Who is the best reviewer?

it's definitely not Valin

caesar said:

Who is the best reviewer? Who is the most influential reviewer? (Who moves the most gear based on his reviews?) Are they the same guy?

Is it Valin, Fremer, Roy Gregory, Atkinson, Harley? Ken Kessler? Jeff Dorgay? Others?

Why?

Click to expand...

As a reviewer let me say this. No reviewer carries the same weight with every audiophile. From my experience, readers usually identify with the reviewer who hears the most like them. That's why it takes a period of time before a reviewer achieves some semblance of credibility (try writing for a year or more).

The best writer is in my estimation is still hands down HP with Ken Kessler a close second (Ken is a born and bred journalist like HP but brings with him his unique dry, British humor-though Ken is an ex-pat!). No one can turn a phrase like Harry; he's truly gifted writer. And yes, the person who can still move gear is HP (and I don't agree with those who say HP can only break a component, not make it any more!). That comes from conversations with many manufacturers.

The beauty of HP was that the reader always knew where he stood. For example, I didn't agree with his infatuation years ago of say the Clearaudio cartridges or the Nordost cable-but I knew where Harry stood and why he liked these products. And for me, the best thing that a reviewer can do is describe the overall sound of a component using a consistent series of sources (that goes for equipment and software-there's nothing more frustrating in my book to read someone who changes gear like they change underwear) that the reader can get ahold of and compare listening notes.

I will also add in passing, having been out to Harry's several times over the years, that his system is capable of capturing things on recording that few others do. When HP talks about hearing the sound of the AC on the recording, he knows of what he speaks. When the Underground passes under Kingsway Hall you can literally tell which direction the train is passing And at times, his system can be spookily real.

Myles

We sometimes seat at opposing corners when it comes to Audio ... I agree however on your take on HP> A very good writer and frankly has through the years shown he can hear..

I haven't read much from Ken ...

Robert Greene on all things and Michael Fremer on turntables.

Whatever happened to Corey Greenberg? He couldn't hear but he certainly added some much needed color to the magazine!

I guess whoever writes the ad copy for Bose, they certainly have moved the most equipment.

The most entertaining would be Corey Greenberg!

I admit to reading for entertainment, Sam Tellig does that for me, and when Art Dudley ran Listener magazine he did a great job of it too.

Dorkgay is boring and does not know what he is blathering most of the time. He should be banished from any list of real writing artists.

Probably not someone too many of you are familiar with, but I like Gerard Resjkind from UHF Magazine, although I do think that at times he waxes poetic a little too much about local (Canadian) manufacturers. In general I find his writing style very easy and, for me, he comes across as knowledgeable with a good sense of humour. He has a very relaxed style of writing, which is something I enjoy.

John

FrantzM said:

Myles

We sometimes seat at opposing corners when it comes to Audio ... I agree however on your take on HP> A very good writer and frankly has through the years shown he can hear..

I haven't read much from Ken ...

Click to expand...

Now this is a red letter day

Ken Kessler does tend to be succinct in his reviews. He took off on a thing a few years ago where he decided he could make money being the "Bling Critic". If he could wax golden tongue for audio, he could do the same for exotic cars, pens, watches and other rich person accessories.
A guy has to make a living, but that kind of put him the Valin-Corey Greenberg critic axis in my estimate. On a sliding scale of critical credibility, they fit somewhere around the the British fellow you see on midnite TV who sits at the piano with the candelabra and sells desert real estate or vegematics, only they are doing it with expensive audio gear.

cjfrbw said:

Ken Kessler does tend to be succinct in his reviews. He took off on a thing a few years ago where he decided he could make money being the "Bling Critic". If he could wax golden tongue for audio, he could do the same for exotic cars, pens, watches and other rich person accessories.
A guy has to make a living, but that kind of put him the Valin-Corey Greenberg critic axis in my estimate. On a sliding scale of critical credibility, they fit somewhere around the the British fellow you see on midnite TV who sits at the piano with the candelabra and sells desert real estate or vegematics, only they are doing it with expensive audio gear.

Click to expand...

