Audiphile Press: Am I jaded, experienced, or has it declined?

Who's going to be brave enough and ask chatGPT to review a pair of expensive speakers?!

I have had subscriptions to Absolute sound and Stereophile for several decades now. There seems to be too much of the same manufacture’s equipment reviewed. There are some really creative innovative companies that would love the exposure.

I also cannot relate to the music they use in their reviews. Frank Sanatra, Count Basie? Classical etc. Come on, use some old-style rock music to describe bass, dynamics etc. at least in some of the review.

ozzy

Bad writing is universal these days, and not only relegated to the hifi press.  Very few publications stand out with good writing anymore.

I subscribe to Stereophile and TAS. Read the odd article. Knowing that every equipment "review" isn’t really a review makes for boring reading. The mags are ultimately manufacturers’ brochures supporting the back-slapping in-crowd's audio lifestyle. I do miss Art Dudley though.

"Has too much press devolved to covering only the most expensive gear? "

It sure looks like it. People write about what they can afford, what they get their hands on. I watch a lot of youtube reviews, the midfi stuff is way more in focus there.

I bet that ~100 times more people care about 500 dollar speakers than 5,000 dollar speakers. So it’s somewhat of an anomaly that the mainstream audiophile publications focus on the 5K and up but really 7 - 25K stuff mostly