Essay bashing Primedia, Stereophile - and Audiogon

Good post Golden Ears.

Thanks,

Rant and rave, rant and rave. What can we learn from this? We may spend a bit too much time on the "new" since the old has much to offer. But frankly, Audiogon does more good than harm. Members are very open to questions about midfi, hifi and ultrafi. Newbees are embraced. Music is the heart and soul. We learn. We teach.

Sorry that this is a hobby of nuances and marginal improvements. Sorry that this is a hobby of "non-mass market". That's life. At least, that's our life. It's a free country and a free internet. Rant and rave away! Just don't get between me and my music. And don't insult my friends and advisors who are helping me on my journey.

DITO- Unsound.
I learned more from other A-goners and got better equipment than I ever did from most dealers, In fact, most of the dealers give me B.S. just for the sale,
jb

The problem is that the used market,as well as Audiogon, depend on customers having some idea what the equipment sounds like. This is where the Brick and Mortar store comes in.

These are the guys that spend the time and money to set up displays and (hopefully) educate the customers. These are the places we go to hear the gear we lust after. How is it fair to use the salesman's time and then buy elswhere? The store has to stock the equipment; he pays shipping, insurance, power and everything it takes to keep a store open. For the most part they are not trying to cheat anyone but to simply make enough profit to keep their doors open.

In as much as store fails to educate its market (by not setting up superlative sound and theater rooms) it deserves to fail. But there are still a lot of old-school stores out there that deserve your business whenever possible or...or in a few years the high-end will simply dry up. No one will know, aside from the informed few, what real hi-fi is since they will never get to see or hear it.

I have no bitch with buying used gear on Audiogon since most dealers don't make their money from selling used gear but usually only do so as a service to their customer. Hell, I have enjoyed some great gear that I bought through here.

My bitch is the use of the Internet to cut the local store,the one that just spent 3 hours with you, out of his well-earned profit on new gear. If that keeps up, the stores will be history and lots of luck finding a place to sample gear. And lots of luck finding advice and service on the gear.

There are (they shall remain nameless) people on the net that sell high-end gear at a tiny amount over (and sometimes under) the store's cost. They are able to do so because they have no overhead; more often than not the gear is drop-shipped to the customer. The business is run out of a garage or living room. The guy that went through all the stress and expense of building and stocking a great soundroom is left out in the cold. I know a few dealers that are getting ready to say "screw it, I don't need this". You can tell when the "customer" (parasite) that just used up 3-hours of the salesman's time plans to get his new gear from the net.

The manufacturors and distributors (you know who you are) that tolerate this are pissing in their own water bowl and don't seem to know it (or maybe they just don't care). When, in five years, when there are no places to show your gear, how are you going to sell it?

No sane man is going to pour money into a store when he can make more profit by just putting his money in a mutual fund.

Again, this is not against the used market on Audiogon or elsewhere. (Did Chip forget that the audio mags have classified ads?)

If a reorganization of high end audio is taking place, is that a bad thing???

First of all, there are too many high priced brands these days. There may be too many brands in general. For all of these companies, the number of customers available is very small. How many people have the means to support all of these speaker companies selling $15K products?

The audiophile magazines have only fed into the whole system of driving up costs by touting the expensive gear. The likes of Jadis and Air Tight used to be the pinnacle of the hobby, with their stratospheric $10K component prices. Now, it isn't unusual at all to see components carry those price tags. I'm sorry, but I always am taken aback when a reviewer raves about the value in a component that retails above $10K.

Secondly, and this has been a problem for a long, long time, many dealers provide poor service. It's bad enough to be looked down upon, but for the dealer to not have the type of knowledge that so many here display is astounding. I can't say there are too many dealers, as the number is much lower in my area compared to 15 years ago. And, many still around have survived because of HT alone. Still, many a dealer is long past due when it comes to getting his act together.

Now, on to Chip Stern. He was a good meat and potatoes reviewer at Stereophile. Put any of this class(Damkroger, Willis, Reina, Greenhill, Rubinson, etc.) in a pot and pick four or five to run with. Would we notice the difference? The people who make the magazine worth buying are Tellig and Dudley for me, and Fremer for most others. While they may be poor at reviewing in some cases(Tellig, especially), their writing is interesting enough that people turn to them upon their first pass through the magazine. John Atkinson is not a great reviewer, but he is the boss. It's hard to get rid of the boss.

I found Chip to be entertaining. I didn't know he was no longer at Stereophile. I enjoyed his interjecting wit and commentary into his reviews. For that, I would probably say he was the best of the meat and potatoes reviewers. Will I miss him? I think so, but not to the point where it would affect me renewing a subscription.

Am I surprised at his rant which we are talking about? I was at first, but then no. Why are we? All we have known about him in the past was his Stereophile reviews. He was not a columnist. Perhaps he has always felt this way... Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Maybe now, we will get to see more of how he really feels.

But, both here and at Audio Asylum, it is obvious that many are better audiophiles than many of the reviewers. The ability to share knowledge, experience, and engage in conversation has brought out that some of us have a problem with what gets written or reviewed, or how things are run at the magazines. From the sniping you see more and more of in Stereophile towards us, you can tell we are having an impact - at least on the minds of the reviewers.

I think we all agree that many factors in the world will cause a change to audio. As time goes past, the companies and dealers who cater to us will probably fare a lot better than those who do not.