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Welcome to the New Review Index!

Blumlein 88

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I liked the old one fine. It was plenty useful. This one has some advantages and if it is much cleaner to maintain that is a big deal.

I don't know enough to tell you what to do, but as already mentioned, if you could scale or display it differently on phones that would be a big plus. The page has to know if you are accessing from a phone or PC of course and lots of sites do that.
 

RandomEar

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Very cool to see the work on this. Some feedback:
  • Many headlines are in the typical link color of this site (medium/dark brown) but are no links. I find that very confusing.
  • I clicked around a long time looking for the search feature. From my point of view, it's not obvious that the topmost categories open it. Maybe a bit fat "SEARCH" field with button and input directly below "Audio Review Dashboard" would be helpful?
  • I tried clicking the category titles (e.g. "Audio Electronics Reviewed 991") to open a refining search in that category, but nothing happened. I think that would be an intuitive (alternate) way to get to the search mask.
  • The "advanced search" button/symbol looks very unassuming to me. I think it should become more obvious what it does and it should be more prominent overall.
 

abdo123

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What is the consensus on this? I tend to like in place links.
Well it really depends, but most of the time when you click 'return' the point where you stopped reading the list is lost it can be quite frustrating so I open as a new tap most of the time personally.

This update was long overdue and is very much welcome!

Many thanks to everyone involved!
 

abdo123

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By the way the aspect ratio is a little off on a 1080p Screen on Firefox (maximized). Not sure if this is intended behavior.

1653046113695.png
 

RHO

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What is the consensus on this? I tend to like in place links.
I agree with @voodooless . With the previous version I clicked on several reviews that opened in independent tabs. That way I could compare reviews quite easily.
 

RHO

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I would be nice to be able to search in the filtered results.
When I search all electronic devices for "balanced" I get many results. But when I do an advanced search, there is no option to add "balanced" or any other parameter to the filter.
I used this filter:
1653046823583.png


I get the expected results.
1653047281924.png

But for this search:
1653046923839.png

I get no results.
1653047328434.png

First using the filter as shown in the first picture and then searching for "balanced", results in the same output as just searching for "balanced".
1653047046421.png
 

voodooless

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I would be nice to be able to search in the filtered results.
When I search all electronic devices for "balanced" I get many results. But when I do an advanced search, there is no option to add "balanced" or any other parameter to the filter.
I used this filter:
View attachment 207689

I get the expected results.
View attachment 207692
But for this search:
View attachment 207690
I get no results.
View attachment 207693
First using the filter as shown in the first picture and then searching for "balanced", results in the same output as just searching for "balanced".
View attachment 207691
You'd probably want special categories for inputs and outputs, with a list of what is available, like XLR, RCA or SPDIF, AES, USB
 

mdsimon2

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While I understand the upkeep concerns with the old review index I find the new one significantly less useful. The old review index was great for comparing parameters besides SINAD but the new one is extremely limited. For example the new review index is pretty much worthless if you want to search an amplifier based on power output or 5 W in to 4 ohm SNR.

Michael
 

RHO

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You'd probably want special categories for inputs and outputs, with a list of what is available, like XLR, RCA or SPDIF, AES, USB
Yes, that would be an option. But when you want to look for other parameters like "oled" "USB-C", ... it would be nice to have an option to just search in the results you got when applying your saved filter.
 
OP
amirm

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While I understand the upkeep concerns with the old review index I find the new one significantly less useful. The old review index was great for comparing parameters besides SINAD but the new one is extremely limited. For example the new review index is pretty much worthless if you want to search an amplifier based on power output or 5 W in to 4 ohm SNR.

Michael
Understood. Will be adding features like that. The challenge will be updating hundreds of reviews with such data. It is hard and boring work.
 

