Mag Reviews...Poll/Rant

[ds21]

I was going to post this in the thread about the 'Tascam FW-1884', but thought more would see it in it's own thread.

I was going though some of the reviews (in this case for monitors) in various recording mag's and noticed everything was "Best bang for the buck", "Best I've ever heard", "Best for beginners", well you get the idea, then I was like "who are these guys" looked at the reviewer's names and noticed that this is the only review most of them had done (at least in that particular mag for monitors) I know the argument about advertisement dollars, but I look in home stereo mags and they actually do tests and "oh my"... compare, I mean here we are trying make some money, and/or get our creation coveyed as best as posible, but their the one's who get the more honest reviews/opinions, they get a more detailed review/comparison about some $100/pr. mass market cheap speakers then we do about $500/ea. "Studio Monitors" that some people are trying to make a living with. Granted you should do you own testing, but some of us don't have the resouces or time to go out and do that, it would be nice to have some kind of baseline to go off of to narrow it down, but when everythings "best"...

Anyway that's my rant, what do you think of the state of mag reviews?

PS I'm glad there are places like this there you can get a better Idea of what's what!

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

I think ANY review is useful only if you know something about the reviewer and the context in which the product was reviewed in. Mainly because outside of that context, the review is pretty meaningless.

Take monitors for example. A reviewer that sits down with 10 pairs and listens for a half hour each to a variety of CDs on them will be able to tell you what the different characteristics of each will be relative to the other....

This would give you very different results than another reviewer working with 10 pairs of monitors over the long term for a year.

You could not use the first reviewer's conclusion to help make your choice for a good tracking monitor, although you may find the 2nd reviewer's comments much more insightful for you needs.

Without knowing something about the application a product was reviewed under, the comments may or may not be usable to you.

 

[dwillis45]

Anyway that's my rant, what do you think of the state of mag reviews?

It think we need more reviews like those directed at Brittain's loudest band. You know....Spinal Tap. What did the imaginary reviewer call Tap's Shark Sandwich album? SHIT Sandwich! Just think how many two word reviews you could fit on the pages of SOS, Recording, and Home Recording! Then the magazines could offer more space for advertising!

 

[charger]

I'd trust them more if everything new wasn't fantastic. The only ones I trust are the ones I see in TapeOp, where the reviewer seems to be presenting some sort of honest opinion. Anytime a reviewer says "I've been using this product since (year), and I was really excited to check out the new upgrade--including in TapeOp--I ignore that review. I tend to believe that anything that gets a perfect 10 is a BS review (maybe the reviewer wants to keep it?), and anything that gets a 1 has to be mechanically faulty.