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Rank: HIFI Addict
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zonepress wrote:alexh wrote:I want to know what you would like to see reviewed in Hifi Critic Read post #6 of this thread. I like your selective answers, are you into politics 
Alex H
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that reminds me
I must get 'UPCOMING' refreshed!
MartinC
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zonepress wrote:This link leads to a webpage whose title is not the one Stan wrote. Anyhow this is off-topic. The topic I would like to see debated is whether reviewers in general are doing enough to break through flawed concepts that perpetuate themselves, and to what degree they are serving their readership or just furthering their own careers - and also Siegfried Linwkitz's views. Well spotted ZP, a Freudian slip on my part, the passage of 40 years, and my general dissatisfaction with the program combined to give it the wrong title. I left after 2 years, not enough time to qualify me as a Psychoanalyst but plenty to enable me to spot garden variety projection when I see it. I have to add an experience I had while I was there, my training analyst was also the head of training for the entire school. While her office we being redone she was using her family apartment for sessions. When I entered I noticed a stereo system and naturally went over to look at it. The cartridge, I remember it was an Empire 880P, had a ball of dust on the stylus. On a whim I pointed this out to her and said that her husband must be out of town or else they were not getting along as no audiophile would let lint collect like that. She viemently denied this; within a year she was divorced and remarried. I think it was at this point that I realized that if my hobby of audio could tell me more about human behavior than the things she was teaching me then I was in the wrong field.
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Rank: HIFI God
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I understand that couch dropouts often get their complexes all wrong, and end up wanting to kill their mothers and to be breastfed by their fathers! A perplexing state of affairs, to say the least. 
Sumer is icumen in!
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Rank: HIFI Guru
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I'd like a fresh, unbiased look at up-to-date Class D , including the forthcoming Nuforce 18 and the very interesting NAD M2
Hans
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Rank: HIFI Guru
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zonepress wrote:I understand that couch dropouts often get their complexes all wrong, and end up wanting to kill their mothers and to be breastfed by their fathers! A perplexing state of affairs, to say the least. Res ipsa loquitur! 
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Togil wrote:I'd like a fresh, unbiased look at up-to-date Class D , including the forthcoming Nuforce 18 and the very interesting NAD M2 QFT.
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I would love to see the AMR PH-77 phono stage reviewed.
Has anyone heard this one yet?
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sorry never heard of it
stuff needs to have stuck its head above the floor boards!
Martin C
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A lot of interest has been shown in the Oppo BDP 83SE Blu-ray player online and its excellent audio performance; here is one short review, of course assessing that aspect only. I would be very interested in this and listening to it myself
"Quicquid Nitet Notandum"
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Here is a link to the AMR-77 phono stage. It looks incredible and seems to me to be the most versatile stage I've seen. http://www.amr-audio.co.uk/html/ph_individual.html
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Rank: HIFI Newbie
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Ahhhh... How about Class D but with the new Audio Research Class Ds.
Class D done right???
Ken Kessler loved them
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Rank: HIFI God
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Togil wrote:the very interesting NAD M2 Atkinson's review is quite laudatory.
Sumer is icumen in!
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Mmm, I'd like to see a review of the Audio Research Di200 (?), the new Class D integrated.
Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.
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It would be crazy of me to say that high end can't be done with Class D, never mind the usual switch mode power supply which comes with it, but good Class A/B linear is quite easy and can be quite cheap and power economical and compact eg the Nait 5 XS so why choose a technology which is inherently RFI polluting for your whole system and for music duty cycle duty has no power economy benefit.
The best you can say is that it keeps audio designers in work saves some transformer iron and some fuel oil for the container ships.
MartinC
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Rank: HIFI Guru
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Martin Colloms wrote:It would be crazy of me to say that high end can't be done with Class D, never mind the usual switch mode power supply which comes with it, but good Class A/B linear is quite easy and can be quite cheap and power economical and compact eg the Nait 5 XS so why choose a technology which is inherently RFI polluting for your whole system and for music duty cycle duty has no power economy benefit.
The best you can say is that it keeps audio designers in work saves some transformer iron and some fuel oil for the container ships.
MartinC But the NAD M2 is different, and does point to the future as there is no analogue stage and the power supply is of a high quality.
Hans
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Just a suggestion ...
A quick and not wholly exhaustive scan of the 16 Hifi Critic issues so far (and looking at core components as opposed to cables, headphones and so on) does show what I think is an over-concentration on Naim (10 reviews) and a bit on Wilson (5 reviews). (Most other product from substantive manufacurers has been reviewed, usually, no more that three times.)
By contrast I cannot find any reviews of B&W, Tannoy, Spendor, EAR or Electrocompaniet; and only one of Linn or Musical Fidelity.
Whilst I'm no greater supporter of Naim or Linn or Musical Fidelity, probably because of their overexhuberant marketing and the "religion" of many of their dealers, the absence of the others might be addressed in future?
