FORUMS
Mr. Atkinson
I've been a keen follower and subscriber of Stereophile for many years. I applaud the transparency with which you run the magazine, especially the criteria for a component to be reviewed, your stance that it's all "on the record" when it to component breakages during a review, and that every review begun will be published regardless of the consequences.
I remember some time ago when a "white van" speaker company bought ad space in Stereophile you responded almost immediately to the situation and also said that there was a "Great Wall of China" between the editorial department and the ad department. In general that's a very noble thing. However, someone over on THAT side of the wall HAS to be able to exercise better judgement than to print the ad on page 108 of the June issue. Our old friend The Audio Pimp, now called Mss. HiFi openly attacks another dealer and encourages customers that have received demos at Stereo Exchange to buy from him and he will undercut their pricing. He also offers to sell a number of brands for which he is NOT an authorized dealer AND disparages B&W. While I have no dog in the fight as someone who sold high-end audio for the better part of a decade I find all of this despicable. I'm sure that in the current economic climate it's probably very, very difficult to turn down ad revenue but I can't imagine that you'd want ads like this in the magazine.
I'd rather see adverts for expensive cars, watches, and wine than trash like this. I remember that for a time BMW was an advertiser. What happened with that? I'd think that people that sell luxury goods would see the readers of Stereophile as a demographic that they would like to reach.
