Wanted: British Audio Magazine Recommendations

mbl, without a doubt, the best british mag is HI FI PLUS. Lots of naim stuff reviewed including NBLs, recent one on NAP 300 and NAP 250, NAP 500, 5 series, and many others. I live in NY and have a subscription, get the mag every 2 months. Very beautiful layout and quality paper. Much more substantial physically than HI FI Choice or HFNRR. regards, david.

Hi Fi + is perhaps the best British hi fi magazine now. It certainly is the best looking! It's printed on heavy paper that makes Hi Fi + feel more like a book than a mere magazine. Hi Fi +'s reviews are a nice balance of flat and round earth sensibilities I think. They frequently review equipment that's little - known in the US or unavailable here. The downside to the magazine is that it's a little hard to find in the US, although that may not be a problem if you're in NYC with its glorious newsstands (try the big one in the Pan Am building or whatever it's called now). Some sample articles can be read at the magazine's web site; subscription information can be found there as well.

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a number of British hi-fi brands that get little to no press in the US (e.g., Neat, Castle, Nottingham)

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<insert sad sigh here> Well, they used to get coverage in the USA in the pages of the late, lamented Listener. We reviewed at least three Neat models and two Notts Analogue decks over the years, for example. You might look for back issues on Audiogon.

Thanks for the recommendations. I managed to track down a copy of Hi Fi + this weekend and was very impressed. The edition I found had not one but two reviews of Naim equipment (NAP 250 & 300). In contrast, Stereophile and The Absolute Sound have had very little recent coverage of Naim, although the CD5 and Nait 5 have received favorable reviews. (For instance, I don't think I've seen anything on any of the current amps 200 or above or current preamps 202 or above). I also enjoyed the review where Hi Fi + absolutely trashed a tonearm. I'm not familiar with the tonearm and at the end of the review, it was noted that the manufacturer was concerned about some defect and was sending another sample. However, just printing a harshly negative review was impressive to me - something that doesn't happen too often with the two big US audio mags.

MBM

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Originally posted by Naimed-In-NY:
Thanks for the recommendations. I managed to track down a copy of Hi Fi + this weekend and was very impressed. The edition I found had not one but two reviews of Naim equipment (NAP 250 & 300). In contrast, Stereophile and The Absolute Sound have had very little recent coverage of Naim, although the CD5 and Nait 5 have received favorable reviews. (For instance, I don't think I've seen anything on any of the current amps 200 or above or current preamps 202 or above). I also enjoyed the review where Hi Fi + absolutely trashed a tonearm. I'm not familiar with the tonearm and at the end of the review, it was noted that the manufacturer was concerned about some defect and was sending another sample. However, just printing a harshly negative review was impressive to me - something that doesn't happen too often with the two big US audio mags.

MBM

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Strangely enough it didn't happen at all in HI FI+ until very recently. Roy Goerges reasoning being that you would rather read about good equipment than bad. But just recently there have been one or two negative reviews creeping in.

Yours in Music

Syd

I too go with HiFi + Magazine.

It is the most interesting of the current mags to read.

It does express opinions, which is good.

None of the HiFi World this is nice, this is nice too, this is as nice as the other nice product.

HiFi News is the same but with a few big words thrown in to frighten the children. Some of the writers are very well read and informed eg Mr Crabbe Mr Miller Mr Colloms. KK can be funny, but rarely. The new guy J Gorse a contributor to this forum is slowly contributing to the mag.

HiFi Choice (adverts). Is poor but occasionally is worth reading.

What crap fi is just that advertising passed off as a review.

The above are my opinions based on 30 years of reading the hifi press. I do not use the reviews as a justification for buying a product. It may however generate an audition.

So go for HiFi +.

regards David

MBM wrote:

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However, just printing a harshly negative review was impressive to me - something that doesn't happen too often with the two big US audio mags.

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Exactly when was it that you saw a negative review? I don't ever remember seeing one. We are talking TAS and Stereophile here right? They don't know about such things as negative reviews.

As far as magazines from the UK are concerned Hi-Fi+ is really the only one worth spending money on. They do lather on a bit about Naim kit it seems. I guess theres a reason. Paul Messenger, Chris Binns and Chris Thomas seem the worst offenders.

Thankfully they have Roy "Round Earth" Gregory to stymie some of their enthusiasm. He always seems pained in his write up of Naim kit. He begrudginly seems to indicate that some of their stuff may be ok.

Arthur Bye

Arthur - I don't want to say never, but it has been a real long time since TAS and Stereophile published a negative review. Sometimes you can read between the lines, but usually that type of review is followed up by an update after the manufacturer tweaks something and then, all of a sudden, the product shines! I can appreciate reviewers wanting to review kit they think they will like and/or are excited about, but it gets real boring - and does not inspire confidence in rave reviews - if the magazine likes everything it hears. The issue of Hi Fi+ I managed to get my hands on really, truly and bluntly ripped into a particular tonearm in a way that I don't recall ever seeing from TAS and Stereophile. It made me sit up and I wound up reading the review twice from start to finish. I was impressed with the rest of the magazine as well and plan to subscribe. MBM

Stereophile has run two negative reviews in the last 3-4 years--the Richard Gray Power Conditioning stuff, and some German Horns that Mikey Fremer didn't like. That included 18 straight issues without a negative review. For our purposes a negative review means the component did not make the Recommended Components list.

Back in 1989, they only recommended 70% of the components they reviewed. Has hi-fi gotten that much better? Are review samples that much more consistent?

It's telling that not infrequently, a component gets a nice write-up, but when Atkinson gets it for measurement, something was wrong with it.

By the way, they never published my letter on the lack of negative reviews. Maybe I'll write it again.

--Eric

In my view, Hi Fi+ is the best mag on the market. However, their original aim was never to print a truly bad review. After all, as mentioned earlier, there's more interest in stuff people like than dislike. The Graham Robin tonearm was the exception and the way the review was written certainly indicated their surprise at the results. I seem to remember a comment in one of the editorials that HiFi+ review a lot more equipment that never makes it to their pages, but that it's not nice to slag off someone's pride and joy publicly. I tend to agree with that. In the end people are meant to take a view off a review and then decide if they should include it in their 'listening' list in anticipation of buying kit.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Frank, I respectfully disagree with that approach. I think magazines should not publish negative reviews lightly, and should not "slag off" a manufacturer's efforts for the sake of sensationalism or other reasons. However, if they review a component that they truly don't like, they should advise their readers (just like they advise readers when they like or love components). Serious audio magazines - while no substitute for independent evaluation by the ultimate purchaser - should provide honest guidance (both pro and con) for readers. How seriously can we rely on favorable reviews if that is all the magazine ever publishes? Again, I'm not saying a negative review should be insulting to the manufacturer or unnecessarily harsh, but if a reviewer believes the component in question is not that good, represents poor value for the money, is better significantly by the competition and/or was plagued by repeated defects, they should so advise their readership IMHO.

<Sigh!!!> Listener is gone and before they could test the higher end Naim gear.</Sigh!!!>

I agree with Naimed-in-NY about equipment reviewing.

Interestingly the HiFi mags generally don't appear to exhibit the same sensitivity when it comes to reviewing the music media.
The Vinyl and CD reviews are often quite harsh, which is OK if it's valid and I am sure it often is.

However there is a clear impression purveyed generally that:
HiFI equipment is hardly ever bad whereas
CD & Vinyl content is crap as much as 50% of the time.

If Frank's comment about the purpose of reviews also apply to CD & Vinyl then it should be pretty much 90% "good"

Not the true position in my opinion.

regards GEOFFP