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Stereophile's 2021 products of the year



  And wow! Schiit Audio 20w Class-A Aegir stereo poweramp made it into the A rating. 
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/stereophile-s-2012-products-of-the-year
Cheers George
128x128georgehifi
jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 
@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. 
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi OP
10,312 posts
 
@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.

They actually tell more than 50% of the story.

And "if" the reviewer "was truthful", the measurements "can" explain why he may say
EG: say the bass sounded a little thick and uncontrolled,
measurements may show poor damping factor (high output impedance) poor current ability.

Or the highs of an amp sound distant and recessed,
measurement could show early rolloff in the HF because of poor HF bandwidth extension even phase shift, or inability to handle low impedances creating it to become a tone control, like the bass problem above.

So many things can be read into an amps potential performance by looking at the measurements.

After all, every amp ever made was designed and made primary by using measurements and the laws of electronics, if you find one that wasn’t, then your looking at a piece of unreliable junk.
There is no "snake oil" or "voodoo" in the design of high end audio, or even low end mp3 players.

Cheers George
cakids
166 posts
 
Stereophile and TAS reviews are way more credible than the opinions expressed in this forum. All three can be useful, however. The fourth source, of course, is direct listening at a dealer. But dealer equipment is limited, and dealers are rare in some areas. As a member of LAOCAS, I get to hear equipment every month at a different LA area dealer. (Befoe Covid, that is.)I will admit that my very latest acquisitions were from forum suggestions.
Just let your ears and wallet be your final guide.
jwcondo
10 posts
 
Stereophile's Recommended list was something I so looked forward to receiving and reading over and over....learned a lot over the years.
I just received the latest and it is pathetic, mostly their advertisers....ZERO integrity remaining at Stereophile.
My biggest beef is how many "Golden Ear" products can they possibly list???? I have heard their products, good but not great and their subs pale in comparison to my JL f-112 or e-112.
End rant.
papafrgog
101 posts
 

@georgehifi - I find it very sad that most of the Stereophile basher’s here, are also too technically inept to understand the measurements.


George, I admit I don't understand how many technical measurements translate to (or create) something audible to me.  I wish I did, because about the most I can do it to compare measurements between components I'm interested in - and compare to those I own, since I know how my system sounds.

The flaw in my analysis (like someone mentioned above about a "who's who" system that didn't sound great) is it ignores any synergy between components, or in my mind, how one component's measurements can capture the best qualities of another.  I guess it's years of experience listening,  comparing measurements, and knowing (and being honest about) sound preferences in the context of budget. 

I would love some tutorial on the most important measures for primary components and how they link - e.g. impedance/loading MC cartridge to phono pre - line stage...etc.  And if stuff like that isn't really important, I need to know that too. 

I do so much reading in work, when I'm done, all I want to do is listen to music.......

 I know I'm off topic. But many aspects of this post to consider.


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