Yet another very big hi fi+ vote. I honestly can't wait for their issues to appear at Barnes & Noble or Tower. (I choose not to take a subscription so as to compel me to visit the book and music stores more often.) The down side is that the distributor never seems to hit their U.S. shelf date. I gave up reading TAS first, so offended with their editorial slide to the more, bigger, fine wine, fast car approach to all things. Stereophile followed, although I do hit their website. Brianhutch is dead-on with regards to hi fi+ and their record reviews, broad ranging and terribly international selection of equipment and, rightly pointed out, their paper and printing quality (if you are going to spend $10 on a magazine it ought to feel like $10). But what I like most about the publication is the frequent use of the word whilst. When will these Brits learn to talk real good like us?!
Most Honest Audio Magazine?
I subscribe to Stereophile and I really enjoy reading it but something happened last year that made me raise an eyebrow as to the authenticity of their intentions. Remember the review of the B&W Nautilus 805's? The original reviewer raved about them and rated them "Class A Restricted Low Frequency". Shortly thereafter they demoted the same speaker down to "Class B Restricted Low Frequency". This really hurt the magazine's credibility in my eyes. My first conclusion was that they didn't want to upset the other manufacturers who produced "Class A" products at far higher prices. Shouldn't a trade journal give credit to the truly remarkable products especially when they are produced for relatively decent prices? It's unfortunate that the advertising dollars of the megabuck manufacturers bullied a stellar product into receiving a less than stellar final rating. I'm wondering if this hasn't happened before. I've since heard from some of my audio buddies that corruption does indeed exist in the audio press; everything from reviewers being related to manufacturers to reviewers being offered products for a song (pun intended). Please share your thoughts and experiences when it comes to audio magazines and let me know which ones you'd rate best and worst. Putting together a great system is hard enough without having to sift through the sometimes suspicious advice of those publications who purport to advance the hobby.