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Review integrity

The last time I saw a live orchestra I was very disappointed. Didn’t sound realistic at all and the imagery was all over the place...
Sorry to hear this..I have always been happy and grateful that orchestras are so good live..every year the London phil come down to the de la Warr pavillion and its excellent. And they only just fit on the stage! Lol..its a small pavilion..
 
Most, if not all, reviewers are huge music fans too. I’d frankly be stunned if you could find one who didn’t regularly listen to all sorts of live music, including orchestras or string quartets.

One of my "WTF?' moments with reviewers was when, in the context of a review of a pair of Living Voice loudspeakers, Roy Gregory said (something along the lines of) 'You need a £250k pair of loudspeakers to accurately reproduce the sound of a string quartet'.
 
Most, if not all, reviewers are huge music fans too. I’d frankly be stunned if you could find one who didn’t regularly listen to all sorts of live music, including orchestras or string quartets.
The prominent reviewer Ken Kessler (Hi-Fi News) makes it abundantly plain that he has zero interest in, and in fact disdains, anything outside the realm of rock/pop music.

His opinions on the reproduction of music are therefore of no interest to any potential reader who does not share his preference; and yet he gets many pages in every issue of the magazine.

And he is not alone. There are a fair few other equipment reviews in that magazine, and in others, which either make no mention of classical music or treat it as an afterthought - almost as though it were assumed to be some peculiar minority interest which must be acknowledged... but only with the greatest reluctance. Those pages are so much wasted space. Their publishers ought perhaps to do some market research. What sort of listeners do they suppose are in a position to buy (and house) fairly expensive hi-fi equipment?
 
One audio rag I particularly trusted was published many years ago, the American magazine Hi-Fi Heretic (1985-1992, RIP).
 
How many people here have bought something which attracted a negative review? (or even mixed review)

Naim SBL's. They got mixed reviews at best in the British HiFi mags at the time. Technically, I didn't buy them. I traded a pair of Isobariks for them, since I was going back to graduate school, and going to live in smaller apartments, and moving more frequently.
 
The prominent reviewer Ken Kessler (Hi-Fi News) makes it abundantly plain that he has zero interest in, and in fact disdains, anything outside the realm of rock/pop music.

His opinions on the reproduction of music are therefore of no interest to any potential reader who does not share his preference; and yet he gets many pages in every issue of the magazine.

And he is not alone. There are a fair few other equipment reviews in that magazine, and in others, which either make no mention of classical music or treat it as an afterthought - almost as though it were assumed to be some peculiar minority interest which must be acknowledged... but only with the greatest reluctance. Those pages are so much wasted space. Their publishers ought perhaps to do some market research. What sort of listeners do they suppose are in a position to buy (and house) fairly expensive hi-fi equipment?

I don't think what ' sort of listener ' that is in the position to buy and house expensive hifi equipment has any correlation with any particular genre of music, though Jazz (audiophile recording) seems to get played more at hifi shows IME.

I guess they're only wasted space in the context that they do not use classical music for review so that you and other fans of classical music can relate to the recording used.

Anyone else who reads these reviews may be able to relate better to some of the recordings that are used for review but this is only a small part of the complete review.

Personally I do not listen to classical music and have very little knowledge of it, I don't own any classical music records and the small amount of classical CDs that I do own were freebies included with hifi mags, so a review that uses solely classical music to evaluate a piece of equipment I may find more difficult to relate too.

To be honest I've found most reviewers to use a fairly wide selection of recorded music to evaluate hifi equipment as part of a review, normally these will be a selection good recordings from the last 70 or so years, I would have thought nearly something for everyone.
 
One of my "WTF?' moments with reviewers was when, in the context of a review of a pair of Living Voice loudspeakers, Roy Gregory said (something along the lines of) 'You need a £250k pair of loudspeakers to accurately reproduce the sound of a string quartet'.
I remember that, too :). I do think he had a point - not about the price specifically, but he was arguing that even a small, unamplified ensemble is capable of extraordinary dynamic range - much more than the average listener would credit - so you need a speaker capable of handling that.
 
It’s a good point, but I have this feeling that people in general don’t like reading negative or neutral reviews and won’t spend much time on them.
Those who read Jay Rayner's restaurant reviews in The Guardian would disagree with you.
 
Some kit opens doors of discovery wide open, other stuff blinkers and shuts minds!

This was certainly my experience. I never could enjoy on my old system stuff like the Iron Maiden albums which I inherited in yet another friend's thrown out record collection. It took a change of turntable to learn that I had been backed into a corner, and these days pretty much all music entertains me. I even enjoy Keith Jarrett and Beethoven now, although I don't know if I'll ever reach the state of enlightenment required to endure Sinatra sliding around the scale like a variable-speed bandsaw.

The only measure is that good kit helps you to enjoy and explore. It is very difficult to gain any information on this question from a subjective magazine review.
 
The prominent reviewer Ken Kessler (Hi-Fi News) makes it abundantly plain that he has zero interest in, and in fact disdains, anything outside the realm of rock/pop music.

His opinions on the reproduction of music are therefore of no interest to any potential reader who does not share his preference; and yet he gets many pages in every issue of the magazine.

