Readers' Feedback 2009-10
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17 December 2010
From: Stuart Merchant Excellent magazine. I’ve stopped reading all the other mags as they’ve dumbed down and are rather formulaic. More power to your elbow, Stuart |
19 December 2010
From: Cemil Gandur Hi Martin, I have received 4/4 - an excellent issue, if I may add. My renewal under way Best Cemil |
12 December 2010
From: Simon Welbourn Hi Martin The magazine is fantastic: unlike others one can read it over and over because it is in such expert depth: really brilliant - I am learning a great deal. Just wish I had more dosh to make the dreams you show me a reality in my listening room! Thanks and regards Simon |
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8 December 2010
From: Marcel van der Vliet Dear Martin, Thank you very much for your kind advice. Next year, I will send the amps back to the distributer. I am looking forward reading (and collecting) your next review. Really like your articles because of the human approach, added value and interesting technical details. Greetings, Sincerely, Respect, Marcel van der Vliet |
30 November 2010
From: Paul Gross Sir, I have very swiftly received my first copy of my 2 year subscription. To be honest it takes getting used to, but why not, no adverts apart from on your web page.. one gets so used to visual and aural contamination... finally very refreshing, but it would have been nice of you to throw a couple of past issues in with the subscription! kind regards Paul |
17 November 2010
From: (Name withheld) I have cancelled the subscription to your magazine due solely to cost cutting. It is by far the best of all. I had been looking forward to receiving it all these years. Stan's Safari and other columns were very interesting and the reviews were in another league compared to most of your UK competition. It's sad for me but please go ahead - you are in the right direction. Best regards/Atentamente, |
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24 October 2010
From: Jurek Kubiena Dear HifiCritic I really enjoy the independent stance you adopt and the thoroughness of your approach. Of most value is the MC assessment methodology which I would love to see extended and kept up to date. It may be open to criticism but if one personally benchmarks (make your own assessment against MCs assessment) you can start to develop a relative view of products in the market. This is useful and a highly valuable if somewhat dangerous I know. I have purchased issues in the past but wonder when you may offer your magazine subscription as a digital offering in its totality like your competition TAS and HiFi+. I appreciate some of the downloads of individual articles you offer but would prefer not to go down the hard copy route for the magazine? Many thanks for your consideration Regards Jurek |
16 October 2010
From: Ben Blaustein Hi, Just renewed the magazine subscription for one year but still haven't received the magazine. Is it on the way? Thanks, and keep up the amazing work. The best magazine in business, by far! Ben |
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27 Sep 2010
From: Christoph Mijnssen Dear Martin Thanks for the new HifiCritic – it is/was excellent reading! Best wishes Christoph Mijnssen August 13 2010
From: Peter Löhnberg Dear Madams / Sirs, The unique article 'Classical on PC' in the last issue reminded me that I would not like to miss your fine journal. So I checked why PayPal thought that my credit card was not valid any more. Could you please inform me now, how I can prolong my subscription? Thank you for your attention, Peter Löhnberg |
July 2010
From: Charles J Smith ‘April – June’ HIFICRITIC 2010 Great Issue!. Getting it in July brought back memories of the old days!! : ) I particularly like what I call the educational articles such as Stan's Safari and Peter Thompson's Hifi Myth #8. Equipment reviews are fine but at this level of high end most of us need to listen for ourselves to make equipment choices. Getting educated as to what we are listening to and what to listen for is invaluable. Comparing strengths and weaknesses of different design choice is the kind of information not easily attained elsewhere. I also enjoy reading about $$relative 'unobtainium'. I likely will never have a Continuum Caliburn or even a Criterion but learning just what design choices led to its' high level of performance gives me ideas about optimising my Basis Signature setup. First request: I know space is limited but when showing a picture of say the Linn Uphorik I would prefer a smaller front view along with the back view; I find looking at the rear of a component very informative. (e.g. the review of the CDX2) Second request: electronic publishing? I read Hifi plus this way on my PC and enjoy it. With the advent of