Hifi+ mag

Dont suppose anyone collects these and still has issue 28?

 

I can save you some time, whichever product was under review Roy Gregory would have liked it.

 

harsh but fair....

just out of interest when was the last time anyone read a crap review.

 

Well, they are rare, but I have read them in hifi+. Roy Gregory responded to this once. IIRC, the gist of his argument was a) we don't tend to review rubbish, and b) apparently 'bad' products can be just 'products not being used in a synergistic system'.

As a sidenote, I used to be sceptical about the idea of synergy until my mates new phonostage blew my socks off in his system but sounded utterly unremarkable in mine. Score one for Mr Gregory.

Having said all that.....I have heard quite a few bits of kit hifi+ has raved about that left me thinking, "Huh? Is that it?".

 

hi-fi plush - smells lovely.

i don;t have a problem with only printing reviews of stuff they like. they do tend to be pretty accurate about where a products strengths and weaknesses are and don;t succumb to the 'product of the month' steamroller approach.
they also tend to spend longer listening to the stuff (at least according to the behind the scenes bits i've read) than some mags seem to.
i gave up buying hi-fi porn a while back but plush and world are the ones i tend to have a shufty at in wh smiths or borders.

 

They're apoplectic over on their forum currently cos apparently Mr G said NAC 5 and their hiline connector are crap!

 

of course they are crap, naim have had it their way for too long, customers buying into their upgrade approach and brand only cables, without question.

biggest commercial mistake they made was putting RCA's on their kite,now people can tell their cables aren't the worlds best.

 

oh, as regarding bad reviews, that lizard wizard amp had its head handed to it in HFN's last month.

 

AFAIK, they never claimed they were - just 'good enough'. Nobody forces you to buy it anyway - and the standard interconnects are free...

 

Yup - I have it. Tell me what your after and I'll scan it.

 

felix, if you'd been for a naim demo in olden deals the dealers played the naim cable game hard.

 

Makes no difference the cable comes with the kit, your argument is flawed.

Speaker cable was sold, but its cheap.

Again your argument is flawed.

If you were to simply state naim cables are crap, fair enough.

 

BTDT, but all the same... go for a dem with Brand A that produces a complete system and that's what you'll get the Big Sell on. It's just the same with Cyrus, Rega, DNM, Linn..and many others; it's simply business.

F.
(cable sceptic)

 

When reading a review I try to look for 'padding'. If the reviewer would rather not say something bad and can't say something good then you will read a review that goes into detail about cosmetics, connections, company history, how they nearly dropped it, what they had for dinner etc etc. A bit like this post really.

 

Gave up on Plus quite a while ago. RG can't write clear, concise English. His longwindedness and appalling sentence construction drive me up the wall.

..and if I see one more use of the word "proceedings" used as per the likes of "xyz cable brought more dynamic coherence to proceedings"

Aagh!

 

Just out of interest, would the members of this forum like to give an opinion on the UK mags. Perhaps scores out of 10 for What, News, Choice, World, Plus, Critic.

No agenda, just looking for your open views on your fav mags

 

Good idea, I used to read 'Hi-Fi News and Record Review' which was a very good read. Now they are all pretty boring, except for Hi-Fi World which has some interesting articles. TOO MANY ADVERTS IN ALL THE MAGS.

 

HFnews used to be my favourite, but recently they've sold out to product placement disguised as features, reviews seldom stretch past two sides and Ken Kessler pretty much writes like an arse licker for hire.

HFworld keeps on treading the same path, with their curious favourite,good features and broad review selection, but an uninspiring graphic layout.

HF+ still my favourite, can have some great reviews, some of the features make for goods reading, reviewers rooms and systems was nice. Reviews tend to be of a good lenght and i get the feel they live with the kit more than other magazines. Graphically first rate, by far the best layout and photography. though thye can pitch product as reviews, 8 page b&W 802D review as an example.

TAS, great spread of gear, most of it unavailable, they cover the left field better than anyone else, $125k handbuilt horn systems etc. lots of analogue.

the rest i just skim through in Borders.

 

the magazine adverts pay for the editorial, the publishing - keeping the whole magazine going. Lots of adverts are a sign of a magazines success, too few adverts are a sign of a magazine on the rocks. Wishing for fewer adverts is tantamount to asking the company to take a nose-dive on profits/long term sustainability.

 

HFnews used to be my favourite, but recently they've sold out to product placement disguised as features, reviews seldom stretch past two sides and Ken Kessler pretty much writes like an arse licker for hire.
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Ken now writes for HFC, having left HFN a few months ago.(someone on this forum will know why). I think all the reviewers in the mags have their own preferences, just like us, and I think it's difficult not to have "coloured" opinions because of this. A truly "open mind" is very rare. Occasionally, and we've all seen this, a product comes along that all reviewers agree is either innovative/state of the art/excellent VFM, or a combination of all of these attributes.
In selecting my current system, which has been "upgradeless" for two and a half years, I drew quite heavily on the advice from HFC/HFW/ and HFN(in addition to listening tests). I personally wouldn't put them in any particular order, each has it's own merits and place in the "grand scheme of things", and there may well come a time when the printed word is redundant anyway, and all news/reviews/features/ads etc are viewed on a screen. This would be a sad day IMHO, although it would probably increase the value of my HF mag collectiion!