The October Issue . . . and "Recommended Components"

Hitting mailboxes, newsstands, and tablets today, the 204-page October Stereophile, offers 36 pages of audio equipment reports and the revised and updated "Recommended Components" listing. Featured on the cover is VPI's Prime Scout record player, reviewed by Art Dudley, who also offers auditions of speakers from Burwell and Wharfedale. Herb Reichert reviews the AMG Giro turntable, John Atkinson report on his time with KEF's Reference 5 loudspeaker, Robert Deutsch lives with PS Audio's Memory Player, and there are reviews of amplifiers from Dan D'Agostino, Rega, and Linear Tube Audio.

With Steve Guttenberg kicking the issue off by wondering what would the audio world have been like if the CD had failed a quarter century ago, the October 2017 Stereophile is a keeper!

COMMENTS
Anton's picture

Dinosaur Jr.

"Bug."

Glotz's picture

Sweet taste.

Anton's picture

I wonder if it is a stock pic or Stereophile pic.

I always wonder what record they are playing.

To paraphrase my favorite singer: "What's he playing in there?"

Glotz's picture

"What's he building in there?" Mule Variations...

Or I am I off on that one?

I think that is a Stereophile pic, as the background is white... but just a hunch. Err, I take that back... the cart on there was not reviewed and not mentioned.

Anton's picture

One of my favorites of his.

It's like Dr. Seuss for the Outer Limits crowd.

Cheers, amigo!

Glotz's picture

And it sounds amazing!

tonykaz's picture

We needed a much better music storage system than Fossil Fuel based Vinyl. Consumer & industrial pressure would've brought other options.

Vinyl was too limiting and far too expensive & polluting.

In this most recient Issue, we will find a recommendation for 161 Phono products that the World's 6 Billion Population will never even notice.

In my Vinyl Retailing days I had 3 to 4 Phono Carts, two or three Belt Drive Tables and one Arm to recommend. We sampled all the Phono stuff available and carefully pared down to the above few.

Vinyl has become an ULTRA niche for the "hair-shirted" Audiophile Class of monied obsessives. ( I was once one, I sold to this group, they averaged 2,000 Vinyls each ).

I just took a touring Japanese Group to see Jack White's Third Man Record store and Shinola Store that actually sells Bicycles and tries to offer a VPI record Player. I didn't see any Vinyl buying.

Hang in there Stereophile, there is another generation of music loving folks coming, their cloths will only have room for the iPhone 10 and a pair of wireless in ear monitors.

Lets let the road pavers have the fossil sludge that vinyl comes from, we need our Infrastructure rebuilt.

Tony in High & Dry Michigan

Anton's picture

Did you see them buy any bicycles?

tonykaz's picture

I manufacture bicycle related product, among a range of other injected-molding things.

Shinola does sell bicycles, quite a few, they are the trendy type of retro bikes from around the 1960 era design. They'll feature Brooks leather Saddles ( my favorite ), Shimano 8 Speed internal Hubs, full fenders and Steel Frames. They're nice bikes for City folks.

Shinola's main products seem to be Wrist Watches.

They have a small ( tiny ) room for the turntable & their bookshelf active loudspeaker, it sounds horrible but what can we expect from retail staff and Garage Sale Vinyl Albums?

All of rebuilt Detroit features the Rock & Roll ( R&B) Theme of Motown & Vinyl records. It's like a decoration ingredient that will be honored everywhere. Motown & Ford seems to be the only history that Detroit has to brag on. It's a tired History!

Tony in Michigan

Anton's picture

So, I take it you answer to my question is, "No."

You make injections molded stuff?

Out of what?

tonykaz's picture

vinyl pellets

by the way:

We also re-cycle Vinyl by chopping it up into tiny pieces or pellets, it makes a very nice colored part.

I'll be happy to recycle all your vinyl.

Tony in Michigan

ps. see, I need all those Garage Sale Vinyls to be thrown into the re-cycle bins for Waste Management to pick up and deliver to my shop in San Leandro, Ca.

I have "dark motives" to my Analog Vinyl mission.

[edit by JA]

mrkaic's picture

...yes, they are great, so great that I don't feel worthy to buy them. Sadly, I will have to live with my JLC master ultra thin and never wear the mighty Shinola.

Anton's picture

That must tell time really good!

Especially good if it's worth snob name dropping!

Hope it's digital and not that crap analog.

Timepieces are all about accurate objective measured performance.

mrkaic's picture

...a realist. I could go on and explain why, but I am not sure you would care for my explanation.

Like your avatar, BTW. I have a t shirt with the same statement.

Anton's picture

Vinyl is far too expensive & polluting.

Vinyl has become an ULTRA niche for the "hair-waxed" lycra wearing hipster class of monied bicycle obsessives.

I say, "Lets let the road pavers have the fossil sludge that vinyl comes from, we need our Infrastructure rebuilt."

I guess cycling is dead when all we see is hipsters dressing in fan boy spandex ad-wear for trendy products and buying bicycles from companies called "Shinola."

How many bikes did you Japanese tourists buy that visit? Guess that proves my point.

;-D

tonykaz's picture

You're drinking my Kool-aid

I give you full marks for lovely Satire.

Can I send you an Ultra-Spoke Wrench?

Tony

ps. Detroit is SUV Country, not bicycle like Portland.

ps. The Japanese didn't buy any Bicycle stuff, they read about Detroit being rebuilt and wanted to see it first-hand. Rebuilt Detroit is beautiful but doesn't have a resident population, it's like a Science Fiction Movie 'Ghost-Town' where everyone left.

ps. the Trendies are wearing Plaid Shirts, not spandex. Spandex was ages ago, how old are you?, a Grey Hair like me?? or even older yet???

