The Absolute Sound vs Stereophile

I dropped my TAS subscription once I concluded the writers were just plain annoying. The “reviews” read more like advertisements. Every single issue contains the word “venerable.” And JV is just full of himself, with his use of random phrases in some non-English language (which he knows means nothing to anyone but himself).

Digital music and the internet killed HiFi....

Now reviewers are like sales people for mega buck equipment that is as much as a car... and some even a house!

There is a huge market for 'budget audiophiles' .... where are those reviewers?

What happened to a reviewer having a stable system that said reviewer compares new equipment back too? I get tired of reading something sounds 'good'... what does that mean?

And the videos on utub (spelling intentional) all sounds just like my computer speakers!  

I miss the days of having Audiophile stereo stores locally....

jhills

you wrote "...JH (Julian Hirsch) while giving quite decent reviews on speakers - not so much on electronics. For some reason, he had a strong view that all amps, pre-amps, etc. regardless of price, circuit design, or quality, sounded the same and (in general) the only discernible difference, from any one to another, was power output and features."

He must have been a proponent of Peter Azcel and The Audio Critic. 

brayeagle

He must have been a proponent of Peter Azcel and The Audio Critic

More likely the other way around. Julian Hirsch and Stereo Review predated The Audio Critic.

I subscribe to both TAS and Stereophile at this time. (just saying so you know). Both have interesting things, and neither is really great.I DO most enjoy the measurements sections of reviews in Stereophile. And all the ads. TAS has better ads IMO. Both magazine ads are like being in a candy store! I may not get to taste them all. but looking sure is fun.To me the real problem is the need for a ’relationship’ between the magazine and the manufacturer. Only stuff the maker WANTS reviewed gets in. Since the loan is from the manufacturer. So there is only a hodgepodge of reviews. That means one manufacturer can dominate just because they hand out all sorts of equipment to review. IMO someone with money needs to step up and bring in equipment to review that folks want to hear about.
And comparisons. The odd fear to do any sort of comparisons. To me without them the review is just left out to dry.
So reviewers should own a variety of equipment to say The new Bomb88 is better imaging and detail retrieval than the Hacksaw 3a, but just the equal of the Cardboard KTC. etc...
On the other hand ,there are all sorts of net forum sites... But to me that should be a large part of what these net sites should be about. And not arguing about "some folks claim they can hear differences in outlets and I think that is horse manure." sort of content. Which is too much of what passes for content here.