The Audio Critic
Throughout my years dabbling in audio/video I discovered by trial and error which products worked for me and which ones didn't, I had started out following the audio/video 'rules' as they were written in all the various publications and slowly started relying more on common sense.
If I couldn't hear a difference or see a difference then what was the point? I started my most 'critical thinking' after discovering a small publication called '
The Audio Critic' in this publication I found people who were telling it like it is with no marketing or hype! I finished reading it and I immediately wanted more but
The Audio Critic was not exactly published at regular intervals and not a mainstream publication. I had Issues 16 thru 29 and decided to scan them to make them more portable but each .pdf was over 100 megs so I decided to try some OCR software and after converting the files they were reduced to about 2 megs each. I then contacted Peter Azcel (editor of
The Audio Critic) about allowing back issues of
The Audio Critic to be downloaded as .pdf's and he has agreed, the link is below.
Update Jan 6th 2007 .pdf's of The Audio Critic
Issues 16 thru 29 of The Audio Critic can be downloaded from The Audio Critic website Here
With the exception of a new article entitled High-End Flummery all of the articles below were taken from Issue 24 of The Audio Critic.
Audio Critique
As I don't have a real links section this seemed to most logical spot to link to what I believe is a must read article on how Audio reviewers work and the rules they must follow. The site is called 'Audio Critique' and has much more information related to audio than I can describe in this small blurb so when your 're ready for more just click Here.
'Hi-End Flummery'
in summary, the editors of Stereophile state that they do not use double-blind testing because it gives them different — "wrong" — answers. ABX is the terminology used for a particular kind of double-blind audio testing, a very easy kind to do. In effect, Stereophile Magazine is "dowsing" for whatever equipment they are promoting each month. Using techniques beloved of dowsers everywhere, they always find the right (usually more expensive) equipment!
Paste This in Your Hat! (What Every Audiophile Should Know and Never Forget)
A 'must' read for anyone involved with audio, Pleas read this first before anything else!
The Good Guys in the White Hats and the Bad Guys in the Black Hats: a Guide for the Perplexed
In audio, as in life, there are good guys and bad guys--good and bad manufacturers, designers, dealers, publishers, reviewers, editors, etc. Here you have them conveniently listed for reference.
Consumer and Designer Prejudices in High-End Audio: A New Way to Examine
We look at high-end audio circuitry not from the testing point of view but as an engineering discipline--and find no consistency. (Fair warning this one is not for the faint of heart, it contains highly technological themes, but a must read before you purchase your next Amplifier)
Two-Channel Stereo Is As Dead As the LP
Major improvements in any performance- based technology, especially audio, come in quantum leaps. Fundamental leaps The architecture of the Home Theater system popularized by Dolby Pro Logic programs and high-quality multichannel decoders like the Lexicon have laid the basic foundation for the next major leap forward: discrete multichannel recordings.
Thrice Shy: Multichannel Music Formats Further Considered
I will examine what are perhaps the two key considerations for music lovers:
(1) the adequacy of multichannel recording techniques in terms of what is known about localization by the human ear and
(2) the fidelity of multichannel playback systems according to the same criterion. I will also have a few words to say concerning the use of music systems in video applications.
