David Houpt wrote:
On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 11:51:01 +0000, Nick Gorham
wrote:


Err, isn't it all down to personal taste anyway ?

--
Nick


I agree. So I think that it is very difficult to rank order such
players, as many reviewers do, based on their own personal listening
experience and, I suspect, the price of the gear in question. Its
interesting to see how, in Hi Fi World for example, kit that measures
comparatively poorly gets a good review full of flowery, subjective
mush.

Well I guess, if its measures well, they can just fill column space with
talk about how well the numbers were. if not, they can talk subjective
bollox about the "quality" of the sound.

IMVHO, you can either take

position 1: look at the numbers (assuming they are competently
measured), decide below or above what value each number becomes
irrelevent. For example, I don't think a well designed amp with .01%
distortion will sound any worse that another amp with .001% distortion
under similar conditions.

position 2: ignore the numbers, decide they have no meaning, and decide
based on whats in fashion at the time, for example there are amps with
1% distortion that may sound better than amps with .01% distortion.

or the third way...

Spend the money you would have spent on mags on LP/CD (your choice), and
buy what sounds good to you, and as you are not reading the mags
anymore, you won't start having the nagging doubt that you are missing
something "better".

And if you want HiFi as a hobby, instead of just a way to hear music,
start building your own, then if you don't like the sound, you have only
yourself to blame.

--
Nick