Magazine Reviews - Is It All Bollocks?

[astrostar59]

Hi Guys

Sorry for the alarming title. I have spent months reading magazine reviews on DACs before I bought my last DAC in June. I want to make my money convert to musical bliss as we all do.

I also read many many posts on the various forums from owners and spoke to some owners direct via PMs or by telephone. I am coming to the 'obvious' realisation that 90% of magazine reviews are just bull, total horse shit. Totally slanted to advertising revenue and / or the next free piece of gear at discount or free to the reviewer. The classic 'i liked it so much I bought it' or 'no way I was letting this one go' They must think we are totally dumb? Have you also noticed almost never is there a total 'this product is crap' review. It is all too rose tinted and suspicious to me.

The other even more sinister reviews on gear are the forum hoverers who seem to be 'audiophiles' but are actually setting up a dealership or high end home demo business. I have bumped into 3 on Head-Fi and What's Best forum in the last 6 weeks. I won't say the names but I bet you know them already.

To underline my point, and the reason I have finally 'blown up' over this subject is on HiFi Critic Martin Colloms has a long time 'quality rating' ranking that generally goes around 5-30 depending how good a DAC or amp may be in his opinion. Fine, and prices and models range from 1K up to 20K. BUT then we have the Metrum Octave DAC at £800 that suddenly gets 180!!!! What the fuck? I had this DAC until last year, and yeah, it is ok, it cost me 800 quid, it sound nice enough, NOS, clean, not too rough treble. BUT no way is it near many many of the other DACs he rates at 30 or less. I was thinking he was either smoking weed at the time, or the ratings are based on cost v performance. Na, it is the sound quality rating he has given. There are other howlers as well.

He got some thing right, rating the MSB, Audio Note and Naim, but the numbers on many are way out to be unbelievable. Is the Musical Fidelity £135 DAC really better than a 20K Naim?

I know price v performance doesn't always work as we know. But I have heard the Metrum DAC and the Musical Fidelity and that Naim CD555. The Naim is on the moon, the Musical Fidelity in my back yard.

SO I am now forgetting all this magazine con trickster stuff and staying on here or other forums and then talking to folk direct. Best possible way to know and to align with ones tastes I guess, is get to hear this stuff. But this hobby has got very niche and not is not always possible.

Rant over...... I enjoy listening to music though!

[grawk]

good to know

[swt61]

I like fluffy kittens.

[spritzer]

I like bunnies... 

[Voltron]

I like fluffy kittens.

Oh, so now you're a fan of pussy...

[skullguise]

Trees are made of wood.

[stax fart]

Welcome to the real world baby, I want to be a reseller reviewer too.

[johnwmclean]

A square has 4 sides.

Steve has shown his new side.

[swt61]

Nothin' new, I've been inside a vagina before. I've had a half dozen or so episodes of straight sex, though the last was somewhere around 1990. It wasn't bad, I mean it's sex right? But I definitely prefer homo time...not to be confused with hammer time.

[Hopstretch]

"Hickory hickory dock, some twink was sucking my cock. The clock struck two, I shot my goo and dropped him off on the next block." -- Andrew Tice Clay

Edited August 24, 2016 by Hopstretch

[sorenb]

17 hours ago, astrostar59 said:

SO I am now forgetting all this magazine con trickster stuff and staying on here or other forums and then talking to folk direct. Best possible way to know and to align with ones tastes I guess, is get to hear this stuff. But this hobby has got very niche and not is not always possible.

I'm affraid you're making the wrong conclusion here buddy!

why keep your findings to yourself? why not contact Mr. Colloms and explain your findings? truely, he will be nothing but interested in fine tuning his rating system.
Talking to a few people on the forums won't change much. Probably better to forget all about this forum stuff and focus on the magazines rather - think of how many people reading those, being misinformed, mislead and so forth ...you're actually in a position to help the magazines and lead the way ...