Audio Mags: Impressions

[boom3]

The current thread about Stereo Review inspired me to start a new thread, that would list my (and forum) impressions of audio mags of the past and current era.

I guess everyone knows that many vintage High Fidelity, Audio, and Wireless World issues may be found through that wonderful resource, http://www.americanradiohistory.com

 

Audio: The most consistently scientific of the mags of the golden era, and the only one to publish a modern-day technical review of the Klipschorn

 

High Fidelity: More honest than most, but reluctant to cast stones. Had its own in-house hater of rock music, Gene Lees. Published review of the LaScala that irritated PWK mightily; I think HF eventually retracted the review.

 

Stereo Review: A very mixed bag. Julian Hirsch's reviews were widely panned because of the impression he was constrained by the advertising dept.  Hirsch, was, to be fair, one of the grand old men of the golden age of HiFi, and some of his pre-Stereo Review articles are very significant. He also honestly addressed trends like the damping factor wars and amplifier power meters with clarity. Classical record reviews were influential with that customer base. Rock/pop reviews were sophomoric, silly, and ignored by the genre, especially with the rise of Rolling Stone.

 

Stereophile:  Test reports the best of the current era. Published a favorable report (not test review) of the new LaScala. Founded by J. Gordon Holt, and was

influential in the Renaissance of tube equipment.

 

The Absolute Sound: The paradigm of Subjectivism in audio, with reviewers' impressions constituting the "test reports." Dotes on trendy expensive equipment. Frequently uses words like "rhythm" "air" and "speed."

[ODS123]

not exactly sure what you're asking for but I'll nonetheless add my brief assessment of audio mags.  ..They ALL suffer from the same distain for honesty and bias controls.  Their refusal to employ even the most basic forms of blinded observation tells me they really don't want to get to the truth of whether or not audible differences b/w amplifiers, cd players, cables, interconnects, etc.. are real or imagined.  

[pbphoto]

I had a subscription to Stereo Review (and maybe Audio for a time) in the 1980's while I was growing up.  I enjoyed reading about all the gear I couldn't afford.  As mentioned above, Julian Hirsch's reviews were informative between the lines concluding in some of the most expertly wordsmithed non-speak ever put down on paper in the English language.  The old joke about the conclusion to all his speaker reviews: "Of all the speakers I have heard this year, this is certainly one of them."

[J M O N]

I think Listener Magazine was probably about the best.  Unfortunately, it no longer exists.

[Don Richard]

20 hours ago, boom3 said:

The Absolute Sound: The paradigm of Subjectivism in audio, with reviewers' impressions constituting the "test reports." Dotes on trendy expensive equipment. Frequently uses words like "rhythm" "air" and "speed."

 

If a person is interested in uninformed opinion, TAS is the magazine of choice

[ClaudeJ1]

1 hour ago, Don Richard said:

 

If a person is interested in uninformed opinion, TAS is the magazine of choice

No kidding. Conversely, I liked the Audio Critic, which deserves mention (absent from the list) as the best BS filter of all. My favorite "spreadsheet" style roundup was from Audio.

 

Favorite "gotchurfunnybone" of all time describing the BAZOOM ONE, Kilowatt amplifier with a wide frequency response from DC to Light!! (Yes, I do believe that will do for bandwidth!).

[CECAA850]

I lump all review magazines and audio reviews into the advertisement category.  You seldom if ever read a bad review.

[Islander]

Some of the English audio magazines like to go on about "PRaT", or "Pace, Rhythm, and Timing".  In other words, some (good) speakers will have you tapping your toes to the music, while other (bad) speakers will not.

 

Does this make any sense, or are they just dreaming it up?

[Don Richard]

I think it's like glossolalia in that if one speaks that way they prove they have the true religion, and are thus more likely to buy cable elevators and other worthless high dollar tweaks. This must drive sellers of this stuff to advertise in these magazines, which their target market reads and believes.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Last time I was at an audio show they had free copies of TAS and Stereophile.  I did not bother to grab copies.

[mikebse2a3]

1 hour ago, Islander said:

Some of the English audio magazines like to go on about "PRaT", or "Pace, Rhythm, and Timing".  In other words, some (good) speakers will have you tapping your toes to the music, while other (bad) speakers will not.

 

Does this make any sense, or are they just dreaming it up?

 

I have perceived this "effect to sound reproduction" during modifications of some amplifiers I have done in the past.

How amplifiers perform during complicated music signals versus the typical test measurements performed on them and shared with the public is part of the problem because these typical test simply don't reveal the complete performance characteristic that we have the ability to perceive IMHO.

 

Audio Magazine during the time that Heyser and Keele were doing speaker testing there was excellent and very far ahead of the typical magazines of that time period.

 

miketn

 

[DizRotus]

My favorite audio magazines were Speakerbuilder and The Audio Amateur.  Both are sorely missed.