markl
Hangin' with the monkeys.
Member of the Trade: Lawton Audio
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2001
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This post is in reference to an earlier thread from the Headphone section:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...threadid=17002
Long story short: there was some controversy over the incompleteness of the headphone and headphone amp sections of the latest round-up of Stereophile's recommended components list for 2002. Stereophile has a policy of dropping products from its list after a period of time after the original review has appeared. As a result, given their relatively scant attention to headphones, their list is now woefully incomplete.
I suggested that I would help coordinate a petition of some kind on behalf of the headphone community (consider this my "community service" for crimes of blowing my top at the mods unjustly) here at Head-Fi to be sent to the editor of Stereophile to help convince him:
1. Headphones are a serious hobby with a large constituency. I would direct him to Head-Fi as proof of the growing phenomenon.
2. As well as being a serious audiophile end unto themselves, headphones are a "gateway drug" to the world of hi-fi, and a great starting point for younger folks just getting into the hobby. Our forum is proof of this. Stereophile should support headphones more vigorously on this basis alone.
3. Their headphone and headphone amp sections do not adequately represent the choices currently available to the headphone buyer/enthusiast and are therefore not very useful, and are in serious need of a thorough update.
4. A new article comparing the best currently available headphones and amps is long overdue and would be appreciated by the Stereophile readership and the headphone community as well. It would be from this "shoot-out" that the 2003 recommended headphone and amp section could be compiled.
Why should we care about what Stereophile has listed in their recommended components section? Like it or not, Stereophile still (arguably) occupies a special place in the audio world as a taste-maker and source of information on the "best" audio products currently available. It would help the headphone hobby and our community to persuade Stereophile to do a more thorough job of covering our hobby.
OK, so the task at hand is two-fold:
1. We need to identify the headphones that should be reviewed by Stereophile. If someone has the current list of phones included in the 2002 recommended list, please post those here so we can see what they have so far and can decide what else we'd like to see. Personally, I'd prefer to see a shoot-out between the top phones available, rather than the sub-$100 group of phones. Remember, we can't give them a list of 500 phones-- we need to narrow it down to 5 or fewer new phones to be reviewed. I personally would like to see Stereophile review the CD3000 (since the R10 is technically no longer available), as well as the Audio-Technica W2002 or W100. What are your thoughts? What phones would you like to see evaluated? I think we should "agree" as a community before we e-mail Stereophile.
2. What amps would we like to see reviewed? Again, if someone has the current list of amps included in the 2002 recommended list, please post those here so we can see what they have so far and can decide what else we'd like to see. Also, I believe Stereophile has a policy of not reviewing products that aren't available through a certain number of retail dealers, so this rules out things like JMT's amps, Jan's Corda, and the META products. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this. Again, I'd like to see a shoot-out of 5 or so of the top amps available, but that is my bias. What commercially available amps would you like to see reviewed? Again, I think we will ultimately have to limit ourselves to 5 or fewer.
*phew* Let's flex our collective muscles! I'd be willing to bet Stereophile would be delighted to hear from us and would be more than willing to accomodate our request. We may not agree with their ultimate review and conclusions regarding the various headphones/amps, but that's the chance we'd be taking.
So, who's with me?
Ultimately, I envision a separate thread from this one that would contain the actual "petition" that individul members would "sign" by simply posting and giving their approval. After we've achieved some kind of critical mass in this new thread, I would e-mail the editor of Stereophile with our list of "demands"
and a link to the petition thread.
What do you say?
Mark
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...threadid=17002
Long story short: there was some controversy over the incompleteness of the headphone and headphone amp sections of the latest round-up of Stereophile's recommended components list for 2002. Stereophile has a policy of dropping products from its list after a period of time after the original review has appeared. As a result, given their relatively scant attention to headphones, their list is now woefully incomplete.
I suggested that I would help coordinate a petition of some kind on behalf of the headphone community (consider this my "community service" for crimes of blowing my top at the mods unjustly) here at Head-Fi to be sent to the editor of Stereophile to help convince him:
1. Headphones are a serious hobby with a large constituency. I would direct him to Head-Fi as proof of the growing phenomenon.
2. As well as being a serious audiophile end unto themselves, headphones are a "gateway drug" to the world of hi-fi, and a great starting point for younger folks just getting into the hobby. Our forum is proof of this. Stereophile should support headphones more vigorously on this basis alone.
3. Their headphone and headphone amp sections do not adequately represent the choices currently available to the headphone buyer/enthusiast and are therefore not very useful, and are in serious need of a thorough update.
4. A new article comparing the best currently available headphones and amps is long overdue and would be appreciated by the Stereophile readership and the headphone community as well. It would be from this "shoot-out" that the 2003 recommended headphone and amp section could be compiled.
Why should we care about what Stereophile has listed in their recommended components section? Like it or not, Stereophile still (arguably) occupies a special place in the audio world as a taste-maker and source of information on the "best" audio products currently available. It would help the headphone hobby and our community to persuade Stereophile to do a more thorough job of covering our hobby.
OK, so the task at hand is two-fold:
1. We need to identify the headphones that should be reviewed by Stereophile. If someone has the current list of phones included in the 2002 recommended list, please post those here so we can see what they have so far and can decide what else we'd like to see. Personally, I'd prefer to see a shoot-out between the top phones available, rather than the sub-$100 group of phones. Remember, we can't give them a list of 500 phones-- we need to narrow it down to 5 or fewer new phones to be reviewed. I personally would like to see Stereophile review the CD3000 (since the R10 is technically no longer available), as well as the Audio-Technica W2002 or W100. What are your thoughts? What phones would you like to see evaluated? I think we should "agree" as a community before we e-mail Stereophile.
2. What amps would we like to see reviewed? Again, if someone has the current list of amps included in the 2002 recommended list, please post those here so we can see what they have so far and can decide what else we'd like to see. Also, I believe Stereophile has a policy of not reviewing products that aren't available through a certain number of retail dealers, so this rules out things like JMT's amps, Jan's Corda, and the META products. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this. Again, I'd like to see a shoot-out of 5 or so of the top amps available, but that is my bias. What commercially available amps would you like to see reviewed? Again, I think we will ultimately have to limit ourselves to 5 or fewer.
*phew* Let's flex our collective muscles! I'd be willing to bet Stereophile would be delighted to hear from us and would be more than willing to accomodate our request. We may not agree with their ultimate review and conclusions regarding the various headphones/amps, but that's the chance we'd be taking.
So, who's with me?
Ultimately, I envision a separate thread from this one that would contain the actual "petition" that individul members would "sign" by simply posting and giving their approval. After we've achieved some kind of critical mass in this new thread, I would e-mail the editor of Stereophile with our list of "demands"
What do you say?
Mark
