Hi -Fi World

[andrew ivimey]

For the first time in over a year I've read this month's model.

I get a dreadful feeling I've been missing something that is really rather good.

Sure there are the reviews that don't tell me much; all too subjective and yukky, but the whold mag looks and feels better. Peter's article on loudspeakers is just what the mag should be about, IMHO. & as there was an article about the power supply for the forthcoming pre3, I guess I've missed an awful lot about the KT88 amp and the new pre3, too.

Hm ...

Anyway, it's an excellent mag when compared to the dreadful completely commerical competition.

And there is a rumour even, that Ken K. is back with Hi-Fi News???

[Greg.]

Hi andrew et al.

Yes I've realised for some time that regular contributors on this forum don't actually buy and read HFW. Peter's 'Designing Speakers' articles started in the November addition and the latest episode is in the March addition so that's five articles many may have missed. Furthermore, prior to these, Peter wrote and published three months of articles on upgrading existing commercial speakers. Many of you have completely missed all of this stuff, and to be honest, some posts clearly evidence that ignorance. I think HFW is starting to get back to some serious DIY and some stuff on how the applications and science work and for me that is a mega positive. It is afterall what HFW stated they wanted to acheive over a year ago. The final acheivement will be when all this good stuff goes into a suppliment as it once did before. I'm looking forward to that.

Best wishes,

Greg

[BOONDI]

Yes Greg, all...

I am getting fed up with ripping out the pages I want to keep, and would like to see the supplement return.....

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by andrew ivimey

For the first time in over a year I've read this month's model.

I get a dreadful feeling I've been missing something that is really rather good.

Sure there are the reviews that don't tell me much; all too subjective and yukky, but the whold mag looks and feels better. Peter's article on loudspeakers is just what the mag should be about, IMHO. & as there was an article about the power supply for the forthcoming pre3, I guess I've missed an awful lot about the KT88 amp and the new pre3, too.

Hm ...

Anyway, it's an excellent mag when compared to the dreadful completely commerical competition.

And there is a rumour even, that Ken K. is back with Hi-Fi News???

I don't think Ken Kessler is back with HFN.
They have recently been publishing old articles (which haven't been to print before) from him.

If the mag's weren't full of subjective reviews they would have a miniscule readership.
It would be nice to see a return to a proper balance of both objective and subjective in all the mag's and a decent attempt within the reviews to correlate the two.

Peter Com's articles are highly welcome, very worthy, well written and interesting, but not to the other 90% of readers who just bought it (along with the Grot Hifi or Hifi Choice) to find this months thing to think about buying.

[Darren D]

Originally Posted by Greg.

Hi andrew et al.

Yes I've realised for some time that regular contributors on this forum don't actually buy and read HFW. Peter's 'Designing Speakers' articles started in the November addition and the latest episode is in the March addition so that's five articles many may have missed. Furthermore, prior to these, Peter wrote and published three months of articles on upgrading existing commercial speakers. Many of you have completely missed all of this stuff, and to be honest, some posts clearly evidence that ignorance. I think HFW is starting to get back to some serious DIY and some stuff on how the applications and science work and for me that is a mega positive. It is afterall what HFW stated they wanted to acheive over a year ago. The final acheivement will be when all this good stuff goes into a suppliment as it once did before. I'm looking forward to that.

Best wishes,

Greg

If the mag could find another one or two "Peters" or even a handful of not so regular writers with the same degree of excellence towards design and DIY, then it would be a winner all round. A difficult task I'm sure.
One thing for sure is any mag made up of advertisements and brief reviews soon bores people.

[petercom]

Originally Posted by Greg.

Hi andrew et al.

Yes I've realised for some time that regular contributors on this forum don't actually buy and read HFW. Peter's 'Designing Speakers' articles started in the November addition and the latest episode is in the March addition so that's five articles many may have missed. Furthermore, prior to these, Peter wrote and published three months of articles on upgrading existing commercial speakers. Many of you have completely missed all of this stuff, and to be honest, some posts clearly evidence that ignorance. I think HFW is starting to get back to some serious DIY and some stuff on how the applications and science work and for me that is a mega positive. It is afterall what HFW stated they wanted to acheive over a year ago. The final acheivement will be when all this good stuff goes into a suppliment as it once did before. I'm looking forward to that.

Best wishes,

Greg

Thanks for that, Greg.

Because of publishing agreements I am unable to provide these articles for the general public to read on the 'net.

However would members be interested in a membership site where they could read these articles? There would be a small monthly charge (much less than the HFW cost of course) and you would get access to all the current articles and past articles in the DIY section and supplements.

Please don't reply to this but see Poll here
http://www.world-designs.co.uk/forum...3675#post33675

[S-Man]

HFW is the only mag I actually buy on a regular basis. HFN is comedy. HF+ is glossy nonsense. HF Choice inspires little confidence in the hearing abilities of the reviewers - although I'm not sure why this should be.