It's plaid, cargo, beards & tats!

Of course, vinyl people (like us) are decades outa-touch, aren't we?

Anton's picture

I like to picture us all enjoying pints together!

tonykaz's picture

I quit Aug.7,1999 after consuming 5,000 Fifths over a 15 year period.

No going back for me, they won't even let me have pain meds for a back injury in April, ouch, I'm the addictive type. I was trying for a 500 bottle of Oxycontin. They wouldn't even give me a handful.

But, wife permitting, I'm always in for the enjoying.

Tony in Michigan,

trying to move to Florida before Oakwood Cemetery gets me (or the acid spitting, Analog Planet, Vinyl Police).

Glotz's picture

It was a such a comprehensive review, that if anyone has questions after that, mercy on them! Thank you for covering aspects of momentum, touch and force once again.

The platter mat is very gaudy and it surprising that VPI doesn't go back to a badged emblem on their top or front.

Allen Fant's picture

My copy arrived yesterday. I have been a subscriber since 1993!

rzr's picture

Reading Art's column this month brought up 2 things that are of a concern to me:
1) Some of the reviewers for Stereophile has terrible rooms for listening to music in, and it sounds like Art's new house will fall into this category. If an audio reviewer makes his living off reviewing audio systems that can be comprised of large speakers, this review will be compromised by the small rooms that these reviewers are using, really no different than going to CES or RMAF, and we all know how crappy the sound is, even the reviewers comment on how bad these rooms are. Stereophile should make it mandatory that each reviewer have a dedicated room of decent size, and good acoustics to keep their jobs. I just built a custom house and built a dedicated room with the appropriate dimensions and room treatments, and i'm not a reviewer. I worked at home for a very large corporation and it was mandatory that I had a high speed internet service or I couldn't work from home. Even Art makes a comment that the Burwell speakers didn't sound good because they were too big for his room, maybe get a bigger room or limit your reviews to bookshelf speakers!
2) This is more concerning: Art makes a statement that they don't like reviewing prototype equipment mainly because they would be "unpaid publicists" or an "unpaid consultant". IMO, this means that audio manufacturers or distributors "pay" Stereophile to review their equipment, which would be very wrong. No wonder they like every piece of equipment that they review. Sure, the reviewer might make a statement that they didn't like this or didn't like that, but the final statement almost always ends in you should put this on your short list to review. No reviewer in an audio magazine or any reviewer for any product magazine should get paid for a review. It's bad enough that they let advertisers pay for ads in the same issue that their product review is in (pay to play, i'm sure everybody has heard that phrase before). No reviewer should get paid to be a consultant for a manufacturer either.
Art claims that they don't review prototype products but how many time do they give their opinions on a new piece of gear that they just heard at a show that hasn't come out yet and/or hasn't sold 1 yet? Many times.

John Atkinson's picture
rzr wrote:
1) Some of the reviewers for Stereophile has terrible rooms for listening to music in, and it sounds like Art's new house will fall into this category.

I don't recall you visiting any of our listening rooms. With all due respect, it is foolish to express opinions on things that you have not directly experienced. With the exception of Art Dudley's new room - he has only been in in his new house for 2 weeks - and Jason Serinus, who lives near Seattle and I have not yet been to the Pacific Northwest since he moved from Oakland (where I loved his room), I regularly visit all our reviewers. In my informed opinion, all of them have rooms that are both appropriate for reviewing audio components and that have give me much musical enjoyment.

rzr wrote:
2) This is more concerning: Art makes a statement that they don't like reviewing prototype equipment mainly because they would be "unpaid publicists" or an "unpaid consultant". IMO, this means that audio manufacturers or distributors "pay" Stereophile to review their equipment, which would be very wrong. No wonder they like every piece of equipment that they review.

You obviously didn't click on the link provided in the second footnote to Art's October column: www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/307awsi/index.html. If you had, you would have read the following unambiguous text: "Stereophile reviewers and editors do not act as paid or unpaid consultants for audio companies." It seems that again, you are expressing an opinion about something of which you have no knowledge, even though it was not very difficult for you to learn about our policy.

rzr wrote:
No reviewer should get paid to be a consultant for a manufacturer either.

Asked and answered.

rzr wrote:
It's bad enough that they let advertisers pay for ads in the same issue that their product review is in

Just as the Chinese Wall between editorial and advertising prevent the latter from having any influence on the former, it works in the opposite direction also. (See my thoughts on this subject at www.stereophile.com/content/great-wall-china-0.) I don't see any of the advertisements in an issue until it has shipped to the printer, so I don't know what the content is. (I do see where those ads are going so I can ensure they don't face editorial content on the manufacturer.) So if a manufacturer wishes to advertise in an issue where he has a product reviewed, there is no causal way the presence of that ad can influence what writers write.

One thing I do insist on is that manufacturers cannot quote from a review until a month after the review has been published. (Other magazines don't insist on this, as you can see.) I also require manufacturers ask permission for any such quotes.

rzr wrote:
pay to play, i'm sure everybody has heard that phrase before

And again, if you actually did some reading to inform your opinion, you would know that this isn't true at Stereophile. Click on either of the links I have given you and you will learn that in the last analysis I did, less than half of products we review were made by current or former advertisers. I am at a loss to comprehend how that supports your claim that we operate a "pay-for-play" policy.

rzr wrote:
Art claims that they don't review prototype products but how many time do they give their opinions on a new piece of gear that they just heard at a show that hasn't come out yet and/or hasn't sold 1 yet? Many times.

A show report is hardly in the same category as a formal review. You are reaching.

I have paid you the respect of answering your post, but I do feel you are abusing our hospitality by making unsupported and baseless claims of corruption on our part. So as you have had your say, as have I, this discussion is over.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

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