Rank Stereophile, & why no Von Schweikert reviews

Rgs92,

They don't write for us because we are the lunatic fringe. We actually know as much, or more, about this stuff than they do.

Additionally, I have always felt that the glossy rags are seeking the well-heeled, uninitiated buyer for their advertisers.

I can remember while reading Stereophile and Audio back in the 70s, wondering how it could be that everything on every page was grounbreaking or incomparable. Just how many bests were there? I'm still wondering, aren't you?

The purpose of Stereophile is not to deliver news and reviews to the audience but to deliver an audience to the advertisers.
$10 grand a page to advertise versus $10/year to subscribe. Pretty obvious, I'd say.

Has anyone else noticed that this forum seems to be regularly peppered with queries comparing Von Schweickert to something else? Makes me a bit wary if this is a marketing ploy.

I agree. The only way to knock a smug, sanctimonious magazine off its high horse is to cut off its revenue stream. Just watch how quickly they get humble once their advertisers wise up and stop feeding the beast.
Just look at who reads this stuff. Of the population that reads Stereophile, the best demographic, us, is reachable without paying their preposterous price by simply reaching out to the Audiogoners.

Yup, Remember how we used to reminisce?

It's the times, methinks. Everything in our culture has been subordinated to and measured by money. You can still find movie reviews if you want to but the grosses are listed on the front page. It's a sad fact that even my audio choices are dictated to some extent by resale considerations and depreciation rates. So the rags have sold out and the pool is full of sharks. Nonetheless, most of my audio exchanges range from polite and pleasant to downright reassuring. This here Audiogon thing is somewhat of an oasis.

That's right. My Zu Druids were delivered in a black helicopter by three guys in Nixon masks. And they were whining about how I should have bought V.S., whatever that is.