Magazine Ethics - TAS

I just read the RH editorial .  Essentially he argues that he reviews high end stuff that he personally can’t afford, and that in order to be able to evaluate the effect of an individual component, then everything else need stay constant.

  He attempts to address the favoritism that this might induce towards his benefactors by stating that he runs their disfavor by occasionally refusing a long term loan.

  His first point has some logic, but I don’t buy the second point.  While I haven’t read his magazine for a few years I don’t remember to many-if any-negative remarks towards his favorite manufacturers.  It isn’t reasonable to pretend to be not influenced by such largesse

I've been a hobbyist for 40 years and been reading TAS, Stereophile, HiFi News and several now defunct mags. I believe that most, if not almost all, modern equipment is good enough that there are no dogs. With 99% good to great, much of the differences amount to system matching, your tastes, your music, and quality control. The days when a reviewer can conclude that component A is universally 'glassy and hard' are gone. If you're looking for thumbs up or thumbs down on $30,000 amp, recalibrate your mind. You need to listen to the piece in your system and with your ears. If you're shopping somewhere that doesn't allow a 15 or 30 day home trial, shop elsewhere! Stop looking to TAS to make you feel good (or bad) about your decision. I would prefer if they gave advise on system matching, comments about component quality and construction and some idea of the reputation of the manufacturer. 

I’m a little perplexed by one dimension of the controversy. If a reviewer of a product keeps the product on long-term loan from the manufacturer, isn’t the fact that he wants to keep the product in his system indefinitely evidence that he likes the product? Shouldn’t we expect a positive review of a product a reviewer chooses to keep? Am I missing something here? 

I'm glad Jay called these reviewers/audio magazines out on his multiple YT videos. I've subscribed to all of these for decades and they have been useless for almost as long. Bottomline, all they are are are an extension of the manufacturer to promote their product being reviewed. These magazines do a terrible job on rating products because every product being reviewed is "the best", "my system has never sounded this good", on and on. TAS mentioned a couple of issues ago that he was helping some clients in picking audio products. I'm sorry but these reviewers would be the last people I would ask. Every product can't be the best, there is on;t 1 best. Look at some of the magazines awards: they have multiple bests for ultra high end speaker. There can only be 1 best product.

If I would go to any magazine with a request to tell me what the best product for me to buy that does this function, in this size room, treated or untreated, with this equipment I have, they couldn't give me 1 product. Every year, the car magazines would have "performance car of the year" or "best truck of the year", etc.. At the end of this review, there is 1 BEST, 1-2nd place, 1-3rd place, and the rest "participating" vehicles. So if I was interested in a performance type car, I can go to 1 issue for the past few decades and see which car was their best for that year. Audio, no way! Also, audio magazines always claim the best is the most expensive, car "awards of the year", almost never.

If a manufacturer would give me a product to use for a while, or forever, you bet the reviewer would be partial to this product, this is because they are human. When I worked for high tech buying million dollar things, I could not receive any swag/gifts from a manufacturer or I would have to throw them out of the bidding process. Nothing over $25 from a manufacturer. Now you have reviewers with hundreds of thousands of $$$ worth of "borrowed" equipment, you can't tell me there isn't any feelings toward that equipment or manufacturer!!

I mentioned earlier that reviewers are just a megaphone for the manufacturer, and why do I say that? There are countless reviewers where the manufacturer claims they have "special memory" or "special xxxxx", or they come up with a new acronym, and the reviewer eats this up without verifying any of it. A competent reviewer (like they do in automobile reviews) should verify this, question the manufacturer or even call the manufacturer out for BS, but they haven't.

1 more thing: the audio magazines should stop lying to us telling us the high end audio manufacturers are doing fine financially when its obvious, many aren't. For example: Auralic, MBL,Dartzeel, Classe, Audio Research, and others. There are consequences of buying gear from a company that is having financial issues because who will support the product, if they go under? The value of the product will tank! Bring up these companies when you know about them because this would help your subscribers greatly if they are going to spend big $$$.