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August Hifi News

Beobloke said:
Absolute rubbish (well, certainly from the perspective of the magazine I write for - I can't speak for others). In fact I have been very frustrated in the past by something from a small company arriving in my listening room, turning in a great performance and me saying so, and then no-one buying any! Very often it's the customers who like the reassurance of a well-known manufacturer's logo on the front panel of the products they buy, no matter how much we try and persuade them to consider widening their horizons a bit.

Equally however,(and please be sure that I am NOT referring to you here) we receive many 'bloke in a shed' type products that are truly dreadful, with the designers being, at best, enthusiastically misguided and, at worst, plain deluded.

Finally, and I realise that you and many others will probably not believe it but here goes anyway - advertising generally follows a good review. It does not precede it.
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Can't say I was aware that you were a hifi journalist... Had wondered about such an allusion in one of your previous posts! Who do you write for?

Brand snobbery is certainly a major problem for any new, small manufacturer in a wide range of industries making aspirational products. It is also probably the most sought after factor for any manufacturer to acquire!
The old pulling the girl/impressing your mates by dangling the Ferrari key fob bit ain't gonna work if you have bought an equally fast and fine handling car from a new start up (and unheard of) manufacturer.
Unfortunately for small companies, the sort of kudos attached to firms such as Ferrari, Porsch, Rolex and yes Linn, Naim and Bang & Olufsen comes only after many years of advertising campaigns, reviews and market presence....
One can imagine a certain type of Hi-Fi enthusiast telling another (with a certain smug, self satisfied look on his face), that he has just bought a Krell... or an Audio Research or an Audio Note... But it probably wouldn't work (yet!...) with an Arkless! :)

Maybe I'll have to send you one of my products for review if you are truly so brand neutral and encouraging of new products.... That's if I ever make enough from repairs etc to turn one of the many prototypes into a saleable product.... In the present economic climate that could be some time :(
 
Arkless Repairs said:
Can't say I was aware that you were a hifi journalist... Had wondered about such an allusion in one of your previous posts! Who do you write for?
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Hi-Fi World.

And if you want to send a product in, just let me know which Michelin-starred restaurant you'll be buying me dinner at to discuss it and we'll take it from there... ;)
 
Beobloke said:
Hi-Fi World.

And if you want to send a product in, just let me know which Michelin-starred restaurant you'll be buying me dinner at to discuss it and we'll take it from there... ;)
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I would take that as 100% only joking if I hadn't previous experience of such things! :D

So behind your pseudonym you would be?

I contacted HFW some years ago with a view to my writing a/some technical articles and/or technical based nostalgia type articles... obviously with a by line and my business contact details at the end of the article, in just the same way as Haden Boardman and Graeme Tricker (amongst others) had previously done. I'm sure it must have brought in a considerable amount of business for them!
I was told "we don't do advertorial articles", whereupon I pointed out the previous articles of exactly the same nature as the ones I was proposing... and was basically told to bugger off! I'm guessing that was an example of it being "not what you know but who you know" in action! :D
Anyway that's in the past...
 
Arkless Repairs said:
Nor are they likely (possible vested interest alert! start grinding your axes!!) to give a rave review to a product from a small one man band company such as mine if that product is a rival for a similar product from one of their major advertisers (not that I've personally put that to the test before anyone asks)...
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I often read this but can say from experience that it is completely wrong.

We've had stuff reviewed very favourably in Plus, World and Critic without ever handing over a penny for advertising.

In fact there is a review in World this month of a competitor product selling at a considerably higher price tag, where there is constant reference to our product which got a better review about two years ago.

It's very easy to assume the worst where magazines are concerned and perhaps there have been abuses, but I've not seen them.
 
sergeauckland said:
Given how much business is done on-line these days, does it matter where physically an SBT or Behringer product is sold? I bought my SBT from the on-line department of a HiFi shop, I bought all my Behringer kit on-line from various MI dealers, Either way, I haven't walked into a bricks & mortar dealer of any sort for 20+ years.

Whilst the Krell CD player may not be of interest to a SoS reader, the SBT is certainly of interest to HiFi mag readers as so many of us here have them. There's also a fair amount of interest on here of "pro" sector products, especially active 'speakers and amplifiers, so I find it hard to understand why HiFi magazines don't give them more prominence if it's not anything to do with advertising and upsetting existing advertisers.

PS, can you remember when HFN reviewed the SBT? I have HFN going back some 13 years and don't recall it.

S.
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Hi-Fi World also reviewed the Touch recently.
 
Robert said:
I often read this but can say from experience that it is completely wrong.

We've had stuff reviewed very favourably in Plus, World and Critic without ever handing over a penny for advertising.

In fact there is a review in World this month of a competitor product selling at a considerably higher price tag, where there is constant reference to our product which got a better review about two years ago.

It's very easy to assume the worst where magazines are concerned and perhaps there have been abuses, but I've not seen them.
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I'm glad that your experiences have been positive on this front and hope that the worst excesses of this sort of thing are consigned to the past. I have however witnessed the dark side of these shenanigans and (no names no pack drill) was in the position of having it strongly hinted to me that I would be much more likely to get a good review if the reviewer was allowed to keep the review sample in the not so dim and distant past :( Being someone who is often too honest for his own good, I told the person concerned where to shove it a manner that will certainly have burnt that bridge to a cinder :eek:
 
sonddek said:
Apple have never been a hardware product company. They make their money from selling the hardware, but their product is software.
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Yeah, we'll, I'm going to have to disagree with you there.

