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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    To the outsider, this is a discussion between two snake oil salesmen on the best way to sell crap to the credulous.
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    Logistically, many of these things become impossible with high-end audio publication and its budgets. You can drive one vehicle round a track, get out of that vehicle, get in the next and drive it round the same track and get viable results in an afternoon. A pair of full-range loudspeakers need...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    No problems. We can build this. A good floating-floor IEC standard room designed for audio shouldn't cost more than about $60k to construct (if we're doing it properly, we should do it properly and you can't use domestic construction in commercial construction and keep in code, which adds to...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    So, suddenly the qualifications begin to appear. No, you wouldn't test a two-watt SET amp with an 85dB loudspeaker. So, why would you expect a reviewer who uses a two-watt SET amplifier to be an appropriate assessor of a 1kW solid-state amplifier? The editor's job is to make sure the guy who...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    A more fundamental problem is using hotel rooms as simulations of the home. Not only do you share the same AC, but you share the same corridor with people who are playing music. The nearest thing to this is a college dorm. Worse, I've been to a small show, and the sudden realisation of how...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    Yes, we have an obligation to report honestly. Let's take your cables as an example. Your loudspeaker cables look like they are Litz construction. And one of my reviewers wants to review them... on his early Naim NAP500. Would the honest thing be to let this review go ahead, or would the...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    Yes, and threads like this do give people some insight into how the world is not a uniform place. I'm not wholly convinced of the efficacy of the UK forums, though. Although they can be entertaining, they also tend toward outright hostility toward anything that doesn't fit the profile of that...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    Up to a point yes. And, in fairness, most reviewers who have been doing this for a while are entirely able to contextualise in the vast majority of cases. But this only works up to a point. You still have to do some matching of person to product. A reviewer should be flexible enough not to let...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    As with all things, it's not as simple as it first seems. Setting aside any potential duplicity in the process, assume you have a reasonable and uncorrupt manufacturer, editor, and journalist involved in the process. Better yet, let's assume Spendor (because I'm looking at a pair of D1s as I...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    With as much respect as I can muster here, how do you know? You not only don't advertise in any of the magazines, you aren't approached by any advertising people (as reflects your express wishes) to the best of my knowledge, you have not been even been given a rate card or media pack. We don't...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    It's usually either that the reviewer knows the other components well (even if the room is not a constant), or - more usually - the reviewer is trying to draw attention to what is potentially the most interesting thing in the room. A lot of manufacturers who share rooms could be politely...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    Peter, I know from bitter experience how difficult it is to make a good sound at a show. Even when you get it all right, there will be people who will not like the sound you are making, have heard too many systems in too short a time-frame to pass judgment (but still will), and there will be...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    Having demonstrated with room treatment, the criticism tends to come from the end users. There's a certain irony in someone who not 10 minutes earlier showed me a picture of his modified Quad ESLs with exposed panels held in place by a rusting steel cradle, and wires trailing across the room to...
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    Negative show report posts... enough is enough.

    Actually, there was a forced trade-off between Magico and I think it was Devialet (who occupied the adjacent room). They had to take alternate 20minute music slots because there was so much sound leakage between the rooms. The difference is Magico decided not to disclose this (for reasons I've...
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    Is this guy for real?

    In fairness, we all need checks and balances, whether in seminar or demonstration. And, in fairness, that means pointing out what you might think an iniquity. If it is or is not an iniquity ultimately falls to the wider public, but no-one is - or should be - immune from criticism simply because...
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    schuko plug

    No, because there is a 'distribution box' just like the circuit breaker panel you have in your home. This also 'unbalances' the three-phase power for domestic use. This is fed by a 'consumer unit' (in UK systems, I think it has a different name in other countries) which is basically a huge...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    I don't think you can dismiss a site on the grounds of whether or not it chooses to measure the products it tests. This largely comes down to the type of readership you aim for. I've worked in a measurement-based and a non-measurment environment in audio, and they pull in very different...
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    Audiophile Fundamentalism

    I am not sure fundamentalism is the correct term. I think the current situation in audio is extreme factionism. We have broken this little world down into ever smaller groups, that differ in minute ways from one another, and those minute differentiations are the cause of schism and dissent...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    I don't think that's relevant, and the concept is very definitely irrelevant to the topic at hand. A lot of end-user experience is unrelated to the science underlying the subject. Science can tell us the chemistry behind the sweetness of sugar, it can determine with a high degree of certainty...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    I hear that a lot, too. I hear that a lot as a criticism of Hi-Fi+, which is odd because it's not a policy of Hi-Fi+. I also hear we don't review products unless they have lots of advertising support. Except for those reviews of products that aren't supported by advertising, which apparently...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    I don't think the reason the whole 'accentuate the positive' thing is an effort to raise advertising revenue. Even the non-advertising funded reviews and those from the general public are typically upbeat. We attempt to replicate the buyer and user experience, by living with the product for a...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    You are absolutely right that a filter of some sort will always exist, but I am not convinced that a filter based on whether or not a company is willing to pay a non-refundable fee up front best serves the readers. It serves them in so far as they can continue to read the site should the concept...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    I think you've crossed a fairly dangerous line here. You seem to be focusing on the revenue stream and not the customer. Uniquely in the case of media outlets, they are not the same entity. Currently you (and me, and every other editor out there) get to dictate editorial content based on where...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    That's a high-minded goal that I suspect will be hard to maintain. Are you viewing this as a non-refundable submission fee, or is it a 'pay for play' green light for an assignment that's already in the work in progress stage? Personally, I think you will find it difficult to disabuse...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    Rare exceptions like Consumer Reports aside, this is the way of the world. Even paywalled newspapers like the New York Times still have advertising within the paywalled site, because the subscriber base still cannot wholly fund the unique content. The unique content of a website (the content...
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    6Moons New Policy: Support us, with ad revenue, and we will review your product.

    I can't speak to CR's pay model, but the Consumer's Association in the UK (publishers of Which? magazine that at one time had more than a million subscribers) was funded by subscription alone. However, a significant proportion of the CA's revenue is now generated by its other businesses...
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    What improvements have we seen in high end audio in the last 25 years?

    This line of thinking would mean all that work that went on creating the LS3/5a wasn't 'real' design, because the BBC used existing KEF drive units. I guess it was a bit cheeky calling Kingswood Warren the BBC's 'Research Department, Engineering Division', where it should have been the 'Simple...
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    HIFi House ceases opetaions

    OK, thanks. Shame
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    HIFi House ceases opetaions

    If the company shut down this suddenly, and was involved in CI, it's probably a contract problem. If you spec a high-end home for distributed audio, HVAC, home theater, comms, networking, alarms, etc, you can sometimes have $250k worth of customer's inventory either in your storeroom or in...
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    What improvements have we seen in high end audio in the last 25 years?

    Yes, and walking around a car show, you see so many supercars using Pirelli P Zeros. I guess all the rest of that concept car is so much hot air. There's a myth that's promulgated by both extremes in audio - that top-end audio is built with no consideration toward objective development. It's...

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