Hificritic.com

quote:

Originally posted by Lighthouse:
The other interesting thing is that it is going to be advertising free so that there can be no possible bias!

Just like this place

I've just been looking at that. It looks very interesting and the idea of reviewers not being 'soft' on advertisers (as there aren't any) really appeals.

50.00 for six copies seems expensive, though.


Mark

Well there you go, they can use their own preferences and prejudice to sell you kit and charge you for the pleasure.

Haha.

I wonder where this leaves HI-fi + ?

Fair point Gary, it's bloody expensive then!

hasn't Ken Kessler left Hi Fi News as well?

Phil

Apparently so, Phil. Retired...........is the official line.

Mark

Well, well, first Ken and now Paul! Interesting developments.

They will just be subject to a different set of biases (personal vs advertising). Look at what happens when you start believeing your own b_ll sh_t:

http://high-endaudio.com/

I don't think you can seriously compare Messenger and Colloms with Salvatore.

Not yet

quote:

Originally posted by Polarbear:
I wonder where this leaves HI-fi + ?

the last couple issues have been very thin down to 128 pages or so

We have a bigger problem in Finland.

Our only magazine , Hi-Fi, will be stopped. That will be joined to a computer magazine Mikrobitti. Decision makers claim that computers and Hi-Fi are today so close to each other that no separate magazine is needed.

Bullshit!

I don´t want to read 10-15 year old boy´s nerd stories.

Please let me know the best available magazines in english ( swedish). I can then place an order.

Apparently the first issue has an article on the LS3/5a !!! - does this mean they've bagged Kessler as well?

Their view is of the busy little mp3-collectors and of the convergence - one integrated product.

I like LP-Magazin - "für analoges HiFi & Vinyl-Kultur" - but it is in german.

English and american magazines like Hifi+ or Stereophile are obsessed with classifying and judging and listing products.

quote:

Originally posted by Archie52:
We have a bigger problem in Finland.

Our only magazine , Hi-Fi, will be stopped. That will be joined to a computer magazine Mikrobitti. Decision makers claim that computers and Hi-Fi are today so close to each other that no separate magazine is needed.

Bullshit!

I don´t want to read 10-15 year old boy´s nerd stories.

Please let me know the best available magazines in english ( swedish). I can then place an order.

Hi All

This seems to be an attempt to produce a fair and reasonable magazine that will get the facts out to people without the suspicion of there being a catch to the reviews ie advertising revenue, distributor bias and such like. Something I feel a lot of posters on this and other forums have been calling out for for a while. If they can guarantee that with the subscription you'll will get all six editions or a refund I might go for it.

I must say I like reading magazines for the different ways companies go at making HiFi, the technical differences are the most interesting, but the one thing that bovvers me is when they get to the suibjective listening that things fall apart. Everybody hears things differently and has different priorities to what is important so there cannot really be a difinitive conclusion to that part. you really should only expalin really what the kit does well and not so well, but this can be a bit dry and boring so I imagine this is why over the years the mags have started to smother praise over everything and making out like they do in general advertising that the this new product is sooo much better than the last peice of kit you just have to upgrade.

Though I feel we do need magazines (online or paper) to sort the wheat from the chaff, because if people just took the implied wisdom from forums like this one with the more insidious bias and bigotry that it displays from time to time we would lose more new blood into our hobby than all the bias shown by the magazines put together.

I wish them good luck with this project.


Dean

Just been looking at the site.I will definatly subscribe.What does everyone think about the state of hi fi news.With Ken Kessler leaving and now Martin Colloms ?? This months i thought was a disgrace no equipment reviews.Only system awards and there boring system doctor feature i thought it was very lazy.Hi plus is excellant and the photography is good.

Hi-fi news has been going down the pan for years now, when was the last time you read someting interesting in it.

