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Serious equipment supports, Mana as an example.
At <I>Stereophile</I> we often gets requests for product reviews. What would you like to see reviewed?
Top-of-the-range electronics from Rega Research (why do you concentrate only on their cheapest products?) and Shahinian loudspeakers (why not give us your view on loudspeakers that take a completely different approach from everyone else?).
DIY speakers from companies such as Madisound, et al. Some of these kits use very high-end drivers, crossovers, and good design recipes. I suspect these have not reviewed because you might offend the big speaker companies that spend big ad dollars. So what?
How about some vintage gear? For instance, you could test and review the Marantz 10B tuner, the Fisher 1000 tuner, and a McIntosh MR67 or MR71. All three of these tube tuners are fetching good money on eBay. The Marantz 10B has been at over $5000 on eBay. It would be a fun read. How they compare musically with the best of today's solid-state tuners would be interesting.
My perception is you are trying to review more reasonably priced products. Please continue to consider price as a consideration when deciding what to review. I'm sure it's fun to evaluate the latest $20,000 amp or speakers, but not many people can afford them, including me.
I would like to see an annual issue of Stereophile that does its part to introduce new designers to the attention of the readership. This annual issue could drop the usual provisions concerning number of retailers selling a product. The idea here is to bring awareness of new blood, new ideas, new potential innovations and products to readers. Who knows, some of the established companies may decide to bring the new blood on board, and then watch out for lots of innovation. It would be a great way for Stereophile to promote high-end innovation at the grass-roots level, and in the process help the High End evolve.
The Klipschorn speaker. It is the longest-running continuously produced product available, and it would be very interesting to see how a product originally introduced a half a century ago stacks up compared to products available at the beginning of the 21st century. Just make sure whoever does the reviewing has a room suited to the speaker.
Please keep reviewing the ultra-high-end equipment. I may never be able to purchase this equipment, so your reviews (and shows) give me the opportunity to experience it. I'm hoping for a review of the Nearfield Acoustics Pipedreams soon.
I would like to see a "Reader's Systems" column. Feature a reader's system, pictures, component list, history on how assembled, etc. Then have a reviewer make suggestions for improving the system or giving it a different sound, or even loan the "Reader" a component for a few weeks to try and report on the difference it made in his system. I volunteer for the first column! Boy, do I need help . . .
I would have to commend you on the range and choice of products you review in most issues. However, I would suggest less coverage of the very-high-ticket items some of the recent issues focused on. I would also love to see more focus on comparisons; e.g., the reviewed item to your price-no-object reference, the competition. It would be beneficial to test amps on a variety of speakers and vice versa. In the near future, a comparison of DVD, DVD-A, SACD, and CD would be great. But to specifically list items, I would like to see next: Bryston 2B, Anthem MCA2, Totem Arro, PSB 4T, Classé 201, Rotel RB991, Adcom 5500, NAD S200. Keep up the good work.