You know what I think was the best piece Ken ever wrote???? Remember when he came to the US and did a Parillo tour of all the high end companies from East to West. That was funny as shit and some of it can be found in his book. When you read Ken's piece, the characters/manufacturers he visited just come to life!!!

caesar said:

Who is the best reviewer? Who is the most influential reviewer? (Who moves the most gear based on his reviews?) Are they the same guy?

Is it Valin, Fremer, Roy Gregory, Atkinson, Harley? Ken Kessler? Jeff Dorgay? Others?

Why?

Click to expand...

Dear Caesar: In answer to your first question: who is the best reviewer?, I have some wide thoughts about:

IMHO many of us can agree that audio magazynes were and are a must inside the AHEE and for the AHEE grow up.
Magazynes like Stereo Review, Audio, High Fidelity, Stereophile, TAS, HiFi+, FI, IAR, HiFi News, HiFi Choice and the like were and are a critical and very important AHEE tool for all of us.

At the same time reviewers as B.King, L.Archibald, J.G.Holt,HP, T.Cordesman, REG,RH, J.Atkinson, V.Pisha, T.Norton, B.Whyte, J.Hirsh, L.Feldman, L.Klein, W.Livingstone, S.Briggs and the like were and are a precious AHEE tool for our each one advance in the audio learning ladder curve.

With out those magazynes/reviewers maybe the HE can't even exist. In the same importance level I can think on the audio HE distributors/dealers all over the world.

Sayed all that now on the reviewer stand alone subject:

first than all a professional reviwer has a extremely high responsability in almost all audio industry areas/members, some of them sometimes do not fullfill those responsabilities, sometimes by ignorance ( a person that is unaware on some subject. ) of those responsabilities sometimes because is " commercial " biased or because is ignorant on the subject ( any ) that is under review.

second IMHO a reviewer is like a teacher's School/University: a person with the right and deepest knowledge/skills and tools with no other compromise that TEACH, from with/whom all of us " goes " to learn.

from these points of view: which today reviewers fullfill about in their today or last 5 years reviews? can any one name it? in whom can we trust?, I can say a hard task to do it.
Yes, IMHO exist that very especial kind of reviewer and maybe you can count with the fingers of one of your hands and maybe our one hand fingers exceed.

If you read magazynes just for fun/entertainment or to look new products advertasing then any reviewer is a good one but if you are a discerning audiophile that want to learn and through that learning grow up and improve the quality performance of your home audio system for improve your music enjoyment then not all reviewers can help you and several of them even " help " you for you give steps back.

You can say what ever about HP and I respect your opinion but as reviewer I learn from him not exactly what to do but what not to do reading what he do, examples: he made a shootout cartridge review whit Lyra Titan, Clearaudio Insider, XV-1, myaby and I can't remember if was there any other cartridge ( I own or owned all those cartridges. ).
Well HP decide and made the review loading all cartridges at 47K!!!! and the review was full of " inconsistences " that really preclude a fair cartridge comparison.
For an audio " newbie " those " inconsistencies " along that " crazy " loading means nothing and he will remmeber for the future which of those cartridges was the " winner " and maybe he buy it because of that.

For we all discerning and experienced audio people we know that the HPO review was totally wrong that goes against the reviewer main targets that I mentioned and where the only thing we can rescue is: what not to do.

Other example could be the HP non-sense/knowledge to handle/play the big NOLA/Alon woofer towers ( reflex/ported design. ) with tube electronics whit amps having a high output impedance.
In what way HP coul teach any one of us? how we can learn from HP " ignorance " other that know what not to do?

and maybe you could remember that Stereophile review on a four tube chassis ampliifers with a tag of 350K where the amplifiers frequency response measurements shows 10-12dbs deviations and the reviewer " can't " heard it: do you belive that??????!!!!

and we don't have to go far away to show some wrong/bad examples ( we are full of them ) on reviewers " teaching " job, here in this forum we can read not a review but something more " intimate " and important: a reviewer advise that IMHO can't help in the right way, the " advise " was posted by MylesBastor reviewer in charge::
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?939-Dyna-20X-1.0-mv-Loading-Options

other reviewers that has the right knolwedge and tools are heavy " commercial biased/oriented " and don't say it what we need or what can help us but what is " convenient " for them. I remember the Stereophile Mónaco TT review full of that and in TAS the Walker vs Kuzma review in the same way.

