Stereophile's Products of 2019

[Joe P]

https://www.stereophile.com/content/stereophiles-products-2019

 

[caesar]

Thanks! Interesting read.

Most interesting is that there is no Wilson, dCS, Audio Research, etc., in the winners, as we usually get in these lists. Maybe it's some kind of a typo. Or maybe the Russians, Ukrainians, Iranians, Chinese, or North Koreans hacked their site.

 

[steve59]

seems stereophile has become smitten with revel recently. Not for me to say with or without good reason, I was just less impressed with the f228 be than some other contenders in that price category.

 

[MJB]

As always, these types of lists tend to be controversial. Interesting to read once and move on.

 

[caesar]

I look at lists because I buy gear for my systems, and lists help me narrow down the auditioning choices.

And I am also interested in psychology of influence. Popular brands in this hobby, although may be excellently engineered, are beneficiaries of the "bandwagon effect".

(The bandwagon effect is where popular brands become even more popular as people gain knowledge of them their friends, experienced influencers, dealers, online boards, show reports, and audio journalists..)

So influence by authority figures is very important in what we, as audio fans, see as raved about today and what will come out in a few years based on the hype today...

But coming back to this Stereophile list, Stereophile usually does a great job of comparing gear in the reviews (instead of unethically hyping something up as BEST, which wastes people's time and money). It would be helpful to know the rationale for why they like Revel and other winners so much better than the other gear. Otherwise, they are just expressions of taste.

Let me quote a couple of influential philosophers to help get my point across ...

Kant: " ... of themselves judgements of taste do not even set up any interest whatsoever. Only in society is it interesting to have taste..."

Nietzsche: "...And ye tell me, friends, that there is to be no dispute about taste and tasting? But all life is a dispute about taste and tasting!..."

So much of high end audio is arguing about taste... Stereophile needs to explain why the products they have selected are better in terms of explaining their taste (via comparisons) and the trade-offs people will face with these...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

It would be helpful to know the rationale for why they like Revel and other winners so much better than the other gear. Otherwise, they are just expressions of taste.

The RC listings are the results of an election. If you want to know why some individuals voted the way they did, you have to read the specific reviews and reports for such information.

 

[Gregadd]

Such lists are useful because they bring my attention to products I overlook.
I can guess why Revel was chosen.

 

[caesar]

The RC listings are the results of an election. If you want to know why some individuals voted the way they did, you have to read the specific reviews and reports for such information.

Thanks. Maybe they can include some blurbs providing the rationale for casting the votes the way they did. Just a thought...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Thanks. Maybe they can include some blurbs providing the rationale for casting the votes the way they did. Just a thought...

The RC listing occupy a huge amount of space in the April/October issues and a huge amount of effort by the editors. In addition to what is there now, the editors would have to solicit such comments from all contributors, read and assess those comments and then, after the final selections are determined, select and edit the comments for publication. The editors do include some added "color commentary" but doing it for each choice would be hard to justify in terms of space and effort.