Magazines Eh?

I spend alot of time travelling around the country on business by train and often I buy various hifi mags to read.

I in the last few months have read all of the following, at least two issues.

HiFi +
HiFi news
Hifi World
Hifi choice
Stereophile and
What hifi (For the adverts my brother wanted a cheap surround set)

Several things have been apparent to me.

Magazines spout more crap than sense and make contradictory statements, even in the same issue of the same mag.

The people involved live in a la la land where a 2k amp is "budget" and a 300 pound needle is "entry level" I mean I'm not skint but bearing in mind the avarage schmo spends 500 quid on the lot where do they get these numbers for fucks sake.

They have dreadful musical taste on the whole, seeming to focus on "test" music or the flavour of the month.

Finally how can they hold up this years amp/tuner/cd/TT ec as "loads, miles, tons, heaps" etc beter than last years when really there might be a 2% difference which often is not necessarly better.

What is the sense of a review that focuses on very subjective measurements and impressions of a component that costs more than a house and will never be bought by more than 30 odd people who I imagine don't read magazines to compile their short list?

And finally and the most incredible thing is the number of ads vs editorial it takes the piss if you ask me.

The only mag that seems OK ish is Stereophile and that's only cos it takes more than 40 minutes to read but then again they really go on and on........

Who here buys mags and if so, why?

Jools


By the way and I'll say it again check out these boys

www.audes.ee

 

Well, funny you should mention this…I normally buy what hi-fi (sound and vision), but I can read that within about 20 minutes (so much of it's material is repeated every month, and I mean, evey month!)…and, there is too much about TV's in there…

But I was in WHSnith last week (see my other thread about wanting a new stero amp) and on the front it mentioned a nad c320cbee review, so, on that strength I bought it….I had a quick flick through on the bus and thought '****, it's got the feel of a cheap porno mag style of content etc!), it mentioned too much about 80's hi-fi…I wasn't impressed at all! However, taking a closer look whilst in the house I have to say that I was impressed, the style of writing was good, they seem an honest bunch.
Tho, I'm not totally sure if I will buy it again tho as I can most of the info I need from forums like this - and theres no better way of testing an amp that demoing...

 

You bought the NAD? Or you bought the mag? And which mag was it?

 

sorry! bough hi-fi news...must dash, time to go home!

 

I generally always buy HiFi News and HiFi Choice and of those HiFi News is by far my favourite. HiFi Choice has got a bit better recently though. HiFi World I like but it rarely has stuff that interests me and I'll only buy the odd edition. HiFi+ I've started to buy a lot more recently. It has a nice feel to it (I don't mean the paper - which is also nice ) and it's somewhat more intelligent than the others but in general it concentrates too much on vinyl and speakers for my tastes.

Stereophile is a bit wanky and I rarely used to buy it but now I get it electronically from www.zinio.com for just $15 for a year's subsription so it's much more worthwhile. They're the only ones that still do the full technical writeup (even though it would make little difference to my kit choices) and their reviews are pretty wordy. At least, as Joolsburger said, it takes a substantial time to read.

I never buy What HiFi any more. When I was looking for a new TV and for my budget AV receiver I did but it has so little to do with HiFi these days it's a bit sad really. They really should rename it to "What Sound & Vision (and a teensy bit of hifi aswell)"

I buy them all mostly because I find them interesting light reading on the many plane trips I make (I have the Stereophile electronic editions on my laptop). When I'm in London I also read them on the train/tube to work - they're much easier to read than a newspaper and I can read them over several journeys. My journey isn't long enough to able to read a newspaper to any worthwhile extent.

They're good for knowing what's happening in the hifi scene and the reviews give you some flavour of what you can expect allthough the most I would use them for is to help me compile a shortlist for auditioning.

Michael.

 

I subscibe to Hifi News and HiFi Choice. I agree with Michael that HiFi News is still the better magazine (and not just because they said nice things about my speakers this month ). The one thing both mags need to improve or leave out all together is their buyer's guides. These guides contain so little kit as to be totally worthless for building any kind of a shortlist. In this respect, What HiFi is actually more useful

My subscription to HiFi News runs out in January and I am wavering as to whether to bother to renew. I usually only renew when they send me some kind of special offer or inducement but they haven't done so yet. Hmmm.

 

i buy hi-fi plush just for the smell mmmmmm. also it's a decent read as these things go even though i'll never afford any of the kit in it. hi-fi world is kind of like autotrader in that you can play the fantasy hi-fi game with the decent classifieds section. hi-fi news also gets an occasional buy even though it's more like an upmarket what hi-fi in that 1/2 the magazine is adverts and lists of favorite kit. i've not bought whf(sav) for a year asthe cover always seems to have a plasma tv on it which is not something i'm looking for at the moment.
i find hfc to be very acessible but the reviews have no meat to them being at best 3/4 of a page in a large font when you remove the photo's. they too have a slim content to advert / top 100 ratio too although david vivians bit at the back can contains some gems.
stereophile isn;t available near me so i don;t get it but when i have it's always struck me as being badly laid out and difficult to read with bits of cardboard stapled into the magazine to make it flop open at particular adverts and advertorials in the middle of a review...
cheers

julian

 

I buy Loaded, FHM and Maxim. Pretty much all wank to me.

When it comes to the choice of looking at Kylie's arse or the latest unipivot from Graham, I just don't see there is a contest.

I also read the Sun and News of the World as I find there is far less bollox written in them than any of the hifi mags I've fallen asleep with.

 

I've managed to wean myself off the hifi porn mags these days, and I now use my ears. My system is a lot better for it too.

 

Never a truer word spoken

 

Err...shouldn't that be "Pretty much wank to all of them"




I'll get my coat.

Michael.

 

I think that using your ears and reading the mags are not mutually exclusive. I enjoy reading them but would never use them to base any decisions on.

Michael.

 

I used to get what hifi for but after getting more into the stereo sceen found that after following there ratings was a complete waste of time as they would give 4 starts or what ever the mnax raiting to almost everything unless they where really crap.

I tend to get hifi choice now but not all that often as most of the advice I want about kit comes fromt he lovely comunitys online like this one.

 

And the point of repeating Joolsburgers post was what exactly?

Michael.

 

At the risk of being controversial I think that there are reviews and there are reviews. There are still some reviewers out there who give honest reports. If they've got many years' experience and have lived with hundreds of different products, if they take their reviews seriously and audition the product in question for at least two to three weeks, then I believe that the review will have some value. Of course it will be one particular opinion but often a valued one.

As for me, I enjoy Hi-Fi+ most these days - nice smell, good paper, well presented. OK, many of the reviews are for products that are well out of the reach of most of us but, then again, when I read a car magazine I enjoy reading about Aston Martins, Ferraris, etc., cars that I may never even drive let alone buy.

A man likes to dream.

 

And they'll soon be carrying a review of a certain speaker?

 

Yes, hopefully in the issue that comes out in mid February.

 

read the bit in quotes, michael...my points...not too clear to the eye I am afraid...

 

Re: Re: Magazines Eh?

True, but they will listen to a product and decide not to review it if they don't like it. Also, if you are familiar with a reviewer, you can 'read between the lines' and work out how much he really liked a particular product.