Honesty of the Reviewers

If I resist the temptation to generalise and/or am able to successfully combat "paranoid" tendencies, which would lead me to bedevil the entire breed, I've through (much) time and experience learnt to trust those reviewers - not in their judgements, in that they find something good or bad - but in their descriptions of how a unit may sound and perform. This always under the condition, that with quite a few gear, I've more or less heard the same as what they had described. There was a time, long ago, when TAS did not take in advertising and I often felt comfortable with what John Nork and even HP had to say. The early Threshold and the Maggie bass panels come to mind, the SP6, the Dahlquist speakers, but that was long ago. What makes me uneasy these days, is the fact, that often newly published rave reviews in the rags will be accompanied by a first time advertisement of the the same product under review. Also it seems to me, that critical reviews are getting more and more rare.( Which also has a good side, because by hatchet job reviewing, fledgling products can be driven off the market and businesses ruined, (eg Modjieskis "Beveridge"preamp, a very promising design, killed by HP in favour of the SP6) Lets face it, its business and without advertising most publications could not survive. I've learnt to mistrust final judgements like "state of the art", or "Class A products", but with reviewers, whose stile, language and musical tastes have become familiar, I find their description of how a product sounds and with what associated gear, generally very helpful.

Plato, I find this an excellent and well considered post and have voted accordingly. I've followed the "history of reviewing in the then underground mags" practically from its beginning and hence know, how raving mad manufacturers can get, even with a midly critical review. William Zane Johnson of Audio Research for example, would not talk to HP for months on end... and that was after all those rave rewiews about Sp6 and the 110 tube amp for example. On the other hand, I also remember Michael Fremer raving about the (in)famous Tice clock, which, after getting one for myself out of sheer curiosity, proved to me, that reviewers are humans too, not neccesarily dishonest, in this case especially not, but sometimes prone to attacks of gullibility, which none of us can be sure to always be completely devoid of. That's also, why I like mags, where more than one reviewer writes about the same product.

Paul, Ka probably had people like you and me in mind (-;

Dear Mr. Magoo, why read at all then, if it isn't true anyway and when listening, what should I do with the other half? Do you really think, life is a simple as that? Come now....