Jonathan Valin the best audio writer, EVER.

bonzo75 said:

To DD or not to DD

All the world's a stage, and all the audiophiles are merely players. They have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays with (many) parts.
- Only audiophile and many are the words added.

Now is the winter of our discontent (no change required in this quote)

Audiophiles die many times before their deaths - word coward substituted for audiophiles.

Frailty, thy name is audiophile

I am the one who bought not wisely but too well - the word loved substituted for bought

We are such stuff as dreams are made on - this quote can be used by all audiophile toys

Lord, what fools these mortals be - can be said of all audiophiles

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown - Dedicated to Mike, from Shakespeare

We have seen better days - what every reviewer thinks, but cannot say

misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows - dedicated to all of us

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spiritofmusic said:

Roy Gregory? Really? Writing every review as if it’s Shakespearean prose, although he’s no Shakespeare. His successor at HiFiPlus, Alan Sircom? If I read yet another tt review from him that recycles the generic phrase “it has the neutrality of the SME, the verve of DD, the timing of the LP12, blah blah”, I think I’ll sigh.
My fave reviewer is Wojech Pacula, he has an unerring talent for getting to the heart of how something sounds.

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bonzo75 said:

To DD or not to DD

All the world's a stage, and all the audiophiles are merely players. They have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays with (many) parts.
- Only audiophile and many are the words added.

Now is the winter of our discontent (no change required in this quote)



Audiophiles die many times before their deaths - word coward substituted for audiophiles.

Frailty, thy name is audiophile

I am the one who bought not wisely but too well - the word loved substituted for bought

We are such stuff as dreams are made on - this quote can be used by all audiophile toys

Lord, what fools these mortals be - can be said of all audiophiles

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown - Dedicated to Mike, from Shakespeare

We have seen better days - what every reviewer thinks, but cannot say

misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows - dedicated to all of us

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morricab said:

Agreed about Roy Gregory and his writing style...but Srajan at 6 moons makes Roy seem clear as day. Alan has, IMO, no clue about what sounds good or not. Wojeich seems to understand things well but I have a hard time taking the advice from a reviewer who uses Soulution amps with Harbeth speakers...just ain't a realistic sound to me... This makes his opinions of far less usefulness than they would seem on the surface.

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bonzo75 said:

Lol, solution with harbeth? Had no idea.

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Ron Resnick said:

+1

My favorite Stereophile reviewer is Michael Fremer and my favorite TAS reviewer is Don Saltzman. I think they are both very intellectually honest and they write comparative reviews. I wish Robert Harley would go back to doing comparative reviews.

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Elberoth said:

My personal fav is Martin Colloms. Not much in terms of writing style, but he more than makes up for it in terms of content.

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GSOphile said:

Another vote for Martin Colloms.

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morricab said:

He was one of the more consistent…

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XV-1 said:

Always find Valin an enjoyable read
Excellent writer of fiction.

I take his recommendations on sound quality with a large dose of salt as it generally aligns with what he can loan permanently until the next set of permanentl loans come along, and behold they are alway better.

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Lee said:

He has refused to budge on several occasions from his honest take, even under severe pressure from advertisers.

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i dont need reviewers

andromedaaudio said:

So he is a hero basically , like a freedom fighter ,lol
So you re admitting he did budge on several other occasions .

Im joking a bit , i m sure its a fine line reviewers need to thread , luckily i have 2 ears myself , i dont need reviewers

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sbo6 said:

I like Robert Harley's writing and reviewing approach more than Valin, I guess he's being humble. My biggest beef (if it's a beef at all) with audio reviewers is that most wax poetically and get to the review 2 pages later. First world problems ;-)

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Lee said:

In my experience, there are good reasons for this. A reviewer likes to tell a story. Editors love it when they do. Sometimes it concerns the history of the company or latest tech breakthrough, or a new technology that needs to be "set up" for understanding by laying down some context. Harley is really good at that. I stayed out of editorial decisions at TAS but I did convey my love of the sidebars that some of the reviewers did that did a deeper dive into the technology. The manufacturers like the sidebars too. Many of them are often very proud of what they have done.

At the end of the day, you can simply skip to the end of the review and work backwards if you are impatient.

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