Valin's Q5 TAS Cover, Review - Dull, Dispassionate, Defensive - Doesn't belong in TAS

caesar

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May 30, 2010
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Every 2 or 3 months Valin has a mini orgasm about a recent "best" product. So now that he has heard a product better than the M5 he loved so much and was the "best ever" until a few months ago, I was waiting for him to go the full Meg Ryan on the Q5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-bsf2x-aeE

What a disappointment! Back in '99 he wrote a great review of a speaker he loved. Great passion and ecstasy communicated here in the Soundlab M1 review -

http://www.soundlab-speakers.com/reviews.htm.

The Q5 review, however, is passionless. It justifies why he likes the product. But if he really loves the speaker and it is the "perfect speaker for him", the review should probably have more of a tenor of this auto review below, which not only communicates the excellence of the car with passion, but makes one want to take a second mortgage on one's house and surprise the wife with this beast in the garage!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240613832721630.html?mod=rss_Autos

Coming back to the Q5, it sounds like it is an analytical speaker with bass that is weaker than similarly priced cohorts. It is probably great for guys who want to hear the guy in the neighboring seat scratch his cojones, but will likely bore the music lover who wants to sit back in his chair and experience the musical event with all of its rapture. And because of that, it doesn't really belong in TAS, especially on the cover! Interestingly, Stereophile did not give the cover to Q5 while TAS did. Valin must be fully in control. Sounds like the $99K Rockport speaker reviewed in the same issue is the speaker that actually belongs in TAS and should have gotten the cover.

But hey, advertising dollars, politics, incentives, and power frequently trump things.
 

FrantzM

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Apr 20, 2010
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Have not read the review and likely will not .. yet the Q5 remains an intriguing speaker. Looking forward to audition it .. at length. I am not defending Valin by the way ... He's lost all credibility as far as I am concerned. Can't understand why he hasn't be sacked yet.. must be one powerful person at TAS ... Man! how far has HP fallen? Sad to me .. I liked it when he was in full control during TAS very early years.
 

JackD201

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Apr 20, 2010
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To be fair, I think the Q5 is a loudspeaker that despite being power hungry and not quite as extended down below as I would like, does many things very well musically. Here we have a case of irony going on. We're seeing how too much attention from a reviewer is actually having the opposite effect it should have. It reminds me of Sam Tellig and all things Musical Fidelity some years back. Having said that, if JV's stock is going down, I think it is a bit unfair to have whatever he reviews go down with his ship. I just take his reviews like it is, just another guy's opinion.
 

JackD201

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Unless he wins the Universe wide election to fill the role of proclaimer of the Universe's best speaker however, his proclamations really don't mean much anyway. Right? ;) We're back where we started. He's just another guy. (((((shrug)))))
 

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
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JV and RH lost credibility with me when I saw their rooms..... 'nuf said...
 

RBFC

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It's not limited to audio.... the public love to place folks on pedestals for reasons unrelated to their expertise in the area under discussion. Marketing is not just to sell "goods".

Lee
 

ack

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
May 6, 2010
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JV and RH lost credibility with me when I saw their rooms..... 'nuf said...

Excellent point... yes, they are extremely small for the size speakers they are attempting to evaluate.
 

caesar

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May 30, 2010
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Unless he wins the Universe wide election to fill the role of proclaimer of the Universe's best speaker however, his proclamations really don't mean much anyway. Right? ;) We're back where we started. He's just another guy. (((((shrug)))))

Great point, Jack! On one hand there are some (but not many) audio experts who hear a lot of gear and know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, we don't always share tastes with them and don't know what their incentives are. On the other hand, many in our society go "chasing the expert". This could be quite problematic. Take an investment advisor, a CEO, an economist, etc., who got an outstanding result. Half of that good result was due to the skill of the expert and half was due to good fortune, stars aligning, environment, circumstances, etc. If you put your money with that financial expert or hire the hot shot CEO, he is not likely to be able to repeat the same kick butt result you want because the new circumstances may be different from what he faced and lady luck may not be on his side this time. So what I like to do is take opinions of several experts and average them. This gets much better results than anything.

Coming back to Q5, I have no doubt that it sounds like the way Valin describes it. Fremer and Sircom said the same thing. But because the speaker is so analytic, I think it belongs on the cover of Stereophile, not TAS. Actually, it is killing the TAS brand. But ultimately, I was just disappointed with the review. When someone is passionately in love with something, it usually comes across. No such luck here. The review was as much about Valin as it was about the Q5. The Q5 is so great, he actually wants to pay for it! Poor baby - like I could give a rats ass!!! I am sure Wolf will let him keep for years for free for the publicity, or charge him what it would cost the rest of us what a Bose product costs in exchange for front cover advertising.
 