Endibol

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As hopefully you all know, a ton of work was put into building the interface and database of our Reviews. Alas, for myriad of reasons, work stopped last October and index has become quite stale. I decided to take on keeping it current but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to navigate that complex system. On top of that, we (I) were playing monthly fees for Microsoft PowerBI for the interface you see.

As it happens, a smart member and web developer, @Nonick, contacted me with a quick prototype he had built from scratch. As soon as I saw it, I realized we need to go that way due to its extreme efficiency and simplicity. The work then started on refining the feature list and importantly, importing, fixing and updating the database. The latter was done with kind help from members @Rick Sykora, @BostonJack, and @chuckt62, we have now an updated and current database.

You can navigate to the new index with the menu bar or clicking on this: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?pages/Reviews/

Once there, you see a new dashboard that shows the latest reviews and statistics about them.
View attachment 207650

You can then click on the titles of different sections to see electronics/tweaks, speakers and headphones/IEM reviews. You can click on headings to sort in either direction. Or use Search to narrow down what you are looking for.

I want to emphasize that the main intent of this "1.0" release is to get the base platform solidified and database updated. So please do a quick scan and if you find mistakes in the database, post them here and I can edit/fix them.

You are also welcome to suggest features you like to see. We plan to do a 1.5 update which would be modifications/smaller features to the current system. Past that will be a 2.0 release with more sophisticated features/graphing, etc.

Let me extend my deep appreciation for hard work, knowledge and speed with which @Nonick has put in this system. He would work at his day job and then night after night spend hours on development of this system. His work ethics and willingness to work with me without any compensation of sorts (refusing to accept from me), amazed me night after night.

I also want to thank the previous team which built the system we used until now. Special thanks go to @pozz, for bringing the original idea to me and spending so much time and effort maintaining the old database.

I hope you find the new system useful and performant.

The Quick Search on the main page doesn’t seem to work.. or do I misunderstand the purpose of this field?
 
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amirm

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Do you mean the standard forum Search on top right? If so, no, that has no function on the index. If you click on each of the three categories (Electronics, Speakers, Headphones) they each have their own search interface.
 

Endibol

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Do you mean the standard forum Search on top right? If so, no, that has no function on the index. If you click on each of the three categories (Electronics, Speakers, Headphones) they each have their own search interface.
Sorry, no I mean the Search Field in the top left corner in the Review index, Audio Electronics section.
 

Keened

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I think a bifurcated search system might be the way to go because you'll never please all of the people all of the time.

A streamlined simple category search with a couple columns to sort by
A complex full option search with all of the available options on a dedicated side panel (like newegg had back when they were useful)

95% of the index usage is going to be people looking to see what tops the charts and how their particular equipment was reviewed.
 
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amirm

amirm

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I think a bifurcated search system might be the way to go because you'll never please all of the people all of the time.

A streamlined simple category search with a couple columns to sort by
A complex full option search with all of the available options on a dedicated side panel (like newegg had back when they were useful)

95% of the index usage is going to be people looking to see what tops the charts and how their particular equipment was reviewed.
Well said. My goal here was NOT to summarize everything in a review. That is way too much data to procure and put in the database (hence the reason the previous approach fizzled). And at any rate, review needs to be read to understand the context of the numbers.

I do appreciate the need to use the index as a research tool as well. So as you suggest, that may be a different option.
 

Doodski

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@amirm and editors how about a tree on the left side with expanding results on the right just like windows explorer and ending in the review being shown on the right side.
 

Doodski

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Thanks for the suggestion. On Mobile though, horizontal real estate is precious so it won't work as well there.
Could it work on a cel tel if the tree was above the viewing window? and... if the viewing window was clickable for max effect? and make the aspect ratio switchable too.
 

Endibol

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Do you mean the standard forum Search on top right? If so, no, that has no function on the index. If you click on each of the three categories (Electronics, Speakers, Headphones) they each have their own search interf
Sorry, no I mean the Search Field in the top left corner in the Review index, Audio Electronics section.
Now it works! Great, thanks.
 
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