I have to say that to all those people/reviewers I have a lot of respect like a persons and my respect to each one of them like reviewers is at the same level that his each one respect to me when I read their reviews.

I hope that in a near very near future some of those knowledge reviewers take again the " emotion " of HE item no-compromise reviews and the full EMOTION that teaching true TEACHING can give and help to all the audio industry:AHEE. Today IMHO we are wrong on that important/capital/critical whole subject.

Yes, of course that many good things that we learn we learned through those same magazynes and reviewers but my point is that today they are far away of that " old " precise and right " road ": Reviewers please come back again!

Last but no less important is that IMHO we all are reviewers, with the difference that we pay in full by our each one audio toys and that we have no compromises but our each one music enjoyment.
At least each one of us have in our mind ( non-write. ) the full review of our home audio system and maybe a review in our mind/brain too of two or three friend's home audio systems.
As a fact IMHO each time we change an audio link/item we made a self review on it. That no one publish it in a magazyne does not means is a review and sometimes even better that a " professional " one.
When we give our opinion through a post or through a phone call or face to face to other person based on our audio item experiences what we really made is a very " brief " item review but at the end a review.

IMHO and in many ways several/many audiophiles are at the same level and even better than professional reviewers.

I recognize in this and other forums people that not only are better " reviewers " but with higher knowledge and tools that the majority of the professional reviewer out there: I applaud all the audiophiles " embarrassing/engaged " with the MUSIC and nothing but the MUSIC, good for them!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul. I must commend you for that absolutely remarkable post. How true you are when you talk about each of us is a reviewer and we should post it. This should be both positive and negative reviews. For this very reason I started the dedicated forum her on Reviews. Members here are finally posting their very experiences.

silviajulieta said:

Dear Caesar: In answer to your first question: who is the best reviewer?, I have some wide thoughts about:

IMHO many of us can agree that audio magazynes were and are a must inside the AHEE and for the AHEE grow up.
Magazynes like Stereo Review, Audio, High Fidelity, Stereophile, TAS, HiFi+, FI, IAR, HiFi News, HiFi Choice and the like were and are a critical and very important AHEE tool for all of us.

At the same time reviewers as B.King, L.Archibald, J.G.Holt,HP, T.Cordesman, REG,RH, J.Atkinson, V.Pisha, T.Norton, B.Whyte, J.Hirsh, L.Feldman, L.Klein, W.Livingstone, S.Briggs and the like were and are a precious AHEE tool for our each one advance in the audio learning ladder curve.

With out those magazynes/reviewers maybe the HE can't even exist. In the same importance level I can think on the audio HE distributors/dealers all over the world.

Sayed all that now on the reviewer stand alone subject:

first than all a professional reviwer has a extremely high responsability in almost all audio industry areas/members, some of them sometimes do not fullfill those responsabilities, sometimes by ignorance ( a person that is unaware on some subject. ) of those responsabilities sometimes because is " commercial " biased or because is ignorant on the subject ( any ) that is under review.

second IMHO a reviewer is like a teacher's School/University: a person with the right and deepest knowledge/skills and tools with no other compromise that TEACH, from with/whom all of us " goes " to learn.

from these points of view: which today reviewers fullfill about in their today or last 5 years reviews? can any one name it?, I can say a hard task to do it.
Yes, IMHO exist that very especial kind of reviewer and maybe you can count with the fingers of one of your hands and maybe our one hand fingers exceed.

If you read magazynes just for fun/entertainment or to look new products advertasing then any reviewer is a good one but if you are a discerning audiophile that want to learn and through that learning grow up and improve the quality performance of your home audio system for improve your music enjoyment then not all reviewers can help you and several of them even " help " you for you give steps back.

