Ljqj - I must be the ultimate example of what you're saying about gambling on subscriptions. When I had picked up a few issues of FI and liked it well enough to bite, I bought a two year subscription, looking foward to a welcome break from Stereophile's hegemony. They then promptly went under, and I never received an issue - or my money back! A thought: With Audio just a memory, and a technically competent new editor at the helm, TAS might do well to become the other high-end rag that performs test measurements (maybe they could even employ a former Audio tester or two). I haven't seen the new issue, but I can understand the need to scrap the "journal" image. I had let my subscription run out last year before the editorial shake-up, but I think it's time for me to check 'em out again. Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike TAS v.2 (or actually enjoy Audio, for that matter, or feel overly charitable toward Stereophile), but HP was spinning out of control for sure, and a few of the others also needed bringing down out of the ether. (Now if I can only get some of those ex-FI'ers around TAS to belatedly honor that bum subscription I paid them for....)
TAS new look-the end is near?
Picked up the latest copy of The Absolute Sound a couple of days ago and something just aint right. First I noticed the cover has changed. Gone is the dignified layout- White boardered in a contrasing color. Changed is the subtitle from "The High End Journal of Audio and Music" to "Stereo - Multichannel Audio - Music" ! Flipping through I find bold red printed highlighted quotes between paragraphs in some of the reviews. Then I came accross pages 18-19. FUTURE TAS big orange letters, pictures and arrows and captions and it hit me. Stereo Review! Audio! But not TAS! Even the paper stock seems cheaper. I remember when the cool little "underground" mag grew to full size. Oh well at least the print and pics were bigger. But now the "journal" looks like any mag, no character. Shorter reviews, less critical comment, more watered down praise. Now this! What happened to this sharp edged journal? Does this distub anyone else? PS- if the must change their look they should check out HI-FI+ (GB).