Are the so called "experts" online & printed magazine reviews?
1. Cost of running a major online web magazine w/forum is 40-60,000/yr.
2. Advertising Revenue is CRITICAL in meeting such costs.
3. Magazines OFTEN print little more than Advertising Editorial.
4. Reviews are Subjective & Testing Methods subject to Confounding Error.
5. Trading Standards require products meet their Technical Specification, BUT that specification need NOT be based on any standard - you can just make one up yourself. Kitchen drawer testing with any result you want.
6. They rely on the consumer to "I ASSUME" or "I THOUGHT"
Online magazines in particular are often owned by commercial interests, typically retail operations, thus independence is simply non existent.
Online magazines which are fronts for retailers have a significant number of online contributors who are in fact employees. One UK Etailer has 7 min-wage staff continually posting across web forums pushing products, they have back-end sales targets to meet. To all intents and purposes other posters may appear "general public" but are in fact not. Boiler Rooms - drowning out competing products to push their products.
Product reviews are usually the area of "institutionalised make believe".
- Testing methodologies are rarely defined, replicable or controlled
- Consumer products often do not meet their specification by routine
It would surprise many to know just how many Western Brands of industrial to consumer electrical accessories are in fact made in China and merely relabelled. One sure sign is when no-one can answer even the most basic technical enquiry, they don't make it, they just relabel it.
Many products claimed to be made in the West are not, the EU for example only requires the last significant manufacturing operation to be performed in the EU (apply a label, or packaging, or assembly).
The profit is absolutely massive on "audiophile".
Some products ARE very good - someone develops a good set of speakers, or a good amplifier. Other products are actually sold on the basis of their sound colouration - benefits are placebo & subjective.
Many companies actually only survive by selling such huge-margin products, so the incentive is very considerable. Remember HP is only profitable by its ink cartridge business, wake up and smell the coffee.
The MBA has not only deteriorated in quality, but in ethics far beyond the financial services sector - May Be Arraigned is a more accurate term. The USA pushed heavily "Upselling" as the repackage crap/surplus/junk. Upselling ranged from dot-com stocks where you stress an IPOs attributes that matched a similar existing high valuation company, but ignore the limitations (lipstick on a pig), right across to consumer goods. Ratners, selling in their own words "crap" - it's the bread n butter of sneaktail.
There are variations in IEC leads.
- Choose well made simple leads whose plug fits reliably into the product.
The only cable that usually matters is...
- Aerial - low quality braid, crushed on every clip, lots of junctions, rusty masthead terminations
- Length - any excessively long cable for video needs to be of good quality (which basically means the right Belden rather than a clone)
The audiophile arena is full of the biggest pile of junk science ever.
Some of which is electrically unsafe. Re CY cables 1) many are not specified for connection to mains supply (HVAC control only) 2) many are not specified for outside use (so beware excessive UV exposure) 3) they should not have braid terminated in anything but the proper glands (not twisted into a plug). Good cable is H07RNF 1.5mm - will do for anything. The "2.5mm into rear of plug" is usually a Clipsal IP66 plug with the locking ring removed, it actually has poor retention into most sockets.