You can say what ever about HP and I respect your opinion but as reviewer I learn from him not exactly what to do but what not to do reading what he do, examples: he made a shootout cartridge review whit Lyra Titan, Clearaudio Insider, XV-1, myaby and I can't remember if was there any other cartridge ( I own or owned all those cartridges. ).
Well HP decide and made the review loading all cartridges at 47K!!!! and the review was full of " inconsistences " that really preclude a fair cartridge comparison.
For an audio " newbie " those " inconsistencies " along that " crazy " loading means nothing and he will remmeber for the future which of those cartridges was the " winner " and maybe he buy it because of that.

For we all discerning and experienced audio people we know that the HPO review was totally wrong that goes against the reviewer main targets that I mentioned and where the only thing we can rescue is: what not to do.

Other example could be the HP non-sense/knowledge to handle/play the big NOLA/Alon woofer towers ( reflex/ported design. ) with tube electronics whit amps having a high output impedance.
In what way HP coul teach any one of us? how we can learn from HP " ignorance " other that know what not to do?

and maybe you could remember that Stereophile review on a four tube chassis ampliifers with a tag of 350K where the amplifiers frequency response measurements shows 10-12dbs deviations and the reviewer " can't " heard it: do you belive that??????!!!!

and we don't have to go far away to show some wrong/bad examples ( we are full of them ) on reviewers " teaching " job, here in this forum we can read not a review but something more " intimate " and important: a reviewer advise that IMHO can't help in the right way, the " advise " was posted by MylesBastor reviewer in charge::
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?939-Dyna-20X-1.0-mv-Loading-Options

other reviewers that has the right knolwedge and tools are heavy " commercial biased/oriented " and don't say it what we need or what can help us but what is " convenient " for them. I remember the Stereophile Mónaco TT review full of that and in TAS the Walker vs Kuzma review in the same way.

I have to say that to all those people/reviewers I have a lot of respect like a persons and my respect to each one of them like reviewers is at the same level that his each one respect to me when I read their reviews.

I hope that in a near very near future some of those knowledge reviewers take again the " emotion " of HE item no-compromise reviews and the full EMOTION that teaching true TEACHING can give and help to all the audio industry:AHEE. Today IMHO we are wrong on that important/capital/critical whole subject.

Yes, of course that many good things that we learn we learned through those same magazynes and reviewers but my point is that today they are far away of that " old " precise and right " road ": Reviewers please come back again!

Last but no less important is that IMHO we all are reviewers, with the difference that we pay in full by our each one audio toys and that we have no compromises but our each one music enjoyment.
At least each one of us have in our mind ( non-write. ) the full review of our home audio system and maybe a review in our mind/brain too of two or three friend's home audio systems.
As a fact IMHO each time we change an audio link/item we made a self review on it. That no one publish it in a magazyne does not means is a review and sometimes even better that a " professional " one.
When we give our opinion through a post or through a phone call or face to face to other person based on our audio item experiences what we really made is a very " brief " item review but at the end a review.

IMHO and in many ways several/many audiophiles are at the same level and even better than professional reviewers.

I recognize in this and other forums people that not only are better " reviewers " but with higher knowledge and tools that the majority of the professional reviewer out there: I applaud all the audiophiles " embarrassing/engaged " with the MUSIC and nothing but the MUSIC, good for them!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Click to expand...

As I said before, loading depends upon many factors. I've played with many of the same cartridges HP had (I didn't agree on all - particularly the 47 Labs Miyabi--that was pretty but really didn't have all that much detail) and all sounded best wtih a tube phono at 47 K. They sounded abysmal otherwise.

If you have solid-state phono, maybe your results will be different. But my latest experience with the better ss and tube phono stages nowadays is that most cartridges sound best at 47 K (maybe if one has a bright system, taming the cartridge may help). They results were years ago when using the Spectral cartridge (aka an early Lyra) with the Vendetta Research phono section. Here clearly 47 K did not sound the best as the cartridge was way too bright. Around 100 or so ohms was optimal. But I'm using a solid-state and tube phono (both allow for cap and resistive loading) stage now with the Air Tight/Titan/ZYX and all sound better at 47 K. IMHO, other loadings are a band aid for a poorly designed cartridge. I also feel the same way about damping; never heard it sound better or the cure was worse than the disease.