Stereophile - that didn't take long... :(

[Jim Smith]

Sheesh!!!

If the rumors are true, several valuable members of the Stereophile staff have already been released by the new owners...

[Kuoppis]

Sheesh!!!

If the rumors are true, several valuable members of the Stereophile staff have already been released by the new owners...

Hi Jim, any idea whom we’re talking?


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[Mike]

Man, I like all those guys. Geesh.

[Jim Smith]

So far, it's only a rumor (but from a trusted source). I heard Robert Baird, Jana Dagdagan, & Michael Lavorgna, plus other employees.




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[Kuoppis]

So far, it's only a rumor (but from a trusted source). I heard Robert Baird, Jana Dagdagan, & Michael Lavorgna, plus other employees.




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[/QUOTE]

Thanks for sharing, Jim. Very unfortunate IMHO.


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[CPP]

This usually occurs with when a new owner group takes over a company or its properties. Been through quite a few myself, but always got to remain.

[rbbert]

If true, I wonder who will “edit” Audiostream?

[JWhip]

Not sure it means anything. But the picture of Michael LaVorgna that used to be on his entries in the comments section is now gone. The entries are still there though. The pic was there yesterday.

[Mikado463]

fresh meat !

[AJ Soundfield]

Hmmm, I wonder if Herb is among the casualties given his recent rant??? He seemed ticked about something!

[audio.bill]

I think it would be a huge mistake if they let Jana go! In my opinion she's brought a youthful exuberance along with her fine writing and video skills which have re-energized their print and online presence.

[BlueFox]

Didn't even know the magazine was sold. I wonder how much it will change.

[Alpinist]

So far, it's only a rumor (but from a trusted source). I heard Robert Baird, Jana Dagdagan, & Michael Lavorgna, plus other employees.

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Wow, extremely unfortunate and a huge mistake in my opinion. I like all of their writing and reviews. Met Jana at RMAF. She's extremely nice. Really refreshing to get a woman's viewpoint.

Ken

[Speedskater]

We better download all the good stuff from the web-page before it disappears.

[Ritmo]

In mergers and acquisitions, very seldom things stay the same.

Thx for the heads up Jim.

[Mike]

I feel bad for John Atkinson. He put his heart and soul into the magazine. He managed to cover all corners of the hobby with sites dedicated to headphones, digital, analog, and everything else!

I hope everything works out for the gang. A good gang.

[CPP]

I feel bad for John Atkinson. He put his heart and soul into the magazine. He managed to cover all corners of the hobby with sites dedicated to headphones, digital, analog, and everything else!

I hope everything works out for the gang. A good gang.

John is the Editor of Stereophile where Mike Lavorgna is the Editor of Autostream.

[drabbish]

I assume they will do what espn did and get younger people to try to appeal to a new audience. I will be honest the website needed a little updating. There is a new world of wealthy young millionaires and the articles weren't really reaching out to that base of people.

[CPP]

I assume they will do what espn did and get younger people to try to appeal to a new audience. I will be honest the website needed a little updating. There is a new world of wealthy young millionaires and the articles weren't really reaching out to that base of people.

Well we can only speculate. What John does brings, he merit to reviews with measurements and to equipment or find someone with his skill sets and lets not forget test equipment well could be difficult not to mention the skills of being a editor who oversees the complete mag, to include the web version.

[MtnHam]

Deleted.

[AJ Soundfield]

https://www.stereophile.com/content/...ng-stereophile

[sleepysurf]

A sad sign of the times. The continued demise of brick and mortar audio salons, decline of physical media (CD's, SACD's), Oppo throwing in the towel, and now cutbacks at S'phile... does not bode well for the future of this hobby.

Will be interesting to hear the "buzz" on all this at Axpona!

[Mike]

A sad sign of the times. The continued demise of brick and mortar audio salons, decline of physical media (CD's, SACD's), Oppo throwing in the towel, and now cutbacks at S'phile... does not bode well for the future of this hobby.

Will be interesting to hear the "buzz" on all this at Axpona!

It’s not all doom and gloom. The headphone business (a great avenue to introducing two channel I’m finding) is a $10 Billion a year industry and growing. All around the world (just visit Munich), hi end audio is growing. Younger generations are embracing it. The issues here in America are a little different.

[AJ Soundfield]

A sad sign of the times. The continued demise of brick and mortar audio salons, decline of physical media (CD's, SACD's), Oppo throwing in the towel, and now cutbacks at S'phile... does not bode well for the future of this hobby.

