Listener Magazine email address: listener@palmcoastd.com They say $30. for a USA subscription, $40. Canada, but I paid $17.97 on a promotional offer. I like it for $17.97. It's an every other month mag.. So far, they've reviewed quite a bit of "non-mainstream" gear, which I guess is OK as Stereophile and TAS hit the more expensive mainstream stuff. As Stereophile has gone rapidly downhill, my favorite has become TAS though. But IMHO no magazine review should be taken too literally-- the reviews are just a reviewers opinion (and may be influenced by advertising as others have suggested above) of a piece of gear in THEIR system, in THEIR room(s)-- I think most already know this. October was THE month for Audio Magazine's Annual Equipment Guide-- I'm going to miss it:-(. Cheers. Craig
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.