What Apple got/get right is the combination of software and hardware that made their products/services work for people in the way they like/want. They are not a "hardware" or "software" company as such, those are purely means to an end in delivering something customers will pay for.
 
Purite Audio said:
Print magazines in every sector are dying ,it is just a matter of time.
Keith.
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some of the robust titles will simply evolve - print will die because we will allow tech to kill it - but the appetite for the content will remain - even if method of delivery alters - just look at youtube moving into TV proper - or the soon to be outdated name for a day off - bank holiday - with mobile banking etc the term is void but people still want the day off.


Hi fi will evolve also - politics and economics will affect appetite and it will be interesting to see whether less income drives demand in quality and things with "perceived "substance"
 
Arkless Repairs said:
I'm glad that your experiences have been positive on this front and hope that the worst excesses of this sort of thing are consigned to the past. I have however witnessed the dark side of these shenanigans and (no names no pack drill) was in the position of having it strongly hinted to me that I would be much more likely to get a good review if the reviewer was allowed to keep the review sample in the not so dim and distant past :( Being someone who is often too honest for his own good, I told the person concerned where to shove it a manner that will certainly have burnt that bridge to a cinder :eek:
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Given that over the past 20 years I have pretty much worked for every hi-fi title in the UK (except What Hi-Fi, although it offered me a job), what you have described is a sackable offence for all of them.

It's also a small enough business that if we knew someone was 'on the take', we'd know who was not playing fair and the person would be dropped.

I'm not saying this couldn't or didn't happen, but such things are the (very rare) exception, not the norm.
 
KK is still alive? Good for him. His review of the LS3/5a in, what, 1979? made a big impression on me. I still have a pair.

And a pair of Quad 57's. I like his pair in gold.
 
Arkless Repairs said:
I'm glad that your experiences have been positive on this front and hope that the worst excesses of this sort of thing are consigned to the past. I have however witnessed the dark side of these shenanigans and (no names no pack drill) was in the position of having it strongly hinted to me that I would be much more likely to get a good review if the reviewer was allowed to keep the review sample in the not so dim and distant past :( Being someone who is often too honest for his own good, I told the person concerned where to shove it a manner that will certainly have burnt that bridge to a cinder :eek:
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LOL :D, I work in a country where you can't get a Taxi without bunging someone :rolleyes:
Alan
 
Robert said:
I often read this but can say from experience that it is completely wrong.

We've had stuff reviewed very favourably in Plus, World and Critic without ever handing over a penny for advertising.

In fact there is a review in World this month of a competitor product selling at a considerably higher price tag, where there is constant reference to our product which got a better review about two years ago.

It's very easy to assume the worst where magazines are concerned and perhaps there have been abuses, but I've not seen them.
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Robert
I read that review of those speakers (clones) that looked exactly like the audio smile speakers but at 3 times the price and not as good as yours I cant see them selling very many :rolleyes:
Looks like it was was a free punt for Audio Smile IMO ;)
Alan
 
paskinn said:
Just a reminder that it was Ken Kessler who started the whole 'anacrophile' thing in Hi Fi News...that has been hughly influential. And. for example, just look at his article recently on the history of SME..even the factory think that pretty definitive.You don't have to like KK (I don't) to see that he has made rather more valuable contributions than some of the flat earthers who inhabit these threads.....
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Absolutely, I like his writing too, and massively appreciate his knowledge on hifi and music (though some of his journalistic tics are irritating, especially the way he always has to come out with some hyperbolic witticism at the end of a review). I was more concerned about the weird disconnect between the promoting of bling hifi, and an inability to manage one's finances. Happens to anyone I guess.

Adam S mentioned products he's reviewed which don't sell at all. Don't blame the potential consumer - it's the other disconnect, the retail chain, that's the problem. 40 years ago there was always somewhere you could hear these new products; now retailers are reluctant to stock, lend, demonstrate (yes). Understandably in some ways. Ergo - no sales.
 
sergeauckland said:
Given how much business is done on-line these days, does it matter where physically an SBT or Behringer product is sold? I bought my SBT from the on-line department of a HiFi shop, I bought all my Behringer kit on-line from various MI dealers, Either way, I haven't walked into a bricks & mortar dealer of any sort for 20+ years.

Whilst the Krell CD player may not be of interest to a SoS reader, the SBT is certainly of interest to HiFi mag readers as so many of us here have them. There's also a fair amount of interest on here of "pro" sector products, especially active 'speakers and amplifiers, so I find it hard to understand why HiFi magazines don't give them more prominence if it's not anything to do with advertising and upsetting existing advertisers.

PS, can you remember when HFN reviewed the SBT? I have HFN going back some 13 years and don't recall it.

S.
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I understand your viewpoint, but it ignores the basic fact tht hifi magazines are there to support the 'hifi industry' (as they see it), and the SBT is a consumer good, not a piece of hifi sold in hifi shops. I agree it's a shortsighted worldview.
 
Chris M said:
Adam S mentioned products he's reviewed which don't sell at all. Don't blame the potential consumer - it's the other disconnect, the retail chain, that's the problem. 40 years ago there was always somewhere you could hear these new products; now retailers are reluctant to stock, lend, demonstrate (yes). Understandably in some ways. Ergo - no sales.
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Hands up anybody who's gone to a dealer, sat through a dem on a product, then gone online to see if they can get it cheaper, or secondhand?

That's why dealers are stocking less and less product. We get what we deserve.
 
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