Magazine Ethics - TAS

re ethics: in today's climate: being ethical, fair, kind is not rewarded. Lying, scamming, cheating, bullying is the norm. The truth does not matter, defending lies at all costs and at anyone's expense has become a virtue.

Objectivity at a review publication would be as rare as a politician focusing on his campaign promises

Well I hope Woo Audio sees this and lets me write a stellar review for their flagship headphone amp.  

Would people rather pay, say, $150 a year for a subscription and eliminate all conflicts of interest or continue to get it for less, or free, and deal with these issues?

That's basically the choice, as far as I can tell. You get what you pay for.

FWIW, another two cents.

Reviews, like suggestions and opinions offered on all types of forums, are opinions.  When audiophile reviewers publish their pieces on various components, there are simply too many variables to consider them as anything but, not the least of which are room dimensions & acoustic properties of the sound rooms they are using, the components of the so-called reference systems, individual musical tastes, personal preferences, individual hearing acuity, etc.  Even a publication that strictly followed the journalistic canon of ethics and employed sound scientific principles in blind testing wouldn't possibly be able to account for all of the different variables involved.  Regardless, if you read enough reviews, you can become more familiar with individual reviewers' personal preferences & biases and read between the lines, so to speak.  There are a handful of professional audiophile reviewers and publications whose opinions I place more stock in than others with regard to providing guidance in narrowing down purchase options.  In the end, however, the best reviewer for audiophile toys is always your own ears.

+1 @oldaudiophile 

Reviewers, imperfect and with possible bias favoring sponsors, are the only source of component comparisons that lead to a basis for comparison and value.

Not all reviewers are the same. Some try to give non-bias sonic descriptions. Some simply give only flowery but useless accolades.

Reading between the lines can be valuable. If a seasoned reviewer is pleasantly surprised and/or purchases the reviewed component, it’s a strong indication of great performance/price.

If enough reviews/voices agree about a component’s performance, chances are one can get similar performance in one’s own audio chain- BUT nothing is guaranteed that one will “subjectively” like the Sonics.

Sure in an ideal world it’ll be great to eliminate possible bias in reviews, but until then this is what’s available