@georgehifi - the measurements can be useful and I'm glad that Stereophile takes the time to do them, but they don't tell the whole story. That's why subjective reviews exist and are generally useful.
I also find it disappointing that Stereophile no longer really explores a product's weaknesses, and has eliminated negative reviews. I used to really enjoy TAS and SP back in the late 70's, early 80's when Harry Pearson and J Gordon Holt were at the helms.
But I do agree that most products available these days are pretty good. With the amount of information shared on the internet, it's all but impossible for a company that makes truly bad products to survive.
But every product has strengths and weaknesses, and the biggest challenge of building a great sounding system is figuring out which components play well together. That's really where the professional reviewers should come in - trying a product with a variety of other components and describing what worked well and what worked poorly. Some reviewers do a better job at this than others.
I recognize that most reviewers are working out of their home and are either doing it as a second job, or living fairly frugally on a writer's income. So it's challenging for any reviewer to have a wide variety of products to test with.
I also find it disappointing that Stereophile no longer really explores a product's weaknesses, and has eliminated negative reviews. I used to really enjoy TAS and SP back in the late 70's, early 80's when Harry Pearson and J Gordon Holt were at the helms.
But I do agree that most products available these days are pretty good. With the amount of information shared on the internet, it's all but impossible for a company that makes truly bad products to survive.
But every product has strengths and weaknesses, and the biggest challenge of building a great sounding system is figuring out which components play well together. That's really where the professional reviewers should come in - trying a product with a variety of other components and describing what worked well and what worked poorly. Some reviewers do a better job at this than others.
I recognize that most reviewers are working out of their home and are either doing it as a second job, or living fairly frugally on a writer's income. So it's challenging for any reviewer to have a wide variety of products to test with.