What should be mandatory in every professional published review-


When testing a company's newest amp, preamp, etc, and it is a refinement of a prior product that was on the market, ie, a Mark II, an SE version, a .2 etc, it should be mandatory that the review includes a direct comparison with the immediate predecessor. IMHO, it's not enough to know ion the product is good; it's also important to know if there is a meaningful difference with the immediate predecessor.

I'm  fan of Pass Labs, and I just looked at a review of an XP22 preamp. I find it very disturbing that there was no direct comparison between the XP22 and the XP20. And this lack of direct comparison is ubiquitous in hi-end published reviews, across all brands of gear tested. I don't blame the gear manufacturers, but rather the publications as I view this as an abdication of journalistic integrity.

 

Opinions welcome- 

128x128zavato

@soix

I encourage you to try writing a review for a publication and go through that whole process again and again before taking any issue.

 

The reviewers at What-Hi? have got review writing down to a formula.

Nice large colorful photos and a few words that say absolutely nothing.

The words ’could be’ and ’might be’ tend to get used quite a lot.

It’s been the audio equivalent of Playboy magazine for decades.

Lots and lots of entrancing pleasures lie therein all glammed up to the eyeballs sumptuously lit. None of them will ever look as good once you’ve got them back home, but no worries, there’ll be plenty more different ones next month.

As a coffee table entertainment journal it’s perfectly acceptable.

As an audiophile review magazine it’s worse than useless.

Positively misleading.

The fact that it’s probably the UKs longest lasting audio magazine once again underlines the fact that readers prefer entertainment even when it’s masquerading as information.

I was surprised to find that it had been acquired by Future Publishing back in 2018. I guess the previous owners Haymarket felt the wind was blowing the wrong way and let the WHFs future survival become someone else’s problem.

That’s the trouble with these magazines, they’re not much use as information but we’ll still miss them once they’re gone.

Online magazines, at least for me, are even worse than online books.

@cd318 Ha! Agree 1000% re: What HiFi? and I’ll throw in HiFi+ as another useles rag. 

I have been in the Music  and Audio Industry for over 25 years and I myself would love to read some reviews written by member soix.

cheers !

@sts Just google Tim Shea and Soundstage a stuff should pop up. I reviewed for them from like 2002 to 2017. Ayre, Eggleston, Thiel, Bryston, Bel Canto, Acoustic Zen, Liberty (aka PBN) Audio, McCormack and a buncha other things. I recommend some caffeine if ur gonna actually read any of this stuff. Just sayin’.