Glad to see an audio comment here - I thought it was a sign that the spam attacks were being addressed - but no, they are dominating this forum section again.  Stereophile, when might this be fixed?

Bill B wrote:

Glad to see an audio comment here - I thought it was a sign that the spam attacks were being addressed - but no, they are dominating this forum section again.  Stereophile, when might this be fixed?

We have had discussions with Mollom, who handles our spam strategy. The problem is manyfold:

1) The spam is posted in the form of forum topics, The spammers are real people who can solve the Captcha puzzle in order to register as a user. The spam is then posted, not by a bot, but still by a human being, presumably working in a spam farm. Implementing a Captcha on new postings would therefore not work.

2) Mollom has not yet  found any pattern to the spam postings that would allow it to implement an automatic defense. We are therefore reduced to deleting the spam manually, which Ariel and I do every hour or so all day. The problem is that when we sleep, it is daytime in the USSR and China where the spam farms are, which is why every morning there is a new crop of spam.

3) When we delete a forum posting as spam, Molloms deletes that user account. However, there are literally hundreds of new user accounts registered every day by spammers. I tried deleting all new user accounts that were obviously spammers before they posted any spam. That worked -- for 1 day :-(

4) We have discussed blocking any posting that includes a URL. That would block all spam but also it would block legitimate postings.

5) We have discussed aggressive moderation, where every new posting from a newly registered user has to be first approved to a moderator. This is still under consideration while we wait for Mollom to come up with a solution.

Our apologies to Stereophile readers for this problem.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

Thanks for the feedback John , but couldn't you at least erase the rubbish after it appears ?

JoeE SP9 wrote:

tmsorosk wrote:

Thanks for the feedback John , but couldn't you at least erase the rubbish after it appears ?

I've been wondering why it takes more than a couple of hours to remove the stuff.

We do erase the spam and block the posting account as soon as we see it. Other than first thing in the morning (EST), as explained above, that may be after an hour or so, as it is not possible, given our other magazine responsibilities, to constantly monitor the site.

Once the spam is deleted, it should not appear. If it does, try refreshing the page as your browser might still be displaying the version in its cache.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

PS: There is currently zero spam posted in the forums, as best as I can tell. There may still be spam in some of the comments sections of older articles that was posted when our previlous spam defense broke, at the end of 2011. We delete that historical spam when we come across it or are alerted to it, but that is inevitably a hit-or-miss solution.

JoeE SP9 wrote:

This time in German.

Not for long :-)

John (spam killer) Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

I read the Nuforce AVP-18 review in Stereophile but thought it came up short.

I really enjoy this AV preamp but it isn't for everyone but might be for some people who just want an amazingly powerful DAC preamp for their stereo systems. Recently, I was looking for a DAC preamp and came across the NuForce AVP-18. What I liked about it was its simplicity - 4 HDMI in along with Toslink and SPDIF inputs. I play stereo music 95% of the time and use it as an AV Processor about 5% of the time.

As an AV processor, there are some issues. The auto equalization is a little cumbersome to get it to work properly. Sometimes you have to run it once, then clear memory by resetting the AVP, then run it again.

I am currently set up as a 2.1 system, not surround but will be adding an additional amplifier for a 4.1 system (without center channel) soon. The music quality of this AV preamp is why I would give it a 5 stars rating. I recently sold the very highly rated Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 which sells for $1,500 and replaced it with the NuForce. The DAC2 is a highly rated stereo only DAC that excels in its price range. The amazing thing is that I enjoy the much richer sound of the NuForce over the Wyred 4 Sound unit which sounds a little lean to me.

My speakers are Magnepan 1.7s, amplifiers are the amazing Odyssey Khartago/Kismet mono blocks, subwoofer is a Rythmik F12 and all wiring is by Wireworld. The sound that I am getting is nothing short of spectacular. The clarity is amazing, voices are startlingly real and the naturalness and tonal colors are fantastic. You get a nice sense of depth when the recording is done in natural space, such as a church or live concert, and works well with all forms of music.

I have not heard the hardness in the midrange as mentioned by the reviewer but did find the unit very dependent on a good power cable. I found the Wireworld Electra 7 to transform the AVP-18 from a good sounding DAC to an amazingly good sounding DAC.

If you are an AV geek and are used to the thousands of settings the new AV Receivers from Denon, Marantz, Pioneer and others, you will probably be perplexed if you switch to the NuForce. It simply doesn't have all the bells and whistles but it does have the ability to manage the frequency response in 10 settings for all 5 channels (it is a 7.1 AV preamp but only 5 channels can use the parametric equalizer) and the subwoofer frequency response with 3 settings. So, you can completely minimize most room related problems of peaks and troughs in the frequency response.

The Magnepan 1.7s are one of the worlds better speakers but they can sound lean. Using the AVP-18, I have been able to tailor the sound by adjusting the frequency response in the mid-woofer range 80 hz to 400 hz. By making some slight adjustments, the Magnepans take on a much warmer sound which I believe is much more realistic than the "out of the box" sound of the Magnepans.

I listen to all types of music - classical, jazz, rock, country, etc. but spend most of my time listing to classical and acoustic jazz along with what Sirius calls "Coffee House" music which is mostly acoustic ballads. The AVP-18 allows all of the necessary nuances of the music to flow providing a you-are-there type experience. You are transported to the site of the recording and sense the room acoustic where the recording took place.

This is an AV preamp for those who music reproduction and accuracy is of paramount importance. If you are a bells and whistles type person, you will likely be disappointed in what the AVP doesn't do compared to the Japanese AV Receivers can do. Also, if you are a stereo guy like myself, the AVP-18 will provide a DAC preamp that also has an amazing parametric equalizer to balance out room issues and enhancing your speaker's performance.

I think of the AVP-18 as the most flexible reasonably priced DAC preamp available for audiophiles who may also like to listen to TV or blu ray movies using their main system. It is stunning on any type of movie providing a level of clarity you just can't get in an AV receiver anywhere near its price.