Are our own reviews tainted ?

interesting point.

i always kinda thought the preformance of any equipment has to do with more than just the piece of hardware, but all associated hardware used in the review, as well as room accoustics and the reviewers personal taste.
not to mention sponsorship. hahaha

my KEF Q1's sound superb with my denon 3803. They might not sound as good with a marantz 7300, or they might sound better. heck my Denon might sound better with some Vandersteens, or worse.

I trust general overall opinion over any review. If something sounds extremly poorly then everyone will be first to knock it. however, its hard sometimes from reviews and general opinion to seperate good from superb.

Untill somebody can create a reference system that everybody agrees sounds how everything should sound, that which every reviewer uses as a control factor, and each piece of equipment is reviewd by variuous reviews who review it with specific musics....???

I look at reviews as general guidelines. If the reviewer says it sucks, it probably does. If they say it is incredible, superb, darn good, or just ok, then it is probably is good.

i guess, in my humble opinion, that there are no valid shades of grey because there are too many factors that affect the outcome. Either the product is pretty good, or pretty bad and cant really be judged untill you hook it to your own system

try and listen to one youself, thats the best way to do it.

im looking forward to other's responses in this forum. looks like a good thread.

Wouldnt it be cool if they had some kind of a Compatibility rating? wouldnt it? huh? huh beave wouldnt it?
"This piece of equipment preforms espcially with this this this and that, but did not sound optimal with this that or those"

You have a good point. In the past, I've been guilty of posting glowing reviews for gear I owned. It's funny, because now that I'm more serious about this hobby and have more experience in it, I haven't posted one in years.

My "reviews" these days become public in threads where people are looking for opinions. That way everyone can balance and reference what I'm saying through a more extended discussion.

I think we like to bash magazine reviews because of their perceived conflict of interest. And they in turn would probably criticize some of us for not being as experienced in this field. That and I'm sure they don't feel us hobbyists are worthy of bashing "professional audio journalists".

Yes, lots of reviews are tainted. It is hard not to be tainted in your opinion when forming a review since you must have some implicit interest to volunteer your opinion.

That being said, no one has implicit reason to share their opinion on something that didn't work in there system unless their opinion is solicited.

And, you always have to be critical of reviews written hawkish audiofiles especially that Gunbei dude. Everytime he comes over to my place I end up spending more on tweaks suggested by him. Too bad they work. HAHAHA

Reviewers get equipment from companies by the truckload and often don't know exactly what piece they are getting. When we buy something it has been carefully researched, and usually auditioned, at least in the store or often at home. Sometimes we get to hear things in the homes and systems of fellow lunatics, I mean audiophiles!

How many of us luna... er, audiophiles really buy something without having any experience with the company or product.

I have bought a Krell FPB 200 without hearing that particular model before I bought it, but Krell amps were not an unknown quantity to me. I also bought a Krell KRC 2 without hearing that model, but I had another Krell pre-amp before the KRC and I had spent a lot of time with other Krell pre-amps.

I would not buy a Levinson amp on AudiogoN because I have never listened to Levinson gear. That doesn't mean it isn't as good as Krell, it just means I don't know enough about it to take the chance.

I was in the market for speakers earlier this year. As it turns out I ended up buying them locally. This was not because I didn't look on AudiogoN and couldn't find anything. There were lots of speakers. Unfortunately there were very few that I had listened to, and was familiar with their sound.

If I had bought a pair on AudiogoN they would have been a good pair to review since they would have been an unknown quantity, and my situation would have been more like that of the average reviewer.

I have always felt people post really good items or really bad items but not in between, and jaded towards the good or rave reviews.

Your not questioning MY views because I would never talk good about a product I own- :) Well maybe just a little. Being an audiophile is like a lot of things men pride themselves in, I put it in the class of things NO man will admit he is bad at, i.e. sex, driving and of course great hearing. Which is one of the reason's there aren't many woman around here.

Being honest about this, I may be proud(pride of ownership) of some of my gear- maybe all of it :^) but its not to create a market for it used, the gear I use/speak highly of ain't goin' no where no time soon!