Opinions - The Absolute Sound

You're asking advice about a $14.95 subscription? Are you serious?

Tvad - Before the mailing arrived I'd never heard of The Absolute Sound. I'm just interested to know if it's a decent magazine or if I'd be better off choosing another one or staying where I'm at with zero subscriptions. It's not expensive, but still a waste if I won't end up reading it.

Good luck with the decision. I'm sure you will receive helpful advice and weigh the options accordingly.

I haven't subscribed to any audio magazine for years. I can pretty much get everything I need from the web. The only one I still read is Tone Audio because it is free and I found that it is no more or less useful than any others.

14.95 a year isn't a lot of money. It is worth subscribing if you like to read paper magazine, just don't believe everything it says.

I have no respect for the Absolute Sound ("TAS"). Anthony Cordesman's reviews are serious, but the other reviewers tend to write exceedingly positive reviews - a typical review basically reprints the ad copy produced by the manufacturer and concludes with a statement to the effect that the component under review is the best that the reviewer has ever heard (the best, that is, until a competing component is reviewed in the next issue, which then is labeled "the very best"). TAS does not perform any laboratory analysis of reviewed components like Stereophile does. Finally, TAS's editor, Harry Pearson, is an intolerable windbag.

The original TAS of 25 years ago was a serious magazine - the current iteration is a shill for the industry, in my opinion.