Class D Amplification Announcement

<< The Borrenson may be a monster amp and you may well be right. But I’ve given up reading TAS reviews because they’re nothing but self-affirming grandstanding that provide absolutely no value to me whatsoever. I recently confronted another one of their writers on another post and he actually lied and said he made comparisons in his review. He flat out lied and other members called him out on it as well. He disappeared never to be heard from again. It was Andrew Quint by the way — might as well call a spade a spade. TAS is a sham of a review mag. My opinion as a professional reviewer myself is that they don’t do comparisons to avoid accountability and so they can crank out reviews at a higher rate to generate more ad revenues. It literally doubles the time to do a review when you do comparisons to other equipment. At Soundstage it was mandatory to do a comparison section, and if you didn’t have a piece of equipment comparable to a review unit you just didn’t get to do the review. Period. Hell, in many TAS reviews they don’t even bother to list the equipment in the reference system much less make comparisons. Complete lack of rigor and discipline, which is why their reviews are utterly useless except for generating ad revenue. Too bad, because they actually “review” a lot of equipment I’d like to get a feel for. Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Suffice it to say this is a huge pet peeve of mine and I find it to be absolutely unprofessional and inexcusable.>>

Wow. "Huge pet peeve"? Now that’s an understatement.

Writers are (and should be) part of the Audiogon community but it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most "lurk" and don’t participate in forums publicly. I like to, and more often than not, it doesn’t end well.

For the record, I acknowledged the point that many published reviews could be improved by more explicit comparisons of the review product to competing gear. I said that, personally, I’d try to do better and, in fact, just submitted a review of a processor with a DAC section retailing at $4K that I felt equaled my reference $47K component, and said so. But I have never "lied" about anything. I tried to explain how one effort to make such a comparison, in a review of the 342 EVO Aeon server, fell apart when the USB output on my reference Baetis server stopped working and I had to cut short the A/B comparisons before I could come to a confident conclusion. I did make the comparison but couldn’t write about it for the review, because it would have been irresponsible to do so. This kind of thing happens all the time in the course of reviewing audio gear.

Does anyone know who "soix" is? He says he’s a reviewer and mentions Soundstage but won’t use his name, which strikes me as both disingenuous and cowardly. I have ideas, as there are one or two other online audio writers who do this. They tend to be eventually outed and booted from reputable sites. Mostly, they are recognized as the bitter, envious, and mean-spirited people they’ve evidently become. I love this hobby and hope with all my heart I’m never afflicted in that fashion.

Andy Quint

TAS

I did make the comparison but couldn’t write about it for the review, because it would have been irresponsible to do so. This kind of thing happens all the time in the course of reviewing audio gear.

@aquint You’re kidding with this, right? The dog ate your homework excuse? This is insulting to the intelligence of the people on this site. Don’t make me go back and copy the prior discourse — it will not go well for you. And no, this kind of thing absolutely does NOT happen all the time when reviewing audio gear. I reviewed equipment for 16 years and this never happened to me, not even once.

Hey Andy, my name is Tim Shea and you can look up my reviews on Soundstage. I’m not hiding from anything, and I stand by my reviews — ALL of which have comparison sections BTW — and I don’t have to twist myself in knots trying to defend my less-than-rigorous reviews. All that said, I’m glad you’ve finally seen the light and are open to doing comparisons in future reviews, and if you can manage to get the other TAS writers onboard you might even win back some of us here who gave up on your “reviews.”

I did look over four or five of Tim’s reviews and can say this: He’s a good audio writer. If he’s not now working regularly for a publication, online or print, it’s too bad for all of us.

Though I’ve already acknowledged that a need for more comparisons in my own reviews is a valid criticism, my sense from reading Tim’s stuff is that the practice is overrated. In those reviews of Tim’s I read, he typically notes one other product, usually the one in the class he already owns or has recently reviewed. This scans well—every Soundstage! Review has "comparisons"—but I’m not so sure how helpful it actually is to a prospective purchaser, as there are likely a dozen candidates that he or she is considering, and Tim’s comparison product may not be among them. From my point of view, it’s more helpful to use the language of subjective audio reviewing and comparisons to live music to define the character of the gear being considered. We are just hoping to help a reader develop a short list of products to audition in the flesh, if that’s at all possible.

This is my opinion, and I’m not saying it’s my way or the highway. Now that we’re on a first-name basis, Tim, maybe we can agree to disagree without personal invective or the broad-brush dismissals of writers (like Jonathan) who have been at this a while, or publications that may just occasionally have something helpful to offer to audiophiles of all stripes.

@aquint   +1 Andy Quint.  

@aquint This scans well—every Soundstage! Review has "comparisons"—but I’m not so sure how helpful it actually is to a prospective purchaser, as there are likely a dozen candidates that he or she is considering, and Tim’s comparison product may not be among them. From my point of view, it’s more helpful to use the language of subjective audio reviewing and comparisons to live music to define the character of the gear being considered. We are just hoping to help a reader develop a short list of products to audition in the flesh, if that’s at all possible.

Yes Andy, on this point we will continue to disagree, but that’s ok. There’s always room for more than one opinion in the room, and if your method works for you and the readers still feel they get something out of it that’s really all that matters. As they say there’s always more than one way to skin a cat, different strokes for different folks, etc. I have to say it’s always nice to link up with a fellow reviewer because nobody knows what it’s really like to write product reviews except those who actually do it, and there are those on this site and elsewhere who completely dismiss what we do because we don’t trash products we review. I have my own thoughts on this, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

Cheers,

Tim