Stereophile 2023 recommended gear list

[Deleted member 21219]

I’m always amazed at the amount of vitriol levelled at publications such as Stereophile. If these people and their reviews are not worth anything, why would they be worth the amount of time spent bashing them? Especially in a forum in which none of the people buying $300k turntables will ever participate. There are some significantly better ways to spend this time, which is the most expensive resource in the Universe, as all of us have a very limited supply of it until we expire.

Many of the people who peruse this site are what I call "searchers". They're looking for good advice to spend their hard-earned money on an audio system.

What those people need is an advocate. Basically, that is what ASR is .... an advocate to educate people about scammers, bad merchandise and snake oil. ASR provides push-back, giving searchers an alternative view of the audio industry. And yes, the push-back can be rather ...... vigorous.

That's because a mosquito has to really put forth a lot of effort in order to get an elephant to move.

Jim

 

[Sal1950]

That is simply not true. I decided to terminate my mch column, Music in the Round, just a few years after I retired from my day job, because I did not want the burden of scheduling/planning any more. The newly-installed editor was disappointed in my decision but it was my decision.

Kal, I really like and respect you.
I also know that you have a huge passion for multch music reproduction, it used to be your sole reviewing focus.
Currently multich recording, mixing, and releases are in the biggest boom ever seen in the industry.
The fact that your quiet as a mouse about it in your Stereophile writings a plays a different tune.
Sorry but, I'm just not buying your story.
I know what happened to Gordon, it's public knowledge, I believe similar has happened to you.
Be well.

 

[Graham849]

April 1st. 'nuff said.

 

[dweeeeb2]

April 1st. 'nuff said.

ha ha ha! for real?!

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Kal, I really like and respect you.
I also know that you have a huge passion for multch music reproduction, it used to be your sole reviewing focus.
Currently multich recording, mixing, and releases are in the biggest boom ever seen in the industry.
The fact that your quiet as a mouse about it in your Stereophile writings a plays a different tune.
Sorry but, I'm just not buying your story.

Let me make this plain: Discontinuing the MITR column was my decision and mine alone. It was a big decision for me but I decided to terminate MITR before JA1 stepped down. However, I did not get to meet with him, face-to-face, to tell him. So, when I met with JA2 right after he became editor, I met with him and told him. He was not happy about it for a number of reasons and tried to get me to reconsider. Since stepping back, I continue covering mch products in reviews but I am no longer the beat reporter.

 

[Sal1950]

Let me make this plain: Discontinuing the MITR column was my decision and mine alone. It was a big decision for me but I decided to terminate MITR before JA1 stepped down. However, I did not get to meet with him, face-to-face, to tell him. So, when I met with JA2 right after he became editor, I met with him and told him. He was not happy about it for a number of reasons and tried to get me to reconsider. Since stepping back, I continue covering mch products in reviews but I am no longer the beat reporter.

OK Kal,, if you say so.
I'd only like to say one last thing on the subject.
With all the excitement being generated in the multich 5.1 and Atmos scene, piles of new music masters, and classic remasters being released every month, the streaming scene is awash in it. But to read Stereophile, you'd never know there's been a single multich release in decades. Page, after page, after page, of reviews and editorial comment about 1960s style dragging a rock thru a ditch, but not a word on the cutting edge of music mastering and reproduction.
No way in hell your going to tell me there isn't some editorial policy afoot.
Very Sad Indeed.

 

[BogdanR]

If they didn't spew so much BS and incorrect information to the public, there'd be no need to try and inform them of the truths in audio. $10,000 power cords? "MF later wrote, when comparing the Dragon AC cables with another brand that what he heard "was another leapfrog forward producing more transparency (in the sense of the ability to see into the sonic space), more air, and more rhythmic authority. ... Nothing else I've tried ... matches the Dragon AC cord's transparency, quiet, and taut musical grip." (Vol.41 No.5, Vol.45 No.9 WWW)"

Do you believe we should let crap reporting like this stand? Only one of way too many piles of BS too numerous to list.

Thank you, you've made my point and continue to do so quite eloquently. The Grand Anti Stereophile Crusade continues in a place it won't make one iota of difference whatsoever. But hey, it's your breath to waste, who am I to tell you how to waste it?

 

[BogdanR]

Many of the people who peruse this site are what I call "searchers". They're looking for good advice to spend their hard-earned money on an audio system.

What those people need is an advocate. Basically, that is what ASR is .... an advocate to educate people about scammers, bad merchandise and snake oil. ASR provides push-back, giving searchers an alternative view of the audio industry. And yes, the push-back can be rather ...... vigorous.

That's because a mosquito has to really put forth a lot of effort in order to get an elephant to move.

Jim

The vitriol on display here is quite off putting sometimes. Most of your "searchers" are most likely moderate people so they would go searching for answers someplace else.

 

[BogdanR]

Yeah, certainly they have helped, but certainly they could do a better job as well. I wouldn't personally want to participate in selling crap to people which is what Stereophile and just about any Hifi magazine does

Funny thing... I have purchased equipment based both on Stereophile's and Audioscience Review. I had hits and misses with both but somehow I managed not to blow my top off neither when when I read about $10k "transparent" AC cables I will never, ever buy, nor when I actually buy inexpensive, fabulously measuring, absolutely recommended IEMs which I end up disliking.

It is life. Live and let live.

 

[Mart68]

The vitriol on display here is quite off putting sometimes. Most of your "searchers" are most likely moderate people so they would go searching for answers someplace else.

No vitriol from me it's just amusing to take the piss out of nonsense. The emperor has no clothes, we point and laugh.