And he is not alone. There are a fair few other equipment reviews in that magazine, and in others, which either make no mention of classical music or treat it as an afterthought - almost as though it were assumed to be some peculiar minority interest which must be acknowledged... but only with the greatest reluctance. Those pages are so much wasted space. Their publishers ought perhaps to do some market research. What sort of listeners do they suppose are in a position to buy (and house) fairly expensive hi-fi equipment?

I’m not defending Kessler, but I suspect the majority of HFN readers are more interested in ‘pop’ type music.
The latest HFN has comprehensive articles on Guns ’n’ Roses and U2.
Presumably they know their readership.

Kessler likes rock/pop, etc. but also female vocalists, so his findings on the latter had some relevance
for me when he reviewed the latest Rogers LS3/5a.
I just passed by his comments on Silverhead.

My musical tastes are mainly light orchestral music, folk and female vocalists.
I chose my equipment to suit my tastes.
 
...although I don't know if I'll ever reach the state of enlightenment required to endure Sinatra sliding around the scale like a variable-speed bandsaw

It is all about the timing; focus on exactly where he puts stuff rather than what he puts there - he knew more about pushing/pulling/swinging a groove than most drummers IMHO!
 
Those who read Jay Rayner's restaurant reviews in The Guardian would disagree with you.
I take your point, but they’re not entirely analogous. Jay Rayner’s reviews are one, weekly, piece in a publication containing scores of other articles. Hifi mags print, what? Half a dozen reviews, monthly. A bad review takes up a lot of real estate in proportion, and also potentially elbows out a review of a good product.
 
It is all about the timing; focus on exactly where he puts stuff rather than what he puts there - he knew more about pushing/pulling/swinging a groove than most drummers IMHO!
Yep, agree completely. I didn’t ‘get’ Sinatra until I had a good system, because the timing stuff just wasn’t brought out and he was just another lounge crooner until then for me.
 
It is all about the timing; focus on exactly where he puts stuff rather than what he puts there - he knew more about pushing/pulling/swinging a groove than most drummers IMHO!

Thanks for trying Tony, you've told me this before, but I can't switch off the emotive effect of pitch, no matter how I try. I can enjoy a long percussion solo because it is free from caterwauling, but I can't overcome my irritation at FS's ubiquitous and apparently meaningless glissando sliding around in search of some nearby note. Maybe I'll get it one day, but for now I'm still a Sinatra philistine.

A few years ago I attended a party whose host had kindly offered me her deceased mother's LP collection. As I arrived she said "I've pulled out all the old Sinatra". I took her to mean that she had retained the Sinatra and was giving me everything else, so I blithely told her that was good news because I detest Sinatra. She looked a bit nonplussed. I was ashamed when I looked through the several bags of records the next day and understood that they were exclusively Sinatra. I have lovingly cleaned them because all records are records, and therefore sacred. Someone more musical than me will enjoy them one day.
 
Thanks for trying Tony, you've told me this before, but I can't switch off the emotive effect of pitch, no matter how I try. I can enjoy a long percussion solo because it is free from caterwauling, but I can't overcome my irritation at FS's ubiquitous and apparently meaningless glissando sliding around in search of some nearby note. Maybe I'll get it one day, but for now I'm still a Sinatra philistine.
I think part of the magic is his timing as to when the glissando arrives at the target pitch. It can be exquisite - it’s a great example of the effect of delayed gratification (in a musical sense, obvs...)
 
Thanks for trying Tony, you've told me this before, but I can't switch off the emotive effect of pitch, no matter how I try. I can enjoy a long percussion solo because it is free from caterwauling, but I can't overcome my irritation at FS's ubiquitous and apparently meaningless glissando sliding around in search of some nearby note. Maybe I'll get it one day, but for now I'm still a Sinatra philistine.

A few years ago I attended a party whose host had kindly offered me her deceased mother's LP collection. As I arrived she said "I've pulled out all the old Sinatra". I took her to mean that she had retained the Sinatra and was giving me everything else, so I blithely told her that was good news because I detest Sinatra. She looked a bit nonplussed. I was ashamed when I looked through the several bags of records the next day and understood that they were exclusively Sinatra. I have lovingly cleaned them because all records are records, and therefore sacred. Someone more musical than me will enjoy them one day.

It's a while since we burned a heretic but some things just go too far. Sinatra is the best singer, male or female and irrespective of genre, that ever lived.... within human memory and the development of recording equipment anyway.
 
It's a while since we burned a heretic but some things just go too far. Sinatra is the best singer, male or female and irrespective of genre, that ever lived.... within human memory and the development of recording equipment anyway.
I really like Sinatra but Ella Fitzgerald is better, the albums she did with Armstrong are peerless.
 
I still get Plush every issue, mostly because I have a complete set though. With respect to Alan the writing isn't as good as it used to be. While I don't agree with Roy Gregory's opinion on some kit, or the whole Nordost scandal, I still think he's the best writer of English language hifi reviews. They're all perfect little gems of evocation, that always come back round to his original point.

Technically, no one does it better.

I'm not interested in expensive hifi gear though, I just like reading about.
 


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