Criticism of the Hifi media: What would you do different?

[ssfas]

I do not expect someone reading for the first time an isolated review of a reviewer to get the proper value of it - I am not surprised by your reaction.

In fact you missed an excellent review by one the best audio reviewers I had the pleasure to read along decades. Anthony Cordeseman died a year ago, someone told it much better than me

https://www.psaudio.com/blogs/coppe...HnPDSzhK3P7vk-lSyeOXdJ3OSf1lmdWmsMFh_lpDCz_pK

IMO Anthony Cordeseman exquisite reviews do not tell us everything on how equipment sound - they teach us how to listen to this particular component, and surely what he things about it. Each of his long reviews is a lesson on the high-end - he even openly exposes the limitations the reviews in their text.

A generation of knowledge audiophiles benefitted from reading his reviews and articles - IMO time much better spent than seeing movies of high-end influencers. For those interested in his TAS reviews of the last ten years, please see: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/author/anthony-cordesman/

For reference, the audio reviews I used to read were by John Borwick, who was technical editor of Gramophone Magazine from 1965 to 2000, to which I've subscribed for about 40 years.

John was editor of "Sound Recording Practise", the bible on recording for some 50 years, as well as writing several other leading tomes.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=stripb...ank&text=John+Borwick&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
He trained a generation of BBC recording engineers.
He created the Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey, where he lectured for over a decade, and created the Department of Sound and Recording that remains a principal academic route to a recording engineer career.

Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) BMus (Hons) or BSc (Hons) degree course 2025 entry | University of Surrey

Our Music and Sound Recording degree course focuses on music technology, recording and sound engineering, developing you for a highly rewarding career in music.

www.surrey.ac.uk

He was of course a Physics graduate, leading member of the Audio Engineering Society.

I have no idea what he was like as a person. You wouldn't know from reading any of his reviews.

 

[Lee]

...I enjoyed his reviews. At some point, the penny dropped, and I wondered: Can this be *that* Tony Cordesman? I had seen him in interviews over the years, read editorials, etc..

I thought he was thoughtful and thorough as a reviewer. However, as would be the case for me with any reviewer, I did not/would not purchase because of the reviewer/review, regardless of the day job they held.

It always seemed to me that a top defense analyst would enjoy high end audio.

 

[Lee]

Thanks for your question. If you read the quote at the top of my post, you'll see that I was referring to the OP's statement that most reviewers are part-time employees, and relaying my experience in discussing that part-time nature with a friend of mine decades ago. My comment was not attempting to establish reviewing credibility based on his full-time job or educational credentials.

With respect to your comment about a recent Cordesman review, I've not read any of his reviews in the past 25 years so I cannot comment about his ability to assess sound quality given his age. But yeah, 80+ years old would give me pause.

While there is high frequency loss as we age, the ability to hear timing differences stays with us for a long time. But it's really about critical listening skills.

 

[Tangram]

While there is high frequency loss as we age, the ability to hear timing differences stays with us for a long time. But it's really about critical listening skills.

Hearing loss is one age-related ailment older reviewers contend with. Cognitive decline, required to maintain critical listening skills, is another.

 

[ssfas]

Hearing loss is one age-related ailment older reviewers contend with. Cognitive decline, required to maintain critical listening skills, is another.

Wigmore Hall used to be Zimmer Central before Covid. It's got a lot younger since. Did many of the older patrons die off? As I sat next to these octogenarians, I was always aware how they could enjoy classical music with diminished hearing. They just heard differently. Plenty of conductors work into their 80's, Haitink till he was 90. I remember Brendel saying at a talk he give at my son's school that it wasn't the hearing that went, but arthritis that got him.

Maybe audio mags should be age-related, Oldie Audio would be a good start, anything above 7khz off limits.

 

[microstrip]

It always seemed to me that a top defense analyst would enjoy high end audio.

Did you guess it reading Jacob Heilbrunn ?

Soon someone will correlate it with high - end audio forums being intrinsically contentious!

 

[andromedaaudio]

But it's really about critical listening skills

 

[andromedaaudio]

While there is high frequency loss as we age, the ability to hear timing differences stays with us for a long time. But it's really about critical listening skills.

Lee you put yourself on some sort of undeserved pedestal here , which is off putting
There is no listening skill involved , you either enjoy the music that you hear or not there is nothing more to it ,
Whether you spend 100 $$ or a million $$$

 

[microstrip]

(...) There is no listening skill involved , you either enjoy the music that you hear or not there is nothing more to it , (...)

Andromedaaudio, are you reading Floyd Toole?

 

[ssfas]

But it's really about critical listening skills.

To a significant extent, we listen to our room as much as our audio system. I doubt this is much different with people who write audio reviews. If they wanted to critical listening of source components, basically anything other than speakers and speaker amplifiers, they would probably be best using headphones. But they never do.

 

[ssfas]

Andromedaaudio, are you reading Floyd Toole?

I scan read his very thick book awhile back and quite a lot of it made sense. On the other hand, I found online some papers by his sidekick Mr Olive and, from a statistical point of view, I thought they were complete garbage. I then saw a photo of Mr. Toole’s listening room with 19 speakers and two main speakers hung upside down on the front wall and thought if that’s what’s needed for decent home stereo I’d rather just stick to my own uneducated preferences.

 

[microstrip]

I scan read his very thick book awhile back and quite a lot of it made sense. On the other hand, I found online some papers by his sidekick Mr Olive and, from a statistical point of view, I thought they were complete garbage. I then saw a photo of Mr. Toole’s listening room with 19 speakers and two main speakers hung upside down on the front wall and thought if that’s what’s needed for decent home stereo I’d rather just stick to my own uneducated preferences.

I wrote it before, the book has two parts. The first is The Science of Sound Reproduction - fundamental principles of acoustics and psychoacoustics in stereo and multichannel and the second The Practical Aspects of Sound Reproduction addresses how to implement systems according to his views and priorities on sound reproduction. The first part is general and is now a reference in sound reproduction, including a few hundreds of references, the second part is focused on non audiophile systems - Toole makes it clear. This second part is what Olive and Harman often address as it has marketing value for them. Only by ignorance audiophiles would feel disturbed by the Floyd Toole book. In fact, some of our tribes share some of his preferences - fortunately they do not know about it!

IMO the more important concept audiophiles can get from this book is the in depth concept of preference - it is an humility lesson for each of us.

 

[Lee]

Did you guess it reading Jacob Heilbrunn ?

Soon someone will correlate it with high - end audio forums being intrinsically contentious!

Nah, I had a conversation with him about the defense business once.

 

[Lee]

Lee you put yourself on some sort of undeserved pedestal here , which is off putting
There is no listening skill involved , you either enjoy the music that you hear or not there is nothing more to it ,
Whether you spend 100 $$ or a million $$$

Huh? I wasn't talking about myself. I was talking about reviewers in general. I have found that some have better critical listening skills than others. I make no claim here about my own listening skills.

 

[tima]

To a significant extent, we listen to our room as much as our audio system. I doubt this is much different with people who write audio reviews. If they wanted to critical listening of source components, basically anything other than speakers and speaker amplifiers, they would probably be best using headphones. But they never do.

Maybe, if the review is for headphone users. Otherwise that is not a typical context of use.