By the way yours truely appears in this months hi-fi news, can you find him

Hi all

I have to agree that the current issue of HiFi news is pathetic I read it in one siting, but thats the point of an awards issue cheap copy. I took up their half price subscription from the 50th anniversary edition mainly because you could pay quarterly and that they had got rid of the Av content. They also seemed to be changing their ways so I thought I'd give a go for a few months but I'm feeling that the magazine has no depth to it, there's nothing to get your teeth into unlike HiFi+ with its feature on single driver speakers and the full Linn active setup fronted by an Lp12 of all things, review (a little LP12 marketing before the new mods come out for it I suppose). HiFi choice is worse with the new kit new kit new kit approach as if there is nothing else to this hobby than buying guess what? New Kit.

I've sent an email to HiFiCritic asking what security they'll give me that I will recieve all
6 Issues or get a refund after shelling out 50 quid for the subscription. I'll post what they say if anybodies interested.

Dean

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:

I've sent an email to HiFiCritic asking what security they'll give me that I will recieve all
6 Issues or get a refund after shelling out 50 quid for the subscription. I'll post what they say if anybodies interested.

Dean

Yes, I'm defintely interested, please do let us know. The price for a foreign subscription is even more daunting. On the other hand, I do agree with the view that people who spend thousands on expensive kit are surprisingly cheap in this area. The occasional well-positioned review can save one a lot of money, in my experience. Some of us live many, many miles away from the possibility of a home demo.

Arthur

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
I've sent an email to HiFiCritic asking what security they'll give me that I will recieve all
6 Issues or get a refund after shelling out 50 quid for the subscription. I'll post what they say if anybodies interested.

Dean

Good call Dean. I'm definitely interested in an advert free magazine (I won't say unbiased as everyone carries their own bias with them), but it does seem that they want their subscribers to fund the set up costs. I would prefer that they took the money quarterly as, if they go belly up, at least you don't lose as much money.

Mark

There are three "major" hifi mags in Germany (STEREO, Stereoplay and Audio) which all play the advertisers / reviews game, two "high end" mags ("hifi % records", quarterly and "Image Hifi", bi-monthly), two DIY mags and one "independent" mag ("hoererlebnis"), plus some hybrid or niche mags not dealing 100 percent with hifi/high end. I buy most of them (for train rides, rainy Sundays, etc.), but only really value "image hifi" because it ignores the usual "ranking" circus, and has the right amount of "words", well distributed between tech data, musical performance and subjective comments. Price wise, they are in the same league as "HifiCritic" and worth every EuroCent. "Hoererlebnis" is very comparable to "HifiCritic" (almost no advertisement), but at least for my taste a bit too off mainstream and esoteric. All articles in there are purely subjective (good !), but a bit too much on the "we hifi community" side. Dunno...

Welcome, HifiCritic, if it's along these lines !

cheers
Stefan

I would welcome a magazine that helps people make good decisions (relative to their own wants/needs) and explains with some common sense how to get on with the business of buying a hifi.

Whilst opinions are like you-know-whats (i.e. everybody got one), some opinions are worth more than others and we need to recognise and accept this. I think Colloms is the best reviewer I have read - he's pretty honest (if you learn to read between the lines of what he writes) and at least tries to give objective views, whereas most reviewers use mystical fluffery to fill a page (Kessler and his 'this is the best I've ever heard' penchant).

The biggest hurdle to effective audio journalism is the prediliction towards 'subjectivity' behind which many an ignoramus has hid, and will continue to hide.

The magazine needs to give impressions of gear (read systems) rather than opinons - in order to give a reasonably reliable path for the beginner to follow. "I thought the Merdian system did this and that' is much more useful than 'I thought it sucked'.

Keeping away from advertising can't hurt if this end is what they want to achieve.

HiFi News & HiFi Choice are battering me right now with reminders that it is time to renew my EU postal subscriptions. I had pretty much decided not to bother and was interested to see if they offerred me a discount to keep me.

This looks like a good alternative to spend my money on instead. I think that's it for the other rags.

regards
Geoff

An interesting idea and a clear statement from the inside about the current state of hifi journalism in the UK. I need more convincing however that they have a real product of interest before I would part with £50 and the website at present doesn't inspire confidence.
John