Audio reviews: too many analogies, never simple, but most of all, never clear.


How many reviews have you read were it takes at least 2 paragraphs for the the reviewer to actually give 
hint this article is actually audio related or even gives mention to what he or she’s reviewing. Get to the subject matter. Leave out your less than perfect dramatic writing skills and lets start hearing about the actual review. I’d rather hear about comparisons between audio components than analogies between wine and taste related to transparency and how that gives rise to what they are getting ready say. What does wine have to do with audio transparency, nothing! Also they have a tendency to talk more about recordings that I’m sure 99% of the readers of the article have never heard of, or would ever listen to.
And when you looking for some sign of what they actually think of the components they’re reviewing they never give you a straight answer; it’s always something that leaves, at least for myself, asking, well where’s the answer. 
hiendmmoe
that's fine. Plenty are.
It is a bit low in hindsight, I was going to put sub $5000 but who am I to judge?
I would wager that there are more interested in that price point than say $20,000 and up.
To each his own.
This is a great thread for me! Lots of good info in here for me to take to the next time I do a review.  Thank You!

I posted my first review a few days ago after working on the written portion for 2 weeks. Its actually much harder than I thought. It started out with too much fluff, silly analogies and stupid jokes.  I continually whittled it down and did my best to just get to the point. Editing it was another difficult task.

After working on it for days to try to make it perfect, I decided to go ahead and post it. Of course I start off with a misspelling right in the title; Daaaang it!!! Then I also of course forget to post my link to pictures and description of associated equipment; Double Daaaang it!!  I did post a link to the written review as well as a link to pictures in the Speakers section but....

Oh well, theres always next time to do better. In my defense, I snapped my tibia and fibula clean through, last week, a la Anderson Silva and am hopped up on oxy 🥵
Unfortunately the state of HiFi reviewing (and other hobbyist reviews) is corrupt.  Too many competing agendas, too much manipulation, bribes and so on.   I began to take offense when too many political views were included in audio component reviews.  I sent a few letters into publications asking a simple question:  How do the political views of the reviewer improve my understanding of the quality of the component under review ?    You can substitute aesthetic/dining/travel etc preferences for "political views".   Some editors did not respond, the rest responded with basically the same answer: "free speech" .  No one gave a direct answer.  Oh Well.

I have read audio publications for a long time.   I like some reviewers and tolerate others.  My experience is to read reviews over time to understand the preferences (biases ?) of the reviewer.  A gross example would be a tube and vinyl friendly reviewer now addressing a class D amp driven by digital streaming.  Will the resulting review be accurate and does the reviewer have enough experience to determine the absolute quality of the components under review ?    Reading the review in the abstract you would not know, but if you are familiar with the reviewer and their style then you can easily pull relevant information and leave the filler behind.

Several comments referenced 6Moons.   Well they are potentially among the worst offenders.  1) the owner is on record as stating that unless a component blows up in testing, or has completely incomprehensible ergonomics, it will not receive a negative review.  2) unless the reviewer is an audio designer/engineer, or has demonstrated professional expertise in the area of design under review, then the reviewer is not qualified to give a negative review 3) the power of the press is substantial.  A negative review can put a company out of business thus he (the owner of 6m) does not want to be responsible for ending someone's business- hence a negative review will not be published  4) they are pay to play:  want a review- buy an ad on the site.    ALL of the above can be confirmed through web search.   Hey- at least they are honest !
I suggest taking what you find by searching the web with a grain of salt, dude.
Journalists tend to think they are writers of novels. They are enamored with their own "creative writing 101" skills.