Audio and/or Music Magazines, Which One, If Any

MikeT.

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Are there ANY magazines better than Stereophile? I was checking out The Absolute Sound but their mag covers look just about identical to Stereophile? I like some of Stereophile’s music reviews but wish there was more of them. I suppose I could take the plunge for The Absolute Sound for a year but wanted to get a view of what TAS looks like recently.
 
I still read both, TAS is not so expensive that I would consider the cost of my subscription taking a plunge. $20/year for the magazine or $10 for the digital copy,

Probably use both more for music reviews and suggestions than anything else these days.





 
I’m leaning towards TAS for the no measurement view of gear. It drives me crazy when Stereophile reviewers gush over a piece of equipment that has thoroughly $hit measurements. I know gear can sound great and measure abysmally but as a child of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s spec wars I still find the disconnect somewhat jarring.
 
I’m leaning towards TAS for the no measurement view of gear. It drives me crazy when Stereophile reviewers gush over a piece of equipment that has thoroughly $hit measurements. I know gear can sound great and measure abysmally but as a child of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s spec wars I still find the disconnect somewhat jarring.
I’m so disconnected from this viewpoint that I have difficulty understanding the reasoning. To me, Stereophile would be drastically less valuable without the measurements. There’s so many times I’ve seen the hard data and realized the reviewer was straight up blowing smoke.

I’m not an ASR acolyte, and I believe that listening and personal preference play a central role in evaluating gear. I just think that without some substantive measurements, subjective reviews are often castles built on sand. If I’d have read the Stereophile review but not the measurements, I’d have purchased the original PS Audio Sprout.
 
Long after having canceled both Stereophile, and TAS, I still bought issues of the U.K. publications on the newsstand, largely due to their music reviews, but also because they reviewed some interesting brands that are not imported in N. America or have very limited distribution here, and so were completely or relatively unknown to me, which I found interesting.

Those publications included HiFi News & Record Review, Hi-Fi Choice, Hi-Fi+, and Hi-Fi World, initially purchased in the late 1990s at Borders Bookstore, and after the sad 2011 demise of that retail chain I found these publications at Barnes & Noble, or Hudson News.

In a sign of the times, Hi-Fi World has just announced they are ceasing publication after 32 years, due to the insolvency of the parent publisher. I am saddened but not surprised, another bit of the good ol' days now gone.
 
I’m leaning towards TAS for the no measurement view of gear. It drives me crazy when Stereophile reviewers gush over a piece of equipment that has thoroughly $hit measurements. I know gear can sound great and measure abysmally but as a child of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s spec wars I still find the disconnect somewhat jarring.
I admit to leaning somewhat in the opposite direction.

I guess the TAS would eliminate the cognitive dissonance of 'great sound/lousy measurements,' but that would simply turn it into Stereophile if I ignored the measurement section!

TAS reviews seem a little more frenetic to me, Stereophile's longer reviews seem to suit me better. I think I walk away from Stereophile reviews feeling like I have been given more insight into a piece of gear than the feeling I get from TAS...but this is only my idiosyncrasy talking, and is by no means a claim on anyone else's behalf! (Not intended to be argumentative!)

I'm glad both exist. There is room for both...and more!

I read Hi Fi Choice and Hi Fi News and find them a little abridged, for my tastes.

I also love Resistor a great publication, I 'subscribe' through their Pay Pal link....Rafe is just great. Fabulous writer, good ear, well considered opinions....I wish him much success.
 
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