I've been wanting to bring up this rant for a few months, and have 15 minutes this morning, so…..
Have all magazine reviews become a joke?
I remember reading Stereo Review 10 years ago, and a review was at least thorough, although at that time as well you would never really read a truly negative review. But it was 4 or 5 pages and got into the nitty-gritty of the item.
Now, it seems to me that every review is a quick once-over joke. With a monitor, they often talk about popping in a couple of DVDs and watching an episode of Everyone Loves Raymond. With a speaker review, same thing: Maybe two CDs and a movie. Worse, reviewers don't even seem to have standard or reference DVD or CD discs. They pop in "Ghost Ship" to talk about the detail in the blacks of a monitor, and the next month pop in "Van Helsing" to talk about the detail in the blacks of a different monitor. With speakers, they are always "popping in" different CDs each month. What ever happened to a reference standard? Find a disc that has good attributes, and stick with it! How do you know if this piece of equipment is as good as others if the source material keeps changing?
Do they ever move speakers around while testing? In an editorial, you're told that speaker placement is very important and moving a speaker just a few inches can make a difference. Then, you read in a review "I placed the speakers where the previous and "resident" set resides". Do you ever read that they spent a day tweaking position to see whether some speakers where "picky" about positioning or if a speaker suddenly blossoms in a different position?
In the past, I had written some reviews for some video production equipment, and had never spent less than a solid week working with a product….sometimes a full month. Maybe I'm reading the wrong magazines, or maybe it's just me, but I really find reviews to be a joke these days…..
Is it just me?
