Rank Stereophile, & why no Von Schweikert reviews

Spencer, I find that link easily but then I find myself wading through a list of advertisements and "coming reviews" and after screen after screen of that stuff I just give up. Have you any rules of thumb for actually finding the reviews instead of the advertisements or "coming attractions"?
Thanks,
Art

Hey Larry, I can't believe I just noticed this thread. Let me first say - LSA-1's are awesome! Seriously, they are particularly musical, I don't know how you do it. They are one of the few elements of my systems that I never consider "rotating" out to something else that I pick up on Audiogon.

As for credibility of magazine reviews, as was mentioned earlier Sam Tellig in particular seems to just like certain brands. As a hobbiest I need to learn to calibrate my taste against each reviewer, and I can tell you that when I've tried gear that Sam gushes over, I usually like it but not remotely as much as Sam does. It does leave me puzzled, but that's my calibration FWIW.

The Absolute Sound has historically had a bit more credibility over all than Stereophile, but, I have no idea about demographics, volume of readers, etc.

Some online 'zines have high credibility: Soundstage, EnjoyTheMusic come to mind. Positive Feedback. 6Moons has useful reviews but frankly I have such a hard time navigating that site that I'm not sure of the value to an advertiser. 6Moons is the only place on the entire web where when I try to find what I'm looking for, I usually fail (and all I'm trying to find are the latest equipment reviews!).

IMHO, deciding how to allocate advertising dollars is no easy matter.

As for how the magazines decide what to review, there are certain objective criteria that they usually establish, like, how many dealers carry the goods. There is a subjective component I'm sure. I would guess that you need to have one or more people at a magazine that "champion" your cause.

Thank you for your great work. I hope you totally succeed because I think you've created an outstanding "family sound" for your speaker line.

Art

System balance and goals are crucial, as lightminer suggests. Heck I've got a $20 clock radio that sounds really nice - it just does not attempt to reproduce any sound out of it's natural narrow band in the midrange.

As far as reviews being never negative... well they ARE if you read them properly.

Have you ever been to a restaurant where you ask the waiter their opinion of a dish, and they kind of wince a little bit and say "well, it's good". What they are telling you is (1) it's BAD and (2) they can't be so up front about that for political reasons.

Negative reviews end in some variation of faint praise.

"I enjoyed my time with these speakers"
as opposed to
"I bought the review pair!"

"Anyone shopping for speakers in this price range should check these out'
as opposed to
"New benchmark in it's price range!".

Qualification by taste is a good one too:

"Anyone seeking a pair of speakers to match with a slightly lean sounding amp should check these out."

ETC.

I used to be annoyed by all this but now I find it amusing. The review journals need to be able to communicate to the reader, accurately, without directly insulting the potential advertiser.

And they do. You just need to learn the "code".

Art