Quick poll: Most enjoyable audio magazine ?

For the most part I agree with Ninox but the humor displayed in Stereophile pales in comparision to the defunct Listener Magazine (those brits seem to have captured the market in terms of wit and guile bordering on silliness).

There really isn't a MAJOR audiophile publication written for the average audiophile. Market enviornment vis-a-vis payed endorsements permeates all, first in terms of component selection and then in review content (can't bite the hand that feeds you afterall). While its wonderful to read about $15K+ preamps and speakers over $20K what about taking the approach of reviewing components that fall in the middle niche that the average audiophile would be willing to spend and then if a component falls outside of that but is really exceptional writing about that?

How many reviews have you seen in a major publication about components from Audio Horizons, DeHavilland, Supratek, etc. that are little known but are well respected on this site?

I also find it curious that review content length is directly proportional to cost but not necessarily to merit.

I was thinking about this topic again yesterday as the digital version of Stereophile arrived and wondering why I was so gracious about the magazine, especially since I bought the musical fidelity XCan V8P that Sam Tellig described as a wonderful headphone pre amp, connected to my amp and immediately blew my speakers...ah sonicbeauty, if only I knew what I know now.
I guess its a distance thing, living in Australia, I am less concerned by many reviews as some stuff just isn't available here, or even if it is if might be in Melbourne (1000km away from Sydney).So the attitude of the magazine becomes more important than the reviews, especially in a global financial downturn when we might want to listen to our music than buy more equipment.
However, I have noticed over the last year, a number of reviews in Stereophile for small $1-2K monitors, precisely what I am looking for to replace the blown speakers. Each time I have been able to borrow them from my dealer and have found that the reviewers comments echo very closely my own impressions. So this has been helpful for this average audiophile. Perhaps a series on delightful inexpensive preamp headphone amps would be useful.
I am not so certain about the utility of group shoot out testing that the british mags like. It sort of dumbs it down - what hifi is the worst for this. However I need some comparisons in a review. Australian Hi Fi is completely aggravating in that it never compares one product to another, while Stereophile gets the balance pretty right by including a comment about one product with reference to another. Its harder to get TAS here so I can't really comment.
Talking of little known but well respected: There is an Australian and New Zealand Hi Fi industry, and some companies make some great stuff but other than the high end (Halcro, Plinius) you never hear of any of it, except on audiogon (or Australian HiFi where the reviews are unsurprisingly really really positive).

I'm with the stereophile crowd. I dont occasionally worry about whether the manufacturers influence their reviews.

I actually just re-upped my subscription for 3 years.

I just let my Stereophile subscription lapse. Fewer reviews of gear and music, and more ads. They're also reviewing less and less 'affordable' gear lately. Well at least affordable to me. They'll review one or two affordable pieces every other month, and they'll happen to be pieces I have no interest in.

What Hifi? was my favorite due to the reasons the OP mentioned. I just can't find it anymore. I liked their shoot-outs where they had a few different pieces for around the same price and had a group of 5 or so people reviewing them blindly. Often times one of them was a manufacturer. They combined this subjectivity with objective measurements and told how each piece varied from the average. No gushing endless gushing about products. They also had reviews where they outright said to avoid products, and sometimes those manufacturers advertised in their mag.

The only version of the mag I can find is What Hifi Sound & Vision, which has more home theater than anything else. Zero interest in that. What Hifi reviewed gear in most price ranges. I didn't agree with every review, but I agreed more than disagreed.

If I could subscribe to it I definitely would.

"I'm with the stereophile crowd. I dont occasionally worry about whether the manufacturers influence their reviews."

Idnfl: I don't mean to be disrespectful but I cringed when I read your response.