inexpensive eReaders of ever increasing capability this might provide a lower cost, take it with you, alternative to the print version. HiFi Critic on the beach - that will be the day!! Finally a word on ripping CD/LPs to the computer. Arthur Barton's article just touches the surface. I would refer the interested reader to the Computer Audio website where this is discussed in extreme detail. Sometime ago you did an review of ripping software finding EAC to FLAC and Foobar for playback to be among the best combos. Doing my own comparisons I generally agree but for most CD's I find the small to nil audible difference between this rather laborious approach and use of DBpoweramp favors the ease and power of DBp for ripping. I still use flac for playback. For ripping LPs I suggest a look at the KORG DSD recorder. Following S. Stones recommendation (a relatively recent Absolute Sound: don't have the ref handy) I purchased one of these (about 1k USD) and the performance is very good to excellent. You rip the LP to a DSD recording (output of your preamp or phono preamp to the KORG) and then convert the DSD file to whatever resolution you want from mp3 to 192/24 (or above in future) DSD provides what they term 'future proof recording' and this is worth the effort in my opinion. Given the work involved in digitalising LPs while retaining most of their sonic virtue you only want to do it once! See you next issue.... Charles |
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29 June 2010
From: Peter Burford Dear Martin, Many thanks for sorting my subscription problem, I can now look forward to getting my fix of audio wisdom again. Cheers, Peter Burford |
29 May 2010
From: Marc Winzap Hi Martin I have now also received all the back issues from Vol 1 except Vol 1 / No1. Could you please send this to me too. HIFICRITIC is a great magazine. One of the best I have ever read. Congratulations! Please renew my one year subscription to three years. Thank you and best regards, Marc 12/06/2010 a single issues order from Bob Walters requesting every issue published, was processed by HIFICRITIC.COM ??.. I have already subscribed as well...best mag in the field - by far! thanks! |
16 March 2010
From: David Hardy Your reviews are far and away the most thorough and authoritative. I buy other magazines to see what new products are out there but I would never trust their ridiculous hyperbolical reviews (with the exception of Keith Howard?s- you ought to sign him up!) Keep up the good work! And feel free to release these comments . David |
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22 February 2010
From: Jan Nijborg Hello Martin, Thank you. I just paid the money request by PayPal. Looking forward to a new year of interesting issues of HIFICRITIC! Kind regards, Jan |
16 February 2010
From: Rob Heap Hi Fi Critic = Best print media to drop through the letterbox! I am just about to renew my next 3 years subs. It would be interesting to compare the thoughts of reviewers who prefer transistor designs to those who prefer vac. tube designs. |
Jan 11 2010
From: Ben Blaustein Thanks a lot!, Great magazine, Ben. |
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Wednesday, January 06, 2010
From: hifistan Rank: HIFI Guru Groups: Member Posts: 231 Location: Indiana, USA Got mine today! Another great issue. One query, Cardas Golden Reference is not listed in the recommended speaker cables despite its high test scores. Was this an oversight or was the price too high? Liked the integrated tests, have been looking at some of them as well as the Conrad Johnson CA 200, which is suppose to be a half sized 350a with line pre included. A friend of mine is deciding between the Sasha and Sophia 2, has been offered a demo pair of the former with full warranty and instillation for the list price of the latter. My initial reaction to a first reading of the Sasha test was that while it might have a little higher ultimate performance ceiling than the Sophia it looks like it would be harder to extract. The Sophia appears to be able to work with a much wider range of amps, for instance. His present amp is a very large MacIntosh with audioformers so possibly it will not be affected by the impedance curve. He currently has M-L Spires, which are not easy to drive themselves. Also the Sophia's appeared to be easier to fit into a typical room, or did I misread this? I am spared decisions on this expense level, I have considered Sophia 1s, often available over here used in good condition for $5000 but am quite happy with my current speakers. Not only is it great to read about equipment that most of us are unlikely to own or even to hear properly set up but there is always something in the issue relevant to things we do own or might consider. I have both Stax and Sennheiser headphones, one point about the former, I assume that they are still available with a passive adaptor box? All of mine are in this form as I have found them very useful in evaluating amplifiers and pre amplifiers. I suppose if I were a dedicated headphone listener I would go for the powered version. Again, very good work. |
