" I never lied to you I always told you some version of the truth." Jack Nicholson

Al M.

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Sep 10, 2013
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Al M.

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Sep 10, 2013
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Lol , but apparently you paid too it seems

For one specific article ;)

But you can also see it by comparing the html versions with the pdf versions of some larger guides.

Oh, your translation:

"Can't believe that he pays for that nonsense."
 

Al M.

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Al M.

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Heel goed ken je mijn hifi in nijmegen nog ?

Nee, ik ben er nooit geweest. Ik was een klant van Audio Design in Utrecht (toen het nog een high end winkel was), een die winkel in Rotterdam, ben het naam vergeten.
 

Al M.

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Mcbrion

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May 9, 2013
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You miss the point Alex,
Of course anyone can like whatever they like. Personal choice of a consumer is what they pay for. The larger point of my post is when the "reviewers" stop being a critic and choose a flavors to fit a review that makes no sense to me. It is not for me to tell anyone what they like however we can't have multiple categories for the same things to fit so no one is offended. I judge that as marketing not being a critic.
I am not a critic, nor reviewer however this flavor stuff is not either it is more being a reporter saying nice things about everything so as to not offend or critique.
I learned from reading HP and perhaps I am an old curmudgeon but I still learn but not form the press anymore. It has gone full cirlce.
I agree completely. And I wrote for TAS for a very brief period.
It was once the mandate of "acoustic music in an acoustic space," devoid of microphones. No more.
It's clear they've lost their way. They compare very little to recordings made back in the Golden Age. They decided to become less stringent in order to attract more readers, which is why very few of the original writers are still there. And dismantling the intercommentary - as I told HP a zillion times - was a screw-up of major proportions. However, by that point, Tom Martin had purchased the magazine from him, so..
It's a nice magazine, but it's gotten to where its The Tower of Babel. Everything's great, which reminds me of something Harry once said," Compare us with the 'we-like-everything Stereophile magazine.' Well, no need to compare. TAS is still a step above, but not like a 4-baton track race, where they were 100 feet ahead. Now they're barely ahead of whoever's behind them. They violate every principle they held dear. JV is excellent, but even HE does not compare to esteemed recordings nearly as often as he did. And just at a time when the audio field has become the playground of the well-heeled (yeah, of course, they have the good-for-the-money reviews but that's just to satisfy lower-income readers).
If they wanted to to a form of "MAGA," they'd start up that damned helpful intercommentary system. I've nagged them, but they don't do it. And notice, they don't even - periodically - "waste their time" showing the reviewer's descriptions of their listening environments. Not a critical Giant as they once were. I stopped subscribing two years ago. I hate to call them useless, because they're not, but they're like a Tech 1 level of reviewing instead of the Tech 5 level of reviewing they used to be. A sad loss to watch them drift slowly downhill, quality-wise, although not financially, perhaps.
 

Mcbrion

Well-Known Member
May 9, 2013
91
14
313
Connecticut
After reading Mr. Valin again today on the TAS site It
made me question and wonder is this really the condition of the Audio Industry?
Are we at the point that there is no Absolute Sound and its just a free for all with product as to the flavor one likes?
Are reviews therefor totally worthless? or do you just pick the flavor from the reviewer you prefer who agrees with you or the one that validates you opinion and gives the "permission slip?"

If this is the truth then where do we go from here? I ponder this daily. How do we learn and how do we improve without a fixed target?
I know how much hard work and effort many companies put into their products to get closer to the music and I have a hard time wrapping my head around how easily this is dismissed by"flavors"

I just came back from Munich and I will admit it was fun and interesting to see and listen briefly to the amazing gear that was presented there.
I am still a believer in audio as a system and not pieces. Does the system get you closer to the music? Does it create a sensation of disbelief? Does it act as a time machine and transport me to a musical event?
To me its not a flavor!
I searched for a long time to find products I love, products that do this for me. I realize that they are not the only products that can do this or that any one system is perfect but I don't believe that its just any opinion is a version of the truth.

After all my years as a dealer I find it absurd to make declarations about any product in a void yet that happens every day.
i.e. Someone listens to a complete complex system and makes a declaration like
:thats the best ethernet cable I ever heard: yet they have none of the system.

This is not meant as criticism only to start a dialogue from this Forums many experienced listeners
YES, Elliot. It's a free for all now.
- Glen McLEOD
 
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Fsonicsmith

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
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Keep in mind the tortured history of TAS. HP believed that there was a single truth and named his publication accordingly. As time progressed even HP loosened his grip on his former convictions and then once he died his magazine became a free-for-all. As to the real topic of the OP- removed from it's reference to a specific review-this is just a re-tread of an old chestnut. There is no single truth to studio-recorded sound. There is not even a single truth to classical music or opera in a single concert hall given the vagaries of seating position. Whether we choose to accept it or remain life-long deniers, the pursuit of home music reproduction is summarized by the Oliver Nelson title, "The Blues and the Abstract Truth". Jonathin Valin is entitled to his viewpoint but one man's "nothing but the facts" in another man's "that speaker sounds dull, dark, and lifeless" (my being in the latter). Are equipment reviews totally useless? No, imo. Are they mostly useless? Yes, again imho only.
 
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