Wrong direction?


The few "threads" back, a young man was inquiring about class "A" amp. And of course, most of the responses were in regard to class "A" amplifier, also understood by myself as such. Later, the same individual mentioned if able to "...find amp like that, he would further look for class "A" speakers!" Class A speakers? Well, i was wondering what could that be?...For a second i realized that he is referring to a Stereophile grading of the audio equipment! While i have and will be guilty of buying the audio products, unheard, i sure didn't base my decisions on one reviewer opinion or another! Stereophile sale doubles, and sometimes triples during the months of October, and April. "Recommended components" run those months. And the biggest offender, i think, is What HIFI, which reminds of audio "Swap Meet" periodical, with their little flags of "Best buy", or "component of choice" etc, etc...! Stereophile rates their components in class A, B, C and on.... Let see,... between class A and B, what was the determine factor to place the certain product to one or another? Room, cables...mood? So many variables, and controlled and uncontrolled events to "make or brake" one company, or sway one potential customer from buying the pre-amp, that he thought and felt was the ONE. But just changing his mind to purchase another, which was graded one STAR higher! I think, the magazines would be doing the consumer a favor, if those ratings and grading are eliminated. Let the consumer to decide! Especially audio components.
eldragon
Stereophile is in my opinion already dead.I havent read a good issue in many months.As far as the "list" goes,cornfedboy hit it right on the head.What surprises me is Stereophile seems to be so blatently obvious about it.
I think that everyone here has contributed something worthwhile. I did not mean to imply that an affordable piece is automatically relegated to Class C. But I do feel, it has to do something strong to pull itself out of that rating. Where as something with an exotic level price tag has to do the same to pull itself out of Class A. That being said, I still feel that Stereophile is the most important magazine of our hobby. Enough that I plan on keeping my subscription indefinitely(hey, at $1/month it is a great deal). And yes, I do agree that the magazine is really poor these days. The worst I can remember(in more than 10 years of reading). Please now allow me to make a point regarding Dragon's thread. The ratings should serve only as a guide. It is a fool indeed who uses the ratings as a road map. I can easily assemble a system from Class C components that will sound better than one of Class A components put together in a poor way.
Wrong direction?? Enuff said that reviewers are affected by many things. Basically these groups of experienced reviewers can give a starting point to audition new equipment. More importantly these reviews and rating entertain us. Sure we complain about reviewers that are affected by outside influence or great products that don't recieve any attention. For me that is as much fun as reading their opinions. Every once in a while a couple of them are funny. Lets face it, auditioning is where anyone with sense should make a purchasing decision. Reading is where we gain knowledge(hopefully) or at least get entertained. The part I like the best about reviews is a less experienced person telling me how highly ranked his reciever or speakers are. Then asking me how my equipment ranked(since he hasn't heard of most of it). I wish we could make it manditory all magazines had a percentile ranking or such(more instances to let reviews make idiots of themselves). Not that I don't respect some reviewers and their opinions, but everyone is affected by things now and then. Heck I'm the first to admit I can at times make a real idiot of myself. I just don't publish it. My $0.02. Happy LISTENING!....LR
TAS is definitely coming up. I agree that Stereophile has gone down since many of it's great reviewers have left. I also think the remaining majority are still very good- Mike Fremer, Sam Tellig, robert reina etc. It's still the most important magazine, perhaps because of the ratings. Those ratings dramatically affect the saleability of a used product. For someone like me who is trying to learn about audio by owning and listening to products, I need to have a certain level of 'guarantee' that something will hold its value. For better or worse, it's much easier to sell a $3000 audio component with their 'blessing' of a class A rating. One interesting thing I have found is that the products they rate 'B' tend to be more interesting. Products that have sonic flaws, but also some extreme characteristic that makes them special. My old sonic frontiers sfm-160 amps were a good example. Yes they had less clarity and a transparency than my vt100 which is why they were a class B. But to compensate for this they had more warmth, considerably more power, and a larger soundstage. A better amp for some people. I thought it amazing that the class B ($5500retail) SFM took 3 months to sell for $1600 on the used market whereas (at the time), the ($5000) vt100m2 sold in a few days for 3200 ! Admittedly age was a factor. The conrad-johnson mv-50/mv-55 amps are another example. Those amps play midrange vocals better than anything I've ever heard. They capture the emotional content of a recording better than any amp I've heard. Class B vandersteen 3's ? Less clarity than my Class A rated Virgo's, but a sense of power the virgo couldn't match. Much better rock n roll speaker. You could tell they were a full range 110lb speaker ! I really like the fact that stereophile reviews things in all price classes. When I was younger I bought things out of their class C and D lists, and found I had a pretty good stereo. You can enjoy high end at all price points. I think the mid-priced stuff is where all the fun is anyway. The ultra-expensive stuff all sounds the same - gold plated perfect, but with limited personality. Kind of like (some) of it's buyers.
Good post John-- my experience too. My McCormack DNA-2DX amps (I have 2) have never been reviewed by Stereophile. They list for $5000. each, but recently I saw two of them advertised used for $1750. each-- just about made me cry. FWIW, I am content to KNOW that if Stereophile did review this amp it really would be Class A. But, I really don't care as I plan to keep these amps indefinitely (best I've ever heard) and have them converted to mono-blocs. Trust your own ears if you're in it for the long haul. Cheers. Craig