Stereophile's refusal to review more low

I agree - there are many who ridicule Sound & Vision which is typically of much more "affordable" gear. If Stereophile reviewed considerably more pieces that were "affordable", I think they'd lose a lot of readership. To me, they review a lot of stuff that is $2-10K, which is where their greatest value / differentiation is. I get tired of some of their coverage of ultra-expensive stuff, but it's not overbearing. And, as stated, for a buck an issue, it's a great deal. -Kirk

My point is I think that they review whatever the big manufacturers that support them with much of their advertising revenue want them to. Proceed, for example, is part of Madrigal, which includes Levinson,Revel and even JBL. Companies with that much money to spend have essentially bought Stereophile and will get pretty much whatever they want in terms of the treatment of their products in reviews. So, if its expensive products which the manufacturers need to be reviewed, they will. If its budget or mid-fi products which the manufacturers need reviewed, that is possible too. Just spend the required advertising dollars with Stereophile. By the way, I have no problem with BMW ads either. BMW is not in the audio business. Although it is interesting that they did review the Mark Levinson sound system in the latest Lexus in the current issue. They had much more to say about the car and precious little to say about the sound system. So, maybe there is some new advertising/review angle which they intend to exploit here.

This suggestion may be anathema to the high-enders, but the magazine "Sensible Sound" has many reviews of gear in the $1000 - $2500 range. While the reviewers may not be as technically sophisticated as some of the writers for TAS and Stereopiles, they still have valid opinions. I subscribe to "Sensible Sound" solely as a counter-balance to the extremely expensive gear reviewed by other publications. Here's the link to their Web site:

http://www.sensiblesound.com/

Its unfortunate that "Sensible Sounds" seems to think that speakers are the only componants that sound different from one another. The reviews usually consist of detailed descriptions and techno info. If your lucky they might include one or two vague references to how the product actually sounds. I read it anyway, mainly because they do look for high value products.
As far as Stereophile is concerned, they do review lower ticket items from time to time. Rotel, Adcom, PSB, Parasound, Creek, and others have gotten a fair amount of ink on some real world affordable products. I must admit at times the reviews sound almost like ad promotions (especially Sams Space). Most of it is pretty fair(IMO).
Taken with a grain of salt, most of the rags are useful.

Rayhall, I understand how you might get your impression, but you are mistaken. There is no conspiracy here. The manufacturers have no real influence on the reviewers. They are glad to reach the largest group of readers interested in audio/video period. There have been way too many negative comments regarding far too many different companies products for it to be so. All a reviewer has is his reputation, so I know they don't want to blow it by presenting biased info. Read with your eyes, and not your imagination. Of course there is some intermingling between reviewers and the manufacturers. I'm sure that occasionally one or two people make a great product that a reviewer loves, and they eventually become friendly, but that is normal. For the most part the reviewers have little or no contact from manufacturers, and are never told the content of the review should be positive because they need the advertising dollars. If that was happening, it wouldn't take long for it to be found out. There is plenty of integrity out there, you just have to look for it, how's yours lately?