However HFW is still rather patchy, FWIW here are my views:
Petercom's articles are excellent!
The "opinion" pages are mostly a waste of space except for the odd time when the writer gives his real opinion (which for some reason they don't often do in the reviews).
I admire DP's enthusiasm and think I can just about read between the lines as to whether he really thinks an item is good. Having heard NS1000s and Quad 989s at length I also feel I know where he's coming from.
AS is a very welcome addition, great knowledge and sensible viewpoints.
CV - his reviews might be good if I understood what he's on about.
NK - I'm coming to the conclusion I like a different sort of sound to Noel.
HB - Rather good.
SW - Gone and not missed

[Hardy]

To be honest, none of the mags are what they used to be when I first got into audio....

I think this is why:

1. Companies started threatening reviewers they would not get them to review their kit if they said anything bad about it.
2. They stopped reviewing stuff against other products because of this.
3. Companies gave the mags and the reviewers nice back handers to only say good things about the products...including freebies.
4. Mags like HiFi Review were so "one company" biased (Linn!) they were getting boring and no one took them seriously any more and went out of print.

Yes it's a case of dumming down on the reports.....Take a look at the old mags from the 70's and you will see if they did not like something or thought it was weak against another product they would have the guts to say so!

I think the reviewers of yore used to listen to live (acoustic) music more - maybe modern reviewers have got used to electronic sound and amplified concerts etc and think this is what hifi is supposed to sound like.

I've been told by several people including musicians that my system is "accurate" and that is because I've developed it to sound as close to real instruments and voices as I can with genuine transparency. I can't believe the sound of some equipment I hear at shows and dealers and people's houses....it sounds very electronic and processed and I can't believe anyone can listen to it. My friends and I have got up and walked out of show rooms because we could not believe how bad the sound was....and these are components given good reviews in the mags etc....

They also used to do much better technical reviews not just a comment in the corner of a page but a couple of pages.....

Mind you the mags in those days were crammed with ads for hi fi shops and there seemed to be a lot more around then...so presumably the hifi companies were paying less or maybe nothing to the mags for the reviews.....

Yes I miss the DIY supplement in the old World...it was excellent and I learned a lot about valve amps etc.....You can keep the suplements as a small pile in yer office and refer to 'em every now and then....

The speaker article mentioned above seems like a good idea. I've not had the chance to read it in full yet, but what I skim read seemed quite informative.

Just my two penneth...

Rich.

[petercom]

As someone who has been in this business for thirty odd years and a fan of hi-fi equipment and music reproduction for a lot longer, I think this all needs putting into perspective.

I wrote for Hi-Fi mags in the '70s and, at that time, subjective reviewing was in its infancy. Before then the mags had reviews based on description and measurement with, usually, just one para on how it 'sounded'. Even that was usually qualified by reference to the measurements.

As we now know these measurements tell the reviewer only a little about the sound quality of the product. As a result most readers read the opening and summary paragraphs unless they were themselves engineers or technicians. The reviews acted as an arbiter of 'goodness' in a small market place dominated by a few brands.

Subjective reviewing opened up the market considerably as, now, virtually unknown brands could rise to prominence thanks solely to delivering good sound quality. Thus the Linn LP12, which was otherwise seen by the 'measurement' reviewers as just another unreasonably expensive turntable, became a market leader thanks to the 'subjective' reviewers promotion.

Today's mags are bombarded with new products daily. Instead of mags featuring four, in-depth, product reviews as they did in the '60s, journals like What Hi-Fi review hundreds of products per month.

Naturally something has to give. Reviewers are not able to spend the time living with a product before the review has to be written. In addition there is now such a wide range of mediocre products in the field that the overall level of sound quality has evened out. In other words there are only a few 'bad' products and a few really good ones.

As a result the 'star' system is in turmoil. A product has to be really bad to get '3 stars' and lift itself just above mediocre to get '5 stars'.

I have to say that I think HFW tries to elevate itself above all this. The number of reviews is limited and reviewers generally get some time to live with the product (though it is still not as long as in the 'good old days' of the '70s). Five 'Globes' are only given to products which exhibit something that lifts them well above the ordinary. You may not always agree with the reviewer's opinion, but it is just an opinion!

As for backhanders, advertising influence on editorial and so forth I have not, in all my time writing and working with magazines, found that a UK magazine in the mainstream hi-fi field has any of that level of 'corruption'. In fact the major hi-fi magazines all manage to keep scrupulously independant of any attempts to coerce reviewers or editors.

BTW for those who have 'missed' the speaker articles you can get these by signing up to the Speaker-Parts Design Articles, or by downloading LspCAD Lite, at www.speaker-parts.eu. (Speaker-Parts is a subsidiary of Arena Electronics Ltd)

[Hardy]

Thanks for your perspective Peter...

Yes World does seem to be better at keeping the number of reviews down and giving more air time to products. On the whole the reviews seem fair and allow one to think..."shall I go out and audition that?"....

It's nice to see the mix of the technical articles and the subjective reviews.

At the end of the day it's down to the individual to go along and listen to the kit and mags should help one shortlist what's on offer.

Will we be getting the proper pull-out suppliment any more....? I used to like those....

I guess it's difficult to be all things to all people so mags will struggle to please everyone........Congrats on doing what you do.....

Rich.