Well, entirely predictable from my perspective. Darwinism at its finest.

Will be interesting to hear the "buzz" on all this at Axpona!

Do note that the Axpona exhibitor list is a country mile long! Looks like a pretty strong showing despite any perceived gloom.
Includes a Stereophile "Room", which I don't ever recall seeing before http://www.axpona.com/exhibitorsearch.asp?maploc=210
Have fun!

cheers,

AJ

[baddog]

Oppo has moved on to augmented reality. As Mike noted, it is all not doom and gloom, markets evolve over time. I must say I am pretty happy with the evolution, some great systems and solutions available now that didn't exist 10 years ago. IMHO.

[Mordante]

Does anyone even read magazines at all? I think it has been 3 years since I last bought any magazine. I live in the Netherlands and I never see any audio magazines in the stores. I used to sometimes buy the Hifi+, Stereophile and I think there was one more. But finding a recent one that has interesting articles is/was rare.

[CPP]

Does anyone even read magazines at all? I think it has been 3 years since I last bought any magazine. I live in the Netherlands and I never see any audio magazines in the stores. I used to sometimes buy the Hifi+, Stereophile and I think there was one more. But finding a recent one that has interesting articles is/was rare.

I just read them online.

[Everest Audio]

Apparently Jana will now become the editor of AudioStream.

[Alpinist]

Apparently Jana will now become the editor of AudioStream.

Yes, I spoke with her on Saturday and she confirmed this.

Best,
Ken

[Mechnutt]

Does anyone even read magazines at all? I think it has been 3 years since I last bought any magazine. I live in the Netherlands and I never see any audio magazines in the stores. I used to sometimes buy the Hifi+, Stereophile and I think there was one more. But finding a recent one that has interesting articles is/was rare.

I still get Stereophile Mag. I like the feel and prefer reading paper. I guess I am dinosaur.

[CPP]

I still get Stereophile Mag. I like the feel and prefer reading paper. I guess I am dinosaur.

I might go back to paper if ZINIO ( provides Stereophile on-line mag) can't speed up their server. Its so darn slow at times.

[steinkrieg]

Zinio is great, and really cheap... I get Stereophile, What Hi-FI?, and Hi-Fi News... I think I paid under $40 total for all 3 subscriptions for a year. They all put out most of the same articles on the website in the month or so following the release of each issue. It's great iPad reading while casually listening to music.

[Mr Peabody]

I was reading Stereophile reviews on the AURALIC Altair and Aurender A10, I found it really interesting that in both the reviewers had technical issues and the comments on sound quality were opposite or more negative than other reviews on the same units. TAS reviewed the A10.

So I wonder if a prejudice against that type of new digital or are they the only truthful reviewers. Set up could be questionable as they had set up issues. I don't know, I just thought it noteworthy. I've read so many revews lately on that type of item, however, if memory serves I believe Aurender is Korean where AURALIC is Chinese, so I wouldn't think an issue with imports but I'd have to read more reviews from those specific writers to form anopinion.

Just wondered if anyone noticed Stereophile reviews being different than others on same units or thoughts on my comment?

I mean we don't want every reviewer to think exactly the same and we hardly have the same opinions on gear, it's just those couple of reviews were quite different.

[Mike]

I was reading Stereophile reviews on the AURALIC Altair and Aurender A10, I found it really interesting that in both the reviewers had technical issues and the comments on sound quality were opposite or more negative than other reviews on the same units. TAS reviewed the A10.

So I wonder if a prejudice against that type of new digital or are they the only truthful reviewers. Set up could be questionable as they had set up issues. I don't know, I just thought it noteworthy. I've read so many revews lately on that type of item, however, if memory serves I believe Aurender is Korean where AURALIC is Chinese, so I wouldn't think an issue with imports but I'd have to read more reviews from those specific writers to form anopinion.

Just wondered if anyone noticed Stereophile reviews being different than others on same units or thoughts on my comment?

I mean we don't want every reviewer to think exactly the same and we hardly have the same opinions on gear, it's just those couple of reviews were quite different.

I think biases set in with anything. I believe it was JVS who reviewed the A10. He’s normally quite good and funny as heck if you get to know him. His comments on Raidho speakers made me bust a gut laughing:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/...es-axponas-end

But JA is my favorite reviewer by far.

But honestly, it’s no different than with cars. I’ve seen Car and Driver love a car that Road and Track doesn’t care for.