Maybe that's just a British thing, I don't know. I have nothing personal against these people but when someone is saying you need to spend an extra thirty grand to get the textural suppleness, what are you supposed to do? Agree?

 

[Mart68]

Let's say you have a young professional, has some spare change, thinking about getting an audio system.

So he checks out this recommended component list and, according to that, to get the best he's looking at spending $150K

There's no contrarian viewpoint presented for him to consider, it's that or nothing. He doesn't want second or third best.

So he tosses the idea and spends what money he does have on something else. How is that a good thing for the industry? (Not that I care about the health of the hi-fi industry personally but a lot of people seem to even if they are not part of it).

I'm sure we have all known people who did not get into hi-fi because the perceived level of financial commitment was too high. A perception created by the nonsense in some magazines, and forums.

Just the other day I was reading advice from someone saying the minimum commitment for 'good digital' is ten grand. Just for the source, mind. All of the items listed that were required for 'good digital' were foo, and DACs at reasonable prices were dismissed out of hand as 'Not going to cut it'.

Forum is an echo chamber so no dissenting view was offered. That's not good.

 

[FrantzM]

What vitriol? A magazine comes up with a pile of bovine execrates, and we are supposed to roll over and be politically correct?
They have kept some kind of flame, that of 2-channel .. seriously ?????. They have kept the flame of ever increasing prices for no sonic gains, that for sure. And they should not be criticized? In passing the flame keepers made sure of keeping audiophiles away from the superlative gears the Japanese Hi-Fi companies were basically churning out during the 70s-80s... In most, no, all of their reviews of that time (as it is now), you would not see them trying to be objective over the superiority of the Japanese gears... A Linn Sondek, a really poor TT by the way, will always win over any of the Japanese direct drive, even over the superlative Technics SP-10 and its competitors from Kenwood, SOny , Pioneer, et al... Yep them them S'Phile and /or TAS and perhaps all their imitators...

They must be called out. They can do better.

Peace.

 

[Bogda89]

I live just couple miles from renessnce hotel where axpona is at. I visited back in 2019 if I remember and last year.

80% of the rooms sounded worse than my system that is very budget, Polk audio monitor 70 speakers that I paid 200$ used, entry level Yamaha receiver 170$ and JBL 10 inch subwoofer 80$ on sale (2015 prices)

Remaining 19% sounded marginally better than my system.

And only 2 speakers that I was blown away by the performance was one small brand don't remember the name, all acuton drivers, and revel saloon 2 was in my opinion the best by far.

Last year I was not impressed by any room
So many ridiculously expensive speakers that clearly are not designed properly and I still don't understand why hundreds of this companies exist

 

[fpitas]

John, I'm dismayed by your post. For the record, are you saying that Amir is on the take?

He's just bad at it, recommending reasonably priced gear. Soon enough though, he'll have us all buying $100k DACs and $10k cable risers.

 

[rdenney]

What would you have us do John, ignore the advertising supported lies that make up
a large majority of information in their publications?

I complained once to a preacher about his lack of pastoral skills. (I was in a position where my evaluation was an obligation.) He asked how I could trust his sermons if I thought he got such important stuff wrong. I said his sermons only had to reveal the truths that were already laid out in writing, and thus didn’t depend on his (merely human) personality for validation.

Meaning: the data speaks for itself. We present and defend the data. A principle of objective truth is that it does NOT require religious zeal to be persuasive to those interested in being persuaded.

When I see fanciful claims, my response is simply “show me the data.” Holt’s comment was that high-end audio has abandoned data rather than supplementing it, and turned itself into a cult for (mostly) the rich. We can only speculate on the motives, but the intent is to deride and exclude those who do not measure up to the rhetoric of the priesthood.

The plain truth of data is the only antidote, but antidotes are only needed by those seeking a cure.

When a magazine presents data, I’m interested. If the commentary is entertaining, that’s no negative in my view, as long as it can be validated by the data.

Rick “no need for tribal litmus tests” Denney

 

[BogdanR]

No vitriol from me it's just amusing to take the piss out of nonsense. The emperor has no clothes, we point and laugh.

Maybe that's just a British thing, I don't know. I have nothing personal against these people but when someone is saying you need to spend an extra thirty grand to get the textural suppleness, what are you supposed to do? Agree?

Laugh and move on? There are ways to point out the silliness of ”textural suppleness” without name calling, no? One can be civl with people, even with the ones who he disagrees deeply.

 

[Deleted member 21219]

Most of your "searchers" are most likely moderate people so they would go searching for answers someplace else.

I would call that an unwarranted assumption.

One can be civl with people, even with the ones who he disagrees deeply.

I have my ideas of civility. You have your ideas of civility. Other people, here and elsewhere, have their ideas of civility. The world is not a monoculture.

Jim

 

[Purité Audio]

There's far too much group tribalism and myopic black and white attitudes on ASR for my liking.

When people start attacking the publications and particularly the people who have arguably kept the industry alive when 2 channel high fidelity was not just on life support- it had been read its last rites, is astoundingly poor form.

If the industry was kept alive but one long lie then it deserved to die.
Comparing ASR to Stereophile is frankly ridiculous, there is no way that those ‘boutique’ product manufacturers are going to send them to Amir to have them exposed as mediocre.
Keith

 

[fpitas]

Comparing ASR to Stereophile is frankly ridiculous

Yeah. Our collective legs are being pulled. I hope.

 

[BogdanR]

I would call that an unwarranted assumption.



I have my ideas of civility. You have your ideas of civility. Other people, here and elsewhere, have their ideas of civility. The world is not a monoculture.

Jim

Civility is pretty universal. Period.