There's nothing wrong with reading reviews! Although knowing where the reviewer is coming from and their particular biases is also very helpful in analyzing their opinions.
Certainly it's a place to start sometimes. Not all reviewers are sinister evil people as some might have us believe, just some of them. |
I've found reviews a great starting point when evaluating equipment, and so far haven't been lead wrong, ( 35 years ).
Where else can you gather research info on products before an audition. These forums are fun and entertaining but people rarely agree, you can't believe the sales staff in the stores even if you know them, so unless you know someone personally that owns the product, quality back ground info is hard to find. You just can't audition every product out there. |
Interesting choices. Many see some of these people as part of the allegedly corrupt reviewing system. I personally do not believe the bulk of what people say about reviewers and, as I said above, I think reading reviews can be helpful in looking for products to audition. In fact, I freely admit to auditioning and purchasing my Opera Callas monitiors after reading Sam Tellig's review. How many would admit to that? Regards. |
Martin Colloms, Paul Messinger, Stan Curtis, Art Dudley, Michael Fremer, Malcolm Steward, John Atkinson, Chris Bryant, Tony Falkner , Robert Green and some others whose names I am not going to attempt to spell without looking them up. |
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I would much rather trust a knowledgable reviewer with an established track record than someone I know nothing about. There are reviewers who are just as committed to quality sound as any of us. |
I think a review can be a good starting point. When several reviewers think very highly of a product, it may be something worth looking into for yourself. I only wrote my comment that nobody listens to reviews due to the endless diatribes about how reviewers are corrupt and magazines publish reviews based on advertising, etc. I don't personally know as I'm not involved in the business. From a personal perspective, a review brings a product to my attention and nothing more. |
Unfortunately, you almost have to rely upon reviews to some degree, since its impossible to audition most audio products before buying these days - unless it's sold at BestBuy. However, I distrust most "critic" reviews I read and prefer individual experiences relayed on forums such as this. |
I was wrong. I should have written that nobody claims to listen to reviews. That's the mark of a true audiophile. |
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I thought nobody listened to reviews. |
Most of their reviews are not on line as they take no ads and support the magazine by sales of it alone. Look at their Colloms rating for CD players and dacs; the Metrum right out of the box scored 185 on this scale. You can order the back issue of the magazine or possibly order the review alone. In any case they are selling for about as much used as they cost new so you wouldn't be risking much. |
I am getting close to pulling the trigger on one of these DACs, can anyone post this HiFi Critics review?
Thanks |
Stanwal. I began the ordering process with the email late Saturday night from California. Cees Ruijtenberg responded promptly within two hours early Sunday a.m. informing me of the 6-7 week lead time and asking permission to continue. So the ball is rolling.
I'm usually a stickler for auditioning audio products. So far everybody who's spent any time listening to this DAC has compared the Octaves level of performance with a select few other widely accepted and very expensive converters I have never even seen. I guess I need to attend more audio shows.
Anybody reading this should be reminded the Metrum Octave has a limit of 176.5 kHz. BFD! In my case, with almost 2300 LP's, 728 CD's, 8 SACD's, and only 3 24 192kHz downloads. With so many of my old fogey LP's never even making it to CD digital is not a major audio focus but that damn Squeezebox is dope.
While thumbing through the many DAC reviews I saw the Metrum and quickly dismissed it being from Europe with service in mind. It was your post that returned me to the 6 Moons review. Thanks |
In addition to my other post I should add that the HIFICRITIC review motivated me to buy one; it was even better than the 6moons review. It was the second best they have ever tested, behind only the new MSB. These are a LOT more expensive. The Metrum was roughly on a par with the cheaper top line MSB, which start at above 6000 pounds in England, $8000 to $9000 over here I think, and run up to 3x that for all out models. The Metrum was rated ahead of the top dcs full system; which is about a gazillion $. I paid some like $930 if I remember, including freight. I got the silver one; some of my gear is black and some silver but I like the silver better. However; if anyone has, say, a Ref 5 in black they no longer wanted I would gladly give it a good home. [ROFL] The Octave is the one to get, has 4 chips a channel as opposed to 2 for the Quattro and one for the Duo; also has best power supply. The black finish is slightly more expensive than the silver but they are internally the same. |
