If you could do a blind shootout...

Rumadian,

What would be better? Individual review? We're doing that. Prolonged listening? We're doing that. Measurements? check.. Yes...listening in your own home is always the best. This will just help narrow down or add some choices. The more information you have, the better. If you can't see that, it's ok. Besides..even if it were only entertainment, can't we all use a little these days? :)

As cited in your small speaker shootout already, it may not be in the interest of better established and already well reviewed vendors to participate and risk looking bad for the purpose of "entertainment". These things are highly subjective after all. There has to be a benefit in it for the vendor. The vendors who participated in that one were largely not household names, so it'll be interesting just to see who participates. I suspect the higher the target price range, the fewer vendors that would be willing to have their products perceived value diminish.

From the consumer's perspective, I have no objection to entertainment exhibitions as long as it is presented that way, much like with pro wrestling these days.

What's funny is...how many buying decisions do you think are made by people who have read posts here from people they know nothing about....thousands. Yet people criticize something done professionally for their benefit. Go figure.

Jix,

The difference is the large variety of individual comments and observations available via sites like this. If you read enough comments and observations, good or bad, accurate or inaccurate, eventually patterns will emerge that are more reliable indicators of truth than any subjective observations from a small and supposed unbiased panel of experts. Its just basic probability theory at work.

No reason why a shootout cannot add to the body of info available, but it is just one sample out of a much larger body of experience and information available out there these days via the wonder of the Internet.

HAving said that, I personally would love to see such a shootout involving leading or most highly regarded brands/models for both informational and entertainment reasons and I think many would find such a thing very interesting.

Where do I volunteer?

Jim,

I firmly believe that a well executed article that compares a handful or so like-products can actually be useful – potentially even more-so than a singular product review. That said, the reason why such articles are rarely done is because they require an extreme amount of time and resources to do properly. Beyond facets of subjectivity that surround panel members hearing capacity and personal taste, there are more pressing matters as to whether or not a product is being fairly represented, matters such as:

Will the listening space be able to accommodate each loudspeaker to ensure that none will be left at a disadvantage?

Will you have a breadth of components on hand to achieve a good (confirmed) synergy with all the loudspeakers under review in order to attain a solid idea of what they can and cannot do?

Will you have reps from each manufacturer at the event so they can ensure that their product is set up as best as possible in that particular listening space?

The thing is Jim, if done the wrong way - such articles do far more harm than good. If the answer to the above is “no” or even a “yes, but..” than honestly, all you’re doing is setting yourself up for questionable conclusions that will help neither the consumer nor the manufacturer. If Stereomojo’s past work is any indication of what we can expect to see in this comparison, than its looking like this will be yet another article not to be taken seriously. Entertainment value aside, these contests that Stereomojo conduct bring almost nothing of merit to the table. Unless things have changed (and I hope that they have), I can only hope that folks in this industry have smartened up and will stay far, far away.