Audio Rags & Forums Good or Bad?

In what ways do you think the audio magazines and forums have helped us as listeners, and in what ways do you think they have failed if any?

Hey, Mr. Green,

I always credit Widescreen Review magazine in its early years for leading me to you. Otherwise, as for the mags, I gave up on them many years ago. You could never tell if they were favoring advertisers or not. The stuff they lauded always cost a bundle and a half. The mantra was for components, components, components. Integrated was a dirty word; separates were king. And of course, don't forget to dampen those mythical first reflection points, if not the whole dang room.

I once compiled a packet of pages I downloaded off the internet from the 'net mags, which lead me to doing things I have abandoned like buying out a stock of ferrite cores at a local Radio Shack and putting them on EVERY cable and power cord. I recall one article suggested a form of tuning that involved putting a clothespin at a particular spot on a power cord, said spot to be determined by listening. No doubt this would do something, but as you would say, mostly impede the signal transfer and cut down on the vibrations needed for same.

At one time, you seemed to be welcome on the AVS Forum, but your adventure at Audio Circle this past winter has proved the old adage about how opinions are like buttholes, and so many opinions there seemed to be BURN THE HERETIC MICHAEL GREEN! Except for TechnoZone (and Film-Tech, a site for people who work in movie theaters), I don't participate in 'net forums anymore because of the local "bullies" who seem to delight in telling me that I'm a boob, sort of like that Peter Gabriel song "You're Not One of Us."

It's very disheartening that a hobby as fun as this is, has allowed such an awful crowd run them. The word insecure comes to mind.

I still believe though, that at any time it's going to turn around and smiles will flow in from the four corners.

It would/will be exciting to watch many listeners gather with uplifting spirits, ready to help each other, and actually talk about sound.

Hi Guys

You know to me it's interesting that the readers feel they know the Rags and Mags but if they saw the behind the scenes would they feel the same way. Last night I put in about 5 hours of listening (a short time for me) and while doing so was thinking about the disconnect the writters have from the art of tweaking.

After listening I went back and started digging through some articles from the mid 2000's and was trying to get my mind around what was being said and couldn't. The articles sounded like a commercial, an ad for why you should keep buying something you already bought. I couldn't find anything on making your system sound good   What I saw was "here's how this equipment sounds when you throw it in a setup".

Does this have anything to do with the hobby of listening to music? The hobby is an action sport, is it not? If it was merely about plug and play than there are a lot of folks who have been ripped off cause I know no system that just plays on it's own without using tools.

Here's what I read. I plugged this into that and here's how it sounded. What  That's what we are doing? I thought we were making our systems play music information and tapping our toes.

When are the forums and mags going to start putting the whole audio system into action? I'm always glad to see my products used in reviews but often sit here reading and wanting to say "hey do this". Why aren't these guys getting on the phone saying "I got this sound but I want to get that sound" like the listeners in this hobby do? Have they magically figured out things on their own  . Man if I was a reviewer I would be going nuts cause I know how much work it is to get these big over built toys to get along. If they have to get out a review on something every month how do they get something that needs 6 months to burn in, to burn in?

I know what it takes me to do what I do and I'm suppose to be pretty good   but I have to confess this is work, and even more work if you only have one room. I know how to get the sound from point A to B and plugging and playing it on the fly is not going to give but maybe a few percentages from what a component can or can't do.

hmmmm, where are the real tweaks out there and are they writing based on a big enough picture to tell the story for real?