Stereophile's Products of 2016

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Melbguy1 said:
Once again, a Magico-free zone, lol! :rolleyes:
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This was posted on WBF 05/25/16:

"I have been discussing a review of the S5 Mk.II with Magico and I have asked for a pair for review to be delivered at the beginning of August. John Atkinson, Editor, Stereophile"

Guess Magico never delivered.
 
If I recall, Alon wasn't happy about their review of the Q5 which was the last Magico model Stereophile reviewed. It would be an interesting read if they did review the S5 Mk2 though :skeptical:.
 
This months Stereophile might be the worst one I've seen in decades.

As far as their products of the year, I got the feeling Stereophile was responding to all the criticism (see the comments after they post their reviews online) of only reviewing the more expensive gear. Was their selections based on "best bang for the buck" or truly "the best" of what they reviewed?

TAS on the other hand had a great issue and HiFi News is always solid, if not a little Ken Kessler "favs" biased. I like their scoring system, but I often wonder if it's truly objective (as far as subjective scoring can be - if that makes any sense).

But as one well known reviewer friend told me "magazines are so yesterday, assorted websites and forums like yours are the future."


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I find nowadays you cannot really get any guidance out of these. Either it's the consumer level brands like B&W advertising a lots in the magazines or then they use some other political rationale, personal or company related.

Have to agree with Mike, the latest Stereophile one is just bonkers. How many times can you award an Audioquest Firefly? It really is not that good.


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Kuoppis said:
I find nowadays you cannot really get any guidance out of these. Either it's the consumer level brands like B&W advertising a lots in the magazines or then they use some other political rationale, personal or company related.

Have to agree with Mike, the latest Stereophile one is just bonkers. How many times can you award an Audioquest Firefly? It really is not that good.


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IMO, the Audioquest Firefly Red with my iPhone 7 and Grado SR60 is an excellent portable set up.

I still think JA's measurements are more valuable then the subjective reviews on most of the Internet sites.

I read all of the available reviews on the Magico S1s and S3s, and finally got to hear the S3s here on Maui.

IMO, they're a lot to about nothing.
 
mauidan said:
IMO, the Audioquest Firefly Red with my iPhone 7 and Grado SR60 is an excellent portable set up.
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You see, that kind of proves the point.

Our desires vary, as IMHO an iPhone 7 with Grados has rather little to do with proper sound. My mobile setup is a Questyle QP1R with Oppo closed back planar magnetic headphones and I mostly listen to DSD files.

Correspondingly, I personally do not see the value in spending money on a hi-fi magazine recommending me stuff every cheapskate is trying to sell me at the next door Dixon's anyway. But as said, our needs are different. What might be great for one person does not trigger the other one's interest. Some might need to read a review before spending a hundred bucks on a toy, others do not as they will rather just try it if they are interested.

Also, I was basically talking about what those magazines can do for me nowadays. And while he surely knows what he is doing, I do not need JA's measurements to tell me whether something sounds good or not. I do have my own ears.



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His measurements (JA)are not about your ears , its about the integrity of the equipment being offered to the public and it says Alot, unlike Absolute Sound , which is Only an opinionated rag IMO , SP offers both sides of that coin ....


BTW , easy to challenge " its only My ears decision theme" , as its pretty obvious some if not most are not purchasing based on sonics alone. Audio magazine pundit reviews and recommendations does go along way in the decision making process, especially with Big ticket items ...

Review relevance is the same today as it was 30 yrs ago , only how we access them has really changed..


Regards
 
a.wayne said:
His measurements (JA)are not about your ears , its about the integrity of the equipment being offered to the public...
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Well, as stated earlier, I respect JA's work and value his opinion, but not in my dreams would I base a purchasing decision on it. Not in a million years.

Just to prove the point, some of my gear:
- Magico S3 - not reviewed by Stereophile
- Ayre KX-5 Twenty - not reviewed by Stereophile
- Ayre VX-5 Twenty - not reviewed by Stereophile
- Grandinote Celio - not reviewed by Stereophile
- WyWires Platinum cables - not reviewed by Stereophile

So, his measurements are not (nor have I claimed them to be), but my purchasing decision is actually about my ears, my views, my dollars. That's why I can choose not to care.

To be honest, I think I do get better value out of the senior members on this forum, than I do get out of the - in one or the other way slanted - reviews in hi-fi magazines. They have owned the gear, spent hours evaluating it and have vast comparison points, often over tens of years. And I can say that much, the current Stereophile Recommended Components list is in my humble and entirely personal opinion in most areas not even closely a representation of what is good in the hi-end industry at the moment.

Please let me know if you have further questions.


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Kouppis thanks for the response,

No one is suggesting Purchasing decisions are to be made only from reviews , pretty academic one has to listen and do agree the internet has made the option of bypassing Audio rags easy, on the flip side , if it measures like crap i wont even waste my time to listen, so the measurements mean something to me.

