of TBS (page 16) to be quite interesting. Clearly some folks have been touching a nerve with this subject. I found Mr. Harley's response to be professional and enlightening. I also liked that it answered a question I've had for years. When I've seen pictures of Harley's personal reference system, I've often thought "wow, that's got to be a million dollars of equipment there. Did he actually pay for it?" And now I know. Scratch that one off the long list of things I do not know. 🤣
- ...
- 49 posts total
| Post removed |
@bigtwin I assume you saw the HUGE thread on the whats best forum talking about it now for a few days now. |
I subscribe to TAS and Stereophile and enjoy some of the content. I'm not naive enough to believe that their reviews are actually reviews. The very word implies a completely candid, critical analysis, revealing the author's true impressions-the, good, the bad, the ugly. You can get an informative description of a product but its almost always more of a marketing piece for the manufacturer than a true review. They won't ever tell you a product isn't worth the money, or a company has a poor reputation for quality or service, even if that's what they believe. I'd feel better about it if they would fully disclose the conflicts of interest and drop the fiction that they actually do reviews. There would still be a place for the publications. In similar fashion, these long term "loans" are not loans at all. When a person gets 5 or 6 figure piece of equipment to use with no expectation of return, sometimes for years, if at all, only because he writes for TAS, that's not a loan. To me, it looks like barter compensation. And you have to be very, lets say accepting, to believe that a person can receive goods or discounts worth tens of thousands of dollars from a company and not be at all influenced by that relationship. I can enjoy the content, I just wish they would be forthright about the nature of the game. It doesn't have to be that way-I don't think Soundstage allows such blatant conflicts of interest, and there are likely others. I get that people like to get free stuff-especially expensive free stuff. Just a little candor would go a long way. |
- 49 posts total