I admit that my review preferences focus on companies which are innovative, sustainable and don't change product every year (hence not Musical Fidelity);
however, that shouldn't rule out some punts on reviews from emerging manufacturers with something innovative to show or remarkable value for money on offer.
I guess there might be some difficulties with certain manufacturers who simply won't lend equipment to you?
Anyway, just a suggestion ...
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IanG-UK wrote: Naim (10 reviews) and a bit on Wilson (5 reviews)
.........
By contrast I cannot find any reviews of B&W, Tannoy, Spendor, EAR or Electrocompaniet; and only one of Linn or Musical Fidelity. My country, right or wrong.
Sumer is icumen in!
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It's Naim and the equipment of one well-known importer, thus Wilson etc.
However it's to the credit of that importer if he's willing to lend equipment while others like B&W are not.
Hans
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I agree that not only are there some suppliers who dare to supply to our independent Critics , there are some suppliers with a massive range of potentially interesting equipment and we can cover only a fraction.
In part we respond to availability, in part to reader demand , in part to product importance and scale of distribution.
When we compiled the HIFICRITIC Awards feature I was surprised just how many manufacturers we had in fact covered.
MartinC
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That's a fair point Martin - I think I added reviews of 55 or so components from different manufacturers - just on turntables, cd players, amplifiers and loudspeakers - probably 50% more than that if you add in cartridges, headphones, supports and cables.
No criticism of the diversity of product, of subject matter or of recordings. Nor of the constructive criticism. And the lack of a moronic scoring system is most welcome.
Just the odd bit of concentration and omission for reasons I appreciate.
By contrast, having bought two other magazines in the last month (it has been snowing!), the magazine that uses a 1 to 100 scoring scale for sound quality rated everything reviewed (13 components) betweeen 74% and 87%; with a similar story in the magazine that uses "blobs" - 10 at 4 blobs and 6 at 5 (maximum) blobs. Perverse that in their views product can be ranked within such a narrow linear scale.
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I covered this in a presentation to BADA at the launch of HIFICRITIC. nearly 4 years back.
whether it is 0-5, or 0 to 100 the main magazines are cornered.
It goes like this
3 and below is out because the product and manufacturer dies, and no ads appear.
5 is very rare since it is perfect and how do you beat perfection when reviewing your next product?
.....so your score for everything , or nearly everything is 4 , or 80% ........ thereabouts...... with a little fiddling up and down.
Just read back numbers for the mags which have % or 0-5 score systems , or blobs or whatever.
I know my scale is cranky , and due to the percentage improvement basis , which makes subjective sense to me, it is becoming increasingly exponential and thus crankier still , but it represents decades of listening on a numerical comparative basis, and is a discipline.
There was a decade or so when both Stereophile and HI FI News could be bullied sufficiently to publish these scores, with periodic explanation as to how they came about.
New editorial staff at Hi FI News put paid to them , indeed put them up to ridicule. I was told younger readers would not understand them and neither would the advertisers.
Martin C
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Martin Colloms wrote:I covered this in a presentation to BADA at the launch of HIFICRITIC. nearly 4 years back.
whether it is 0-5, or 0 to 100 the main magazines are cornered.
It goes like this
3 and below is out because the product and manufacturer dies, and no ads appear.
5 is very rare since it is perfect and how do you beat perfection when reviewing your next product?
.....so your score for everything , or nearly everything is 4 , or 80% ........ thereabouts...... with a little fiddling up and down.
Just read back numbers for the mags which have % or 0-5 score systems , or blobs or whatever.
I know my scale is cranky , and due to the percentage improvement basis , which makes subjective sense to me, it is becoming increasingly exponential and thus crankier still , but it represents decades of listening on a numerical comparative basis, and is a discipline.
There was a decade or so when both Stereophile and HI FI News could be bullied sufficiently to publish these scores, with periodic explanation as to how they came about.
New editorial staff at Hi FI News put paid to them , indeed put them up to ridicule. I was told younger readers would not understand them and neither would the advertisers.
Martin C Never liked the pathetic blob system, with no point of reference a great CD player scoring say 15 got 5* and a reasonable high end player getting 3* might score 30+ how could that make sense; could always relate to numbers and the sense of scale, it always seemed simple and logical to me. "New editorial staff at Hi FI News put paid to them , indeed put them up to ridicule. I was told younger readers would not understand them and neither would the advertisers."Their loss, I confronted them at the show just before Critic came on the scene, I was more confused by their lack of understanding, guess they lack aspiration
"Quicquid Nitet Notandum"
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They do have aspirations alright, of the pecuniary sort.
Sumer is icumen in!
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One of the main German magazines ( Audio ) use an ever-increasing point system but it's linear. Suggestions to turn Martin's system into a linear scale were made but not taken up.
Hans
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