Absolute Sound - do we really need another review like this?

Thanks for chiming in. What would we do without your ability to correct all of the hyperbole and misstatements made here on the forum?

I enjoy both Stereophile and Absolute Sound.  
Obviously many others don't.
Who really cares?  
Just listen to the music and let it be.
Let it be...

As far as the cliche that product-based magazines, at least S'phile & TAS, only review items that have been advertised, here's at least one note in contrast:

* While I've seen monthly ads from Chord Electronics in S'phile and, also I believe, TAS, neither magazine has yet reviewed the wonderful Chord DAVE. I love that DAC immensely, best of the 20-or-so I've tried over the past 10 years, and don't care if either magazine praises it or not. I know what I know.

But I'm just curious to see what they might say...even if Chord pays for ad space.

Dave, who calls that idea a cliche based partially on his 10 years as a computer magazine editor from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s where he was never never never told or encouraged to write about a product just because the company advertised in our pages

I didn't read every post here, but it seems the OP was saying that the magazine is shilling for Oppo to sell more units before a new model comes out?  If that's what he's saying, it makes no sense because Oppo has no 105s left to sell.  My old Pioneer finally died and I really wanted a 105, but they were impossible to get new.  

I've been a Stereophile subscriber since the J. Gordon Holt days. 
Same with TAS. 

I've been tempted to not renew my subscription to Stereophile though. A couple of the reviewers almost never miss an opportunity to include some snarky left wing political statement in their reviews. Plus, TAS is a much more professionally put together magazine. 

Frank