Hey Tom,
Absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying luxuries. Most audiophiles I meet are highly intelligent and successful. They deserve a way to enjoy themselves...
Why are audio reviews so consistently positive?
- Thread starter NorthStar
- Start date
Hey Tom,
Absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying luxuries. Most audiophiles I meet are highly intelligent and successful. They deserve a way to enjoy themselves...
I don't. Which is why I try the 'cheap' route.
On the contrary, I feel good when my audio friends praise the sound of my 'cheapo' system (in relative terms). But I feel best when I myself enjoy the sound.
However, I have nothing against it when some achieve superlative sound while spending lots of money. But I do think a lot of what's going in high-end is luxury boutique and not worth the expense in terms of pure sound. Call it a scam or not. Perhaps some really feel good about themselves when they spend a lot of money. A shiny box with some fancy specs, or the most tubes or whatever, in itself does not make a good sound.
Sure, Al. It's a relative thing, and it's great to see you do what you do.
Yet, we have friends who have family in Venezuela. The people are really suffering there. People can enjoy music in their cars, but high end audio is the last thing on people's mind who can't find food or medicine... But we are blessed!
Right, which is why I decided that to spend so much money on my dream super DAC right now would be crazy (strictly speaking for myself that is, what others do with their money is their business). I'd rather shave off a few thousand bucks from my annual bonus and give it to the poor, and wait for that DAC purchase a year or two longer -- or go with that darn Schiit Yggdrasil DAC ...
All of my lay reviews have been positive, because they only were written about components I really liked. The Mfrs are still using some of these reviews on their web sites, and I am still using many of the components, so not much new stuff coming through my system to warrant new reviews. I have been tempted to write about some of the older stuff I use like old VFET amps, but I doubt anybody would give them credibility because they don't fit into the "price is right" veblens categories, so I choose not to spend my time doing it.
I don't think it is a bad thing for reviewers to give stuff "the benefit of the doubt". Mfrs have blood, sweat, tears, time, and real money wrapped up in their "love", and I don't think it is ever kind or just to dismiss components, especially with all the manifest variables of audio and subjective reviewing.
I am kind of glad that the internet has created a large pool of information and opinion, and has to some extent released the "lock" a few critics and periodicals had to make or break components by reviewers. However, I do think the mainstream reviewers are basically anointing products for consumers with too much money looking for a place to put it to create edifice systems for show more than sound quality. You can see that well enough at the audio shows. Sometimes I think the snooty purveyors are more like expensive furniture salespeople than audiophiles.
Reviews are time consuming and difficult to write. Although conspiracies between reviewers and Mfrs can be taken for granted at some level, I think you could work at almost any ordinary job for the time spent and do better if finances were the goal. I do think that most reviewing is a labor of love, though sometimes it is looking for love in all the wrong places.
I don't think it is a bad thing for reviewers to give stuff "the benefit of the doubt". Mfrs have blood, sweat, tears, time, and real money wrapped up in their "love", and I don't think it is ever kind or just to dismiss components, especially with all the manifest variables of audio and subjective reviewing.
I am kind of glad that the internet has created a large pool of information and opinion, and has to some extent released the "lock" a few critics and periodicals had to make or break components by reviewers. However, I do think the mainstream reviewers are basically anointing products for consumers with too much money looking for a place to put it to create edifice systems for show more than sound quality. You can see that well enough at the audio shows. Sometimes I think the snooty purveyors are more like expensive furniture salespeople than audiophiles.
Reviews are time consuming and difficult to write. Although conspiracies between reviewers and Mfrs can be taken for granted at some level, I think you could work at almost any ordinary job for the time spent and do better if finances were the goal. I do think that most reviewing is a labor of love, though sometimes it is looking for love in all the wrong places.
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I completely forgot to mention it on my first post; it was on my mind but it slipped away through the mind's corridor.
You are very right, and some most pro audio reviewers are aware of it; they mention all the gear of their reference system connected to the new audio product under review.
But they don't compare and mix/match with all the other products; it is impossible. And therefore the highest challenge for us, the readers/future potential customers with the most definitive love passion that this earth has ever felt before; not even having the slightest slice of clue. You cannot repair a broken heart in the year 2017, unless you have the tools and the expertise. And the body has to accept it, have a strong immune system, a solid synergy in adapting to the new host, in balanced harmony.
