I recently emailed John Atkinson of Stereophile

Corona, you make a great philosophical point, sadly, advertisements do make a difference in customer buying habits. The smaller companies have to work much harder to get the attention of the buyers (and reviewers) as the larger companies, which have enormous ad budgets. If we think that the reviewers, for all of their protestations, are not pandering to the larger ad dollars, we are being naive. If only it were as simple, or easy as spending the lion share of the earned profits on r&d we would all have better products in our homes. Good point!!!

Corona, may I venture a guess that you are one of the "real" audio companies who doesn't advertise. If so, why hide behind an anonymous moniker taking pot shots at those who have become successful enough to afford these ads.

If you don't have a dog in the hunt then I apologize. If you do, the ethical thing to do is identify yourself.

Herman:
I know the people who own thoes "successful" audio companies, the image they portray is often very different from the motivation driving the product.
Moniker; everytime a persons name and a compeny is listed, that's a commercial, i'm not here for that.

Corona said:

Real audio companies do not waste money running ads in magazines; they use it for research and development.

I could not disagree more. It's a ridiculous statement! Marketing is a key element of any successful business plan. An ad can accomplish many things, but it is also an expression of pride by the manufacturer for their product(s). If you believe in your product, you should have no problem advertising that pride.

onhwy61 you could not be more right. I am a small business owner in a non-audio enterprise. The company that does not advertise is the company that is going out of business.

If the selfrighteous people who think advertising buys reviews would stop and get a grasp of what it's like to try to run a real business and pay 40 or 50 employees who depend on them for a living these dialogs would be much more helpful.

Any successful businessman know advertising is critical to maintaining and growing a business. If Bose (for instance) advertises and their competition doesn't, who is going to sell more product? Not everyone lives in NY or LA where virtually every product made can be auditioned and seen. Lots or people live in Yuma or Springfield where the closest they will come to most gear is by way of advertising and review.

Since many of the respondants to this and other posts have determined that advertising corrupts and reviewers from magazines like Stereophile and TAS (which does suck!) have been bought and paid for many times over, where does that leave the poor audiophile from Yuma, Springfield, and other parts unknown?

Are they to be left completely in the dark since they have not suffered the indignity of having been forced to live in the big city? Where should they go for information? Any suggestions?