Johnny Vinyl

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Ceasar,

Maybe I'm way off-base here, but what's the obsession with reviews and/or reviewers?
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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Sources of information and Entertainment!

Hopefully you have more sources of information and if that's your entertainment value, ok and so be it. Personally I don't get it. You seem to knock every review/reviewer.
 

caesar

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May 30, 2010
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Hopefully you have more sources of information and if that's your entertainment value, ok and so be it. Personally I don't get it. You seem to knock every review/reviewer.

For the most part you are correct. Because audio is experiential, describing products in comparison to their cohorts makes more sense as it brings out the relative strengths and weaknesses of the products. Reviewers usually fail to do it. If you, as consumer, are hunting for truly great products to put your hard earned $$,$$$ behind, the reviews are mostly a waste.

But read Valin's soundlab review or the auto review I linked above. There is a lot of good information and passion there in both, which makes it good entertainment.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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For the most part you are correct. Because audio is experiential, describing products in comparison to their cohorts makes more sense as it brings out the relative strengths and weaknesses of the products. Reviewers usually fail to do it. If you, as consumer, are hunting for truly great products to put your hard earned $$,$$$ behind, the reviews are mostly a waste.

But read Valin's soundlab review or the auto review I linked above. There is a lot of good information and passion there in both, which makes it good entertainment.

If, as you say, reviewers fail to do it, why bother reading them, and where is the entertainment value in it? Unless, of course, it's the pleasure one seeks from taking those reviews/reviewers to task. That, to me, seems to be your primary motivation.
 

caesar

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May 30, 2010
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If, as you say, reviewers fail to do it, why bother reading them, and where is the entertainment value in it? Unless, of course, it's the pleasure one seeks from taking those reviews/reviewers to task. That, to me, seems to be your primary motivation.


John,

It is very hard to get good information about products in this hobby. Some information is better than no information. Entertaining writing is a bonus.

Like I said above, I read the reviews from all of the experts and "average the results". Between Fremer, Sircom, and Valin together, we can get a more complete picture of the speaker than from hearing just from one guy. Imagine, though, if there was no Fremer review which pointed out the bass deficiencies. The Q5 would have been an "unqualified triumph" and "best ever" in TAS.
 

Phelonious Ponk

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Jun 30, 2010
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Coming back to the Q5, it sounds like it is an analytical speaker with bass that is weaker than similarly priced cohorts. It is probably great for guys who want to hear the guy in the neighboring seat scratch his cojones, but will likely bore the music lover who wants to sit back in his chair and experience the musical event with all of its rapture.

Ceasar could you get specific and help me out here? I've read this comment stated a hundred different ways and it still makes no sense to me. If the guy in the next seat scratching his cojones is on the recording, of course I want my system to be able to reproduce it. How is that analytical? What is it about a system/speakers incapable of reproducing everything that is on the recording that is better at helping you experience the musical event?

I have listened to many "euphonic" systems. I still don't get it. But perhaps no one has explained it to me well enough.

Tim
 

Randall Smith

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May 30, 2010
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Imagine, though, if there was no Fremer review which pointed out the bass deficiencies. The Q5 would have been an "unqualified triumph" and "best ever" in TAS.

When the reviewer is used to a huge artificial bump in the mid-bass, his/hers perception is skewed. Then, when they hear something more linear and more accurate, it doesn't sound right to them. Apparently, even a well respected reviewer like Fremer can be fooled as can you by choosing to believe his description over others.
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Caesar

I have often heard the term "analytical" tacked on linear, non-euphonic gears. .. I would advise to hold judgment until audition.
 

DaveyF

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Jul 31, 2010
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The only review that I ever abide by is the one that I give to myself upon HEARING any gear that I am interested in. I learnt a long time ago that if you buy any gear based upon a review in a magazine or online, then you have only yourself to blame for the outcome.
IMHO, reading one, two or a hundred reviews and then making a purchase decision based upon said reviews is simply asking for trouble.:(
Reading about gear in magazines isn't terribly interesting to me except to give me an idea as to how the piece is made, who made it and here's the biggie......Looking at the pictures to see what the thing looks like. ( Have you noticed that TAS has gotten a little better with their pictures in the last few years and S'phile has slipped in this regard......S'phile's close-ups of the amps front handle and no other shots don't really do much for me:D).
 

Phelonious Ponk

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IMHO, reading one, two or a hundred reviews and then making a purchase decision based upon said reviews is simply asking for trouble.

Agreed. And I'd add that making a purchase decision based on how something sounds in a showroom is just a little better. If I can't get a liberal return policy, so I can audition in my own room, in my own system, I just keep looking.

Tim
 

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