Francisco, in concrete audio words, a professional audio review has to take accounts of all variables observed by the reviewer; I have no objection about the publication of full honest unbiased audio product reviews. Today it's like reading a poetry book, or a sci-fi fantasy. ...From some.
If a speaker for example is under review, the most important piece of audio equipment, parallels need to be sculpted in the floor and across all room's walls and surfaces and furniture. Some do to a certain extent, others are on a different set of tracks.
A loudspeaker is simple; it has to harmonize the natural acoustics of the room (preferably ours more than the reviewer's own), and with our natural own set of ears, more than the pro reviewer's own. If the pro reviewer can put himself in our shoes, in our rooms, and with our ears; I'm all ears. :b It's fine; we all do our jobs without imposing, dictating, sugarcoating. After all we all eat some cake.
"No direction home" ...Bob Dylan. There are so many directions that to find one where we feel completely numb and comfy @ home (planet Earth) with ourselves and everyone else...is the ultimate zone of apotheosis, and on all levels; our five senses, plus the core, the grid, the brain.
If reviewing a pair of monoblock amplifiers, showing the internals, taking measurements, listening to them amps with the speakers mated to them and the cables used and the source (turntable, music server, etc.), and naming the music playing, the pressing (almost depressing because of exclusivity), etc.; it becomes almost a personal love affair between the reviewer and that product he's reviewing with all that gear chained together with it.
"Unchained my heart" ...Joe Cocker. Pro audio reviewers are artists, poets, skilled writers (some). They are talented in conveying the messages they hear from their high end. It's like they can talk to our hearts more than our brain, and unchain the power behind, where our credit cards rest peacefully awaiting the next eclipse, apocalypse. ...Way of speech.
The time we take to read the reviews that took the time of the audio reviewers to study the audio products under review can only be measured by all the readings we did from all the other audio reviewers reviewing the same audio product with their own gear in their own room. Brief it's the totality of all the reviewers, us included like Rodney said @ the thread's beginning yesterday, that forms the best overall analysis.
And with this we can make better more comfortable/judicious/smart choices for the best performance we can afford...I think.
Just an image like that: How do we know with absolute certitude? By averaging.
It may have already been said, but my take on why reviews tend to be positive, is because reviewers probably gravitate toward requesting review samples of products that they have already had a bit of experience listening to. Like at an audio show.
Why would they walk into a bad sounding room at a show, and ask to review something?
I feel the same way.
My system is a mixture of vintage, modified vintage, DIY and I love how great it sounds for the money invested. It rivals equipment at many times the price.
Why would they walk into a bad sounding room at a show, and ask to review something?
I don't. Which is why I try the 'cheap' route.
On the contrary, I feel good when my audio friends praise the sound of my 'cheapo' system (in relative terms
However, I have nothing against it when some achieve superlative sound while spending lots of money. But I do think a lot of what's going in high-end is luxury boutique and not worth the expense in terms of pure sound. Call it a scam or not. Perhaps some really feel good about themselves when they spend a lot of money. A shiny box with some fancy specs, or the most tubes or whatever, in itself does not make a good sound.
I feel the same way.
My system is a mixture of vintage, modified vintage, DIY and I love how great it sounds for the money invested. It rivals equipment at many times the price.
I was speaking about long-term consequences for the publication and the manufacturer. In the long term, they need each other and will eventually, even after a negative review, continue or resume their relationship. The individual reviewer is less significant in this matter and if a manufacturer held a grudge against me for a negative review, so be it. There are so many other products of interest to me and not enough time to attend to all.
I wrote 2 less than positive reviews and you wouldn't believe the backlash I got from the manufacturers. The mag even got nasty grams because if it. The manufacturers actually said that there were cancelled orders because of the reviews! Didn't know my words held so much weight. Needless to say I haven't been asked to write anything else!!
I wrote 2 less than positive reviews and you wouldn't believe the backlash I got from the manufacturers. The mag even got nasty grams because if it. The manufacturers actually said that there were cancelled orders because of the reviews! Didn't know my words held so much weight. Needless to say I haven't been asked to write anything else!!