Always try to judge for yourself or work with a dealer you trust.

As a side, as I’m looking to bring in a couple of new products, I do my own research and trust the experienced members of this site more than a review (especially ones translated!)


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[Kuoppis]

I was reading Stereophile reviews on the AURALIC Altair and Aurender A10, I found it really interesting that in both the reviewers had technical issues and the comments on sound quality were opposite or more negative than other reviews on the same units. TAS reviewed the A10.

So I wonder if a prejudice against that type of new digital or are they the only truthful reviewers. Set up could be questionable as they had set up issues. I don't know, I just thought it noteworthy. I've read so many revews lately on that type of item, however, if memory serves I believe Aurender is Korean where AURALIC is Chinese, so I wouldn't think an issue with imports but I'd have to read more reviews from those specific writers to form anopinion.

Just wondered if anyone noticed Stereophile reviews being different than others on same units or thoughts on my comment?

I mean we don't want every reviewer to think exactly the same and we hardly have the same opinions on gear, it's just those couple of reviews were quite different.

I’m a bit torn with Stereophile reviews. In general most reviews are nice and well written. But sometimes they feature some odd elements, which are difficult to justify and raise the question of political motivations. Just like the negativity you mentioned.

And if a reviewer today cannot grasp simple SW logic, it’s probably not the gear to fault. There’s going to be a lots more of that sort of thing in the future. I just remember an Ayre review where the writer struggled with a SW menu operated by two (!) large mechanical controls turning left and right, with one having a push functionality to confirm, along with a display to show where you are at. Components used to have a lots of tiny HW buttons for every functionality, but those are long gone.

Further the recommended components line-ups appear to be a mishmash of partly dated stuff with little overall quality control or market insight. It’s somewhat difficult to follow the logic of e.g. LS class A components covering a range from a couple of K$ stand-mount to a tens of K$$ floor-stander in the same category, like T&F Sun for 3,5K to Rockport Avior II for 38K.


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[AJ Soundfield]

I think biases set in with anything.

Always try to judge for yourself or work with a dealer you trust.

Great advice. Trust that you will be the best judge of what sounds good to you!

[Al M.]

Great advice. Trust that you will be the best judge of what sounds good to you!

True, but audiophiles these days are often in a pickle. They can't audition stuff before purchase. I had no problem buying the Schiit Yggdrasil DAC unheard because it was quite affordable and had a two week return guarantee. I also had no problem buying my new expensive monitors unheard because I already knew what to expect after owning a cheaper monitor from the same company. It all worked out great.

But buying my new amp unheard? No way in hell. Fortunately I got it for repeated home audition from my dealer, Goodwin's High End. Decision was then easy.

[Al M.]

But not everyone has the luxury of having a dealer.

[Mike]

Very true. I encourage people to spend the $500 on a trip to hear what they are interated in. Florida is an easy sell. . Buy with impunity.

The key is to find a knowledgeable dealer. How many actually attend all the shows, try lots of different gear and know what stuff really sounds like? Frankly, not many.


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[Al M.]

Good point. If you're willing to spend many thousands of dollars on equipment, why not budget the expense of hearing it first?

[Mike]

Good point. If you're willing to spend many thousands of dollars on equipment, why not budget the expense of hearing it first?

Penny wise and pound foolish.

True story Al, I had a gentleman call me the other day and he said, “I’ve been auditioning speakers all weekend, and I’ve narrowed it down to Harbeth and XYZ”. I asked him “what all did you hear?” He rambled off 15 different speakers. “Wow” I said, “you must have been busy. Where did you hear all these speakers.”

“YouTube”.


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[jdandy]

[CPP]

Penny wise and pound foolish.

True story Al, I had a gentleman call me the other day and he said, “I’ve been auditioning speakers all weekend, and I’ve narrowed it down to Harbeth and XYZ”. I asked him “what all did you hear?” He rambled off 15 different speakers. “Wow” I said, “you must have been busy. Where did you hear all these speakers.”

“YouTube”.


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Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up,

[Kuoppis]

“YouTube”.

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Ouch.


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[Al M.]

Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up,

Yup.

A bizarre side effect of the internet addiction, of people wanting to virtually experience the world from their lazy chair. Instead of getting up, going out the door and experiencing the real world.

[Mr Peabody]

Reading Jason on FB reminded me of one of those snobby food or movie critics that seems to find fault in everything.