25 June 2009
From: Gareth Jones Keep up the good work with the magazine, enjoy it very much. Fri May 8 09
From: Mark Wheeler I've just renewed my subs for 3 years. Please ensure it runs consecutively with my original subscription, and send the back issues I have missed (most of 2008 I suppose, and all 2009). Cheers, Mark "It has been a joy immersing myself in such a mass of back issues, having given up in despair on the paper comics and the ad driven online language manglers. I do hope Critic remains viable. I'm sure that those who make the effort to consider the cost of time wasted trawling through dross in other comics seeking their occasional nugget amidst the recycled press releases will continue to renew subscriptions even if unable to buy new gear in straitened times." Keep up the good work, Mark |
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23 04 09
From: Don Trimby Dear Mr Colloms You might not wish to be reminded that my acquaintance with your work goes back 30 years e.g. the Signet MK III E cartridge review HI FI Choice 1980, and I still have both book and cartridge!. I am pleased to say that I have gained a very great deal for your published work, I suppose loudspeaker/room, cable, and latterly mains issues, as being topics which stand out as being of particular value in your lucid expositions; which has a lot to do with why the HIFICRITIC venture has my full support I much like the presentation of the journal, and appreciate the way it is developing (though 2 months is plenty long to wait between issues!!) On the record reviewing side of things, the more (so called) 'classical' material you cover the better, esp. if the repertoire is a bit off the beaten track- '2 gongs hit' with the current issue (Holst and Lindberg : good). Glad to note more text and fewer CD cover pictures nowadays: also reasonable attention to the engineering (worth noting that this last 2 weeks has produced a good dozen 'light music /British' CDs at my residence. Some delightful stuff, a lot admirably suited to system evaluation as well as having real 'musical ' value. Very pleased to find the 4 are engineered by Tony Faulkner, which would itself have been and impulse to purchase (if Gramophone had only mentioned it!) The erstwhile 'Quality Monitor' and 'Sounds in Retrospect' columns are much missed. I'm enjoying Mr Anderson's writing in the current issue, while hoping CB's absence is temporary, he had a wondrous knack of alighting on fascinating aspects of both music and r3ecrding. Certainly room for both and others too if feasible: but what does Mr A play them on? CB's situation, like your own is basically familiar to the enthusiast, but this can't be said of all contributors of course. I do hope that some of the above is of interest to you and to HIFICRIIC. Thanks again for your dedicated work over the years, and best wishes for future success with the magazine. Nice to be able to get in touch with you, PM and your colleagues. |
14/03/2009
From: Dave Simms HI Folks, Just so you Know HI-Fi Critic is in my opinion... The very best HI-FI issue in the UK, if not the world. It's blatantly informative and honest. Regards, Dave09 January 2009
From: Ioannis Ganoulis Subj.: Two suggestions and a question Dear Editor, I have now read front-to-back all Hificritic issues and I am very impressed. I sincerely hope you can continue during the crisis, hence my first suggestion: Have a look at the http://www.uhfmag.com model of web-"reading room" and web selling. I prefer to read from paper, but if this is a way to continue publishing, then so be it. Second suggestion: I was somewhat disappointed that the review of the "Transporter" did not touch on hi-resolution. One reason that people like me look at DACs with USB and "servers" with ethernet is their potential of playing back hi-res files from the computer, not the "convenience" of ripping hundreds of CDs in a NAS. Players with S/PDIF output usually (always?) truncate to 16 bit. Linn audio understood this, most others haven't. Hope your upcoming review of DACs will cover hi-res. Finally, my question: I thought I had seen an upcoming LFD zero III review, but it does not appear there anylonger. Is it still coming? Best Regards, Ioannis HIFICRITIC REPLY: Thanks for your supportive remarks WEB publish is an option bur is not so easy to set up , and we like real print. The LFD integrated if that is what it was, is in issue 12. Will try to do better with Hi Res but failed with the HDX since it was not good enough to really begin the process. Kind Regards Martin |