Quick poll: Most enjoyable audio magazine ?


What is the most enjoyable / entertaining magazine out there in your opinion, the ONE you would by if you did have to pick just one?

Notice that I said ''most enjoyable'', not meaning most accurate.

My pick goes to the UK mag ''what hi-fi'' - very subjective of course, but I like the way they will not hesitate to put an ''avoid'' type of statement and do group testing of components.

That, I find entertaining...

Your choice?
sonicbeauty

Showing 2 responses by ninox

I like Stereophile. I take things they review with a grain of salt, but it seems to me that the magazine is trying to foster a culture of audio enjoyment. I read the magazine in its electronic copy through Zinio and it looks great on the iPad. Its harder to read on a computer. I also visit the Stereophile website and read the blogs, like Stephen Meijas, as it provides a counterpoint to the unaffordable high end. I like the humour and enthusiasm in Stereophile.
I find when you read a magazine where the writers are so personable, then, we read our favourite writers with some sort of identity, like we way we identify our favourite members of a sporting team, just like sonicbeauty says about Sam Tellig - he's fun to read. His neologisms (like the use of the word fremer as a verb to describe fussing endlessly over turntables) are funny. ymmv.
I also read Australian HiFi. Ha! got you there. Does anyone else read Australian HiFi? I buy it out of nationalism. Like stereophile it provides completely uninterpretable measurements on equipment that I read and wonder if anyone knows what this means and whether it means anything about the sound.
I was thinking about this topic again yesterday as the digital version of Stereophile arrived and wondering why I was so gracious about the magazine, especially since I bought the musical fidelity XCan V8P that Sam Tellig described as a wonderful headphone pre amp, connected to my amp and immediately blew my speakers...ah sonicbeauty, if only I knew what I know now.
I guess its a distance thing, living in Australia, I am less concerned by many reviews as some stuff just isn't available here, or even if it is if might be in Melbourne (1000km away from Sydney).So the attitude of the magazine becomes more important than the reviews, especially in a global financial downturn when we might want to listen to our music than buy more equipment.
However, I have noticed over the last year, a number of reviews in Stereophile for small $1-2K monitors, precisely what I am looking for to replace the blown speakers. Each time I have been able to borrow them from my dealer and have found that the reviewers comments echo very closely my own impressions. So this has been helpful for this average audiophile. Perhaps a series on delightful inexpensive preamp headphone amps would be useful.
I am not so certain about the utility of group shoot out testing that the british mags like. It sort of dumbs it down - what hifi is the worst for this. However I need some comparisons in a review. Australian Hi Fi is completely aggravating in that it never compares one product to another, while Stereophile gets the balance pretty right by including a comment about one product with reference to another. Its harder to get TAS here so I can't really comment.
Talking of little known but well respected: There is an Australian and New Zealand Hi Fi industry, and some companies make some great stuff but other than the high end (Halcro, Plinius) you never hear of any of it, except on audiogon (or Australian HiFi where the reviews are unsurprisingly really really positive).