:bI think you re own gear standard is to high( incl room ) , certainly source material lol .( expirience repro /recorded material )
You should scale down to keep the reviewing job
Thanks Kal. It's always nice to see the perspective from another viewpoint. That makes perfect sense. I appreciate your response.
Bruce B, that may be a blessing in disguise.
Tom
If someone comes to this forum and tells me that he listened to two DACs in systems he knows well and he found some differences between them, I read it with interest and enjoy if writes a report on the differences. Just reading that famous Mr X found he likes better equipment Y at a fraction of the price of Z only makes me smile ...
However, audiophiles are curious - it is in part why we read WBF, it is also part of the high-end audio gossip.
Can you please point me where Harley compared the Vivaldi to the Berkeley?
Yes that. But there's a flip coin to it sometimes; precipitation. I'll get back to it later...
Right now I'm really enjoying reading your true observation, and the ones from everyone else.
I came here this morning ready to abandon the journey. I was surprised @ the smart replies from an interesting subject for many. Beats the discovery of new galaxies. :b
If someone comes to this forum and tells me that he listened to two DACs in systems he knows well and he found some differences between them, I read it with interest and enjoy if writes a report on the differences. Just reading that famous Mr X found he likes better equipment Y at a fraction of the price of Z only makes me smile ...
However, audiophiles are curious - it is in part why we read WBF, it is also part of the high-end audio gossip.
He hasn't and that's part of my frustration. A couple of years ago, he reviewed the Vivaldi, called it the BEST DIGITAL EVER and put it on the cover. A couple of months later, he reviewed the Berkeley Ref and said it was the Best. Also for context, at the time, Berkeley had some manufacturing bottleneck, so it was virtually impossible to hear that so called "best" DAC that was priced less than 15% of the price of the vivaldi... If he compared the 2 using the same music, a lot of people wouldn't have wasted the time and money to try to hear it, as Berkeley Ref is very analytical...
Roger you are certainly right for the top of the top true audiophiles. Examples here abound generously.
That is one class; there are several other classes, not as highly calibrated. IMO
And true too; economics are part of the audio equation...we can't escape realities of life, not in 2017 and not anytime soon thereafter and from past history, since the conquest of paradise in 1492, and way back before when all the lands were mostly inhabited by the prehistoric animals.
Also, audio means a lot of products; everything related to it including cables, digital high res audio files, streaming, updating through internet from firmware updates, etc.
So it's not just a pair of loudspeakers with tone controls, or a tube stereo amp, or a phono preamp with RIAA equalized curves, or a tonearm well balanced made of tungsten and armed forces with a top notch cartridge sculpted by the top Japanese sculptor, or all that kind of ultra high resolution stuff.
We also have to include digital music servers, digital disc spinners, multichannel surround processors, receivers with USB ports, HDMI jacks, latest standards and handshakes.
I don't want this thread restricted to the best of the best in class; I want it to include all classes, because that's what the world is comprised of. ...The average.
I know; for some the average is not good enough. I believe some averages are superior in the overall end of the line; which is the illusion of a total music listening satisfaction and interaction of all the parts including the people from the audience, us.
That's what we do best, us audio people; the pursuit of an illusive audio world. All in the name of better sound reproduction, including the artists we love and the people who recorded them, their voices and the music they play. It is an art to review audio products; the art of convincing ourselves first, and everyone else.
The word 'agenda' sounds like a thunderstorm. Something comin' but hard to predict exactly in its direction. The winds can shift @ unpredictable times and completely change the pattern that was mapped from anticipation. It's a reality fact.
Money, agenda, hidden mysteries, timing, ...audio reviewers are familiar with...some most. Tomorrow will be a better day, meanwhile we live today in the now. I will get back to that...
By the way, I like to mention this: The Classical Music thread here with John (Bachtoven) and others...chapeau!
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You mean your open reel-to-reel Pioneer tape deck? I remember Amir wanting it. :b
No, it's not. I've heard it. It just seems pretty neutral.
Just like my standard Berkeley Alpha DAC 2 is pretty neutral. I don't like euphonic DACs, or components in general, they color all music with the same patina. Get's boring after a while. A component or system should be able to reproduce the wide timbral palette of different recordings, as you would also find in different concert halls/seating positions.
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