Purist Audio & Stereophile

Simple, advertising $$$. When was the last time you saw a full page ad for Purist? The others are all major advertisers. It's as simple as that. Look at it like politics. A politician is bound to look after the needs of his larger contributors more than someone who didn't contribute.

Recommended components are basically worthless. I don't buy because of recommended components list, but it does make selling easier.

I can tell you that one Absolute Sound reviewer uses Dominus exclusively on his own system and a ex Fi Mag guy uses only Dominus.

As for Stereophile? I don't know.

Ever see a sports star come on television and tell you how great McDonalds or KFC is?

At their income level, I suspect they frequent Mortons more often than Micky D's, but guess who pays big bucks for them to appear in those TV ads?

Please note. I am NOT saying that Nordost or other fine cable companies are not good. Only that what people put in reviews is not necessarily what they choose for their own listening.

It's interesting, as well, that neither Stereophile nor Absolute Sound (as far as I can recall) ever mention Transparent Cables.

Hi Jmcgrogan2,

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion but I must tell you that even though my company has many products listed in Stereophile's Recommended Components we have done very little advertising in the magazine. In addition, in our almost fifteen year history, Bright Star has been nominated four times for "Accessory of the Year" and has had four major product reviews and a number of sidebar mentions in Stereophile and I never, even once, had the slightest amount of pressure from anyone at Stereophile that we should either reciprocate by placing ads or that by placing and ad Bright Star would be more likely to get products reviewed or that it would influence the outcome of a review.

For the record, not one other high end magazine has tried to pressure or entice us to place ads in connection with product reviews or awards (of which we have received many from a wide range of publications) either. The only pressure I've ever received about advertising in connection with a review was done by one of the mainstream "glossy" mags (who will go nameless even though they are no longer in business). A high end magazine has never done so.

Just my unsolicited testimonial.

Best Regards,

Barry Kohan

Disclaimer: I am a manufacturer of vibration control products.

I could not agree more with the above posts. Advertising dollars, equipment loans, willingness to submit products for evaluation, etc., all enter into magazine ratings and recommendations. You won't find Transparent Cables mentioned in Recommended Components either.