That aside,

Have you ever purchased an hi-fi product over 20K with zero reviews or Press ? in other words virtually unknown, never reviewed in TAS, SP or anywhere else and purchase was based on sonics alone ..? seeing how your current hi- fi list are from well known members of the audio world, nothing obscure or unknown, i doubt many would too.

Inherent and later resale value of any product comes from positive reviews by the Press , necessary for sustained marketability, most manufacturers will prefer to give products to one not measuring, the main reason why the internet is full of false specifications and ( would you listen to a speaker that was listed as 6 db down at 60hz if you wanted a wider band width) charlatans peddling specs . I myself find it absurd there's no one measuring 10K phono cartridges to see if they meet specs ! as they used to do many decades ago....


BTW, Charlie ( Ayre ) David Salz ( wire world ) as well as Magico has had their product reviewed by Stereophile, to my knowledge, they ( SP) still have the largest readership base around..


Regards .
 
Kuoppis said:
the current Stereophile Recommended Components list is in my humble and entirely personal opinion in most areas not even closely a representation of what is good in the hi-end industry at the moment.
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I can agree, but who does ? which mag has a solid recommended Components list, TAS surely doesn't , they all are going to have holes, as they're only "recommendations" not a best of the best list.

IMO, Their typical tier systems used to make up the list is pretty flawed ..


Regards ..
 
mauidan said:
IMO, the Audioquest Firefly Red with my iPhone 7 and Grado SR60 is an excellent portable set up.

I still think JA's measurements are more valuable then the subjective reviews on most of the Internet sites.

I read all of the available reviews on the Magico S1s and S3s, and finally got to hear the S3s here on Maui.

IMO, they're a lot to about nothing.
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What does "a lot to about nothing" mean?
 
a.wayne said:
His measurements (JA)are not about your ears , its about the integrity of the equipment being offered to the public and it says Alot, unlike Absolute Sound , which is Only an opinionated rag IMO , SP offers both sides of that coin ....
Regards
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Stereophile magazine is like a chameleon; they back up commentary with rigorous testing, then compromise their own values by turning their once vaunted rating system into a cash cow. Whilst TAS write respected reviews, but wont stick their neck out and do proper lab testing. We need a new magazine with TAS reviewers and someone like Martin Colloms conducting lab testing...then you'd have the perfect mag.
 
Melbguy1 said:
Stereophile magazine is like a chameleon; they back up commentary with rigorous testing, then compromise their own values by turning their once vaunted rating system into a cash cow. Whilst TAS write respected reviews, but wont stick their neck out and do proper lab testing. We need a new magazine with TAS reviewers and someone like Martin Colloms conducting lab testing...then you'd have the perfect mag.
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I agree. I do like HiFi News myself. They aren't 2 years behind on reviewing products either. They're constantly on the leading end of new products. Their scoring system is a little suspect at times, but overall, they have good reviews, lab tests and a scoring system.
 
Melbguy1 said:
Stereophile magazine is like a chameleon; they back up commentary with rigorous testing, then compromise their own values by turning their once vaunted rating system into a cash cow. Whilst TAS write respected reviews, but wont stick their neck out and do proper lab testing. We need a new magazine with TAS reviewers and someone like Martin Colloms conducting lab testing...then you'd have the perfect mag.
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Unfortunately magazines require money to operate and a audio mag will require audio manufacturers and audio show promoters to pay for advertising to support printing/online management. I just don't see that happening unless the mag is self supporting financially. If a mag is self supporting then the truth would be available regarding product performance and measurements of course that would depend on the credibility of the reviewer and the accuracy and knowledge base of the person doing the measurements. It would be nice.

But what chaps me, is the current advertising vs actual written audio related text. Lets take this months Stereophile. Around a 163 pages total. On a quick run through, there are 105 full page adds, 14 1/2 page adds and 6 1/4 page adds vs 58 pages of written text and not all of those 58 pages are audio equipment review related. You have the tables of contents, legal stuff, reader comments, music reviews, but it seems each month the audio reviews give up space for paid color advertisements, sure that's income for the magazine, it cost to print but come on. From what I see, be it car mags, boating mags etc.. its that way in almost ever mag you pick up, marketing driven advertisements, lots of them and they keep growing as the main purpose of the mag dwindles. .
 
Melbguy1 said:
Stereophile magazine is like a chameleon; they back up commentary with rigorous testing, then compromise their own values by turning their once vaunted rating system into a cash cow. Whilst TAS write respected reviews, but wont stick their neck out and do proper lab testing. We need a new magazine with TAS reviewers and someone like Martin Colloms conducting lab testing...then you'd have the perfect mag.
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Stereophile cant hide their bias ( they all have it ) and many times subjective positive reviews are met by nevative bench testing , their inconsistencies are a constant Pita and i have pressed JA on this alot in the past. That aside and unlike TAS which has zero credibility with their pumped up unchallenged reviews, not to mention a much smaller circulation than SP, means not being reviewed in SP is not something any manufacturer would want , there are reasons why they are not there ...

HFN and SP are the only two i really read , the others are only for the shiney ads ,

BTW, IMO HFN is a bit more Biased than SP ....
 
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