Hey Gene don't sweat it, we're all deserving of criticism from time to time, it's what keeps us on our toes.

I noticed it as soon as I saw the quote Grunt threw up on here, I thought, "wow, looks like a cut and paste job from the EP800 product page"... then when I clicked on the link it said, "according to Axiom".... and then the quote began. I don't know if that's what it originally said, or if you went back and edited it, but those three words were sufficient to inform the reader that this was not in fact a review by you, but Axiom's opinion. And that's good enough for me.

I read a TON of motorcycle magazine's, and when an edition comes out with a new bike that they haven't had time to test themselves they will often times quote the press release from the manufacturer... but they let you know that, and they say, "we'll have a full review next issue" or some such acknowledgement that these are not necessarily their opinions of the bike. And that's all we ask for. Certainly with all the new products that come out every year, there's no way an e-zine like yours can review all of them. And just because you weren't able to review a certain product I don't feel should exclude it from any awards it might deserve.

But understand we just went through a big thread about this sort of "lazy journalism" a week or so ago. So right now we're all very hip to it, and that sort of stuck out like a sore thumb... I agree, it looked like that very thing to me when I read it as well. And you have to understand here in the Axiom community we don't lambast others for such a thing and look the other way if it's an Axiom product. No no, Axiom is held to even higher standards than their competition around here. There aren't many bigots around this forum.

A product forum that keeps it's own product in check... now that's refreshing, eh?

Gene,

You are a great service to the audio industry and to this day Audioholics offers some of the most technical and in-depth reviews from an objective and subjective standpoint. Not many other places take apart the product, do extensive measurements and provide a subjective opinion without adding any BS.

As to "audioholics going down the tubes" is simply not true . I am interesed how one can come to that conclusion? Their reviews are better than ever and YES products that are sold in their store are held to their same review standards and do get CRITIZED (OPPO SE is latest example).

I missed that one too. I thought that this was the Best product of the year stuff and was left scratching my head.

That said...

"The prestigious Audioholics Consumer Excellence (CE) Awards program ..."

1. its based on what manufacturers submit
2. its based on a read of the specs.

I'm not sure how that makes these awards prestigous. I guess Audioholics can be forgiven a little puffery, but still, as you can see from Genes responses here, its not usually their style.

There is a little more to it than that:
http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/2009-consumer-excellence-awards

I didn't read anything in Alan's post to indicate that.

Did you expect anything less?

"According to Axiom" and "is said" was adequate to inform me of the origin of the comments.

Thank you for the link Gene. Maybe I'm just not enough of an AV geek to recognize how most of these products push the envelope.

As far as I remember, those are the edits made after our earlier comments.

Who was the runner-up? Then we can make an informed decision on whether to be upset or not. Seriously, though, don't take your ball and go home. Thanks for addressing the criticism.