Audio Magazines and Audio Boards

Holydoc

What are some good magazines that I should be subscribing to in order to stay abreast of a good upgrade path for the future? Which magazines are respected and which should I avoid?

What about forums? What are the best forums for stereo and HT discussions?

jeremie

www.avsforum.com

dorokusai

www.pastemagazine.com

The best music mag....period.

MLZ

I like:

Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/main.html

Stereophile http://www.stereophile.com/

Holydoc

jeremie wrote:

www.avsforum.com

I definitely read AVS every day. They seem to be abreast of the new technology coming out and have a very large user base.

Holydoc

dorokusai wrote:

www.pastemagazine.com

The best music mag....period.

Dorok,

I am looking for something that discusses equipment indepth. This magazine seems to focus on musical artists. I am interested in the Toys.

Holydoc

MLZ wrote:

I like:

Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/main.html

Stereophile http://www.stereophile.com/

Though I love HomeTheatreHifi's reviews, their forums seem to be sparsely populated. I do not seem to extract much information from them.

I am not familar with Sterophile. Thanks for the idea of a new site. I will go check them out.

George Grand

www.sensiblesound.com

That's the website. The real title is The $ensible Sound.

mrbigbluelight

www.audioreview.com

A review of Rti4's is here on that site:
http://www.audioreview.com/POLKRTI4crx.aspx


Of course, one of the best review/discussion sites can be found at this address:

http://www.polkaudio.com

Tour2ma

Holydoc wrote:

I am interested in the Toys.

But sooner or later the toys are assembled and then you need something for them to do...

Cool site, Mark... just spent 20 or 30 minutes there, in part filling out their songwriters poll.

peteran

Widescreen Review, Home Theater, Sound&Vision have articles for current and future audio video equipment. Also have bench test and comparisons.

http://www.widescreenreview.com/

http://www.hometheatermag.com/

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/

TheReaper

www.affordableaudio.org

LuSh

edit.

LuSh

Having subscribed to a number of magazines including UHF and The Absolute Sound I can only recommend one thing. Audiogon.com The reason's are simple. There are some blokes on that forum that have the cash and the knowledge to put together reference systems that the mag's simply can't afford or keep long enough to obtain intimate knowledge.

Alot of what goes on in magazines is simply rehased "safe" product's that will be given positive reviews in order to help for advertising space. UHF was one of the few that could challenge this, and have given their fair share of negative reviews. They use to never print in color and kept costs low in order to "keep it real". UHF is also the only magazine that has a dedicated system where they review all components alongside a system they've heard for years. Most other mag's will review all the components together for an upcoming issue. If you're to review speakers and you're using a pre-amp, amp and source that you've never heard before what's doing what? Are the speakers you're reviewing that great or perhaps it's something else in the chain you've never heard before.

Audiogon is basically no hold's barred. Some people like Albert Porter and Mike Lavigne have systems that the editors of Stereophile and Absolute Sound could only dream of. And they've had these systems for years, knowing exactly what works and what doesn't. Even second tier people like Bryan White and others have an intimate knowledge of cables and "alternative" electronics. These guy's dont have to post a positive review, they're not being paid. And alot of times these guy's know what's good before the mag's do, case in point EMM Labs, darTZeel, Oritek and Supratek.

I'd try and stay right away from the SoundAndVisions of the world. If I HAD to start somewhere it would be The Absolute Sound and UHF. But before long I'd try and seek the advice from somebody at Audiogon before using mags. I'm not a huge home theatre guy but the guys at the avsforums boggle my mind, and dish out as much horrid advice as they help people.

mhardy6647

www.audioasylum.com
www.audiokarma.org

Tour2ma

There've been several similar threads oin the past. Seach titles using "Magazine*" or "read*". Here's one fairly recent example of what you'll find.

Agree on many of the commercial mag's. I've been an on again/ off again Stereophile subscriber for years. While I enjoy the likes of Sam Tellig, ultimately I end up feeling like it mostly shills for Audio Advisor. Ditto for Ultimate A/V, the sister publication on the A/V side.

Agree on SoundandVision... did a one-year stint with them for like $6 and only took one issue to make me feel that it's just weak.

Forums can be a great source of information, but as is the case here, the more specific you can be with your questions, the more useful will be the replies. Ask a very general question and you normally have to shift through widely varying opinions and have your "bias alert systems" set to high.

W WALDECKER

Holydoc wrote:

What are some good magazines that I should be subscribing to in order to stay abreast of a good upgrade path for the future? Which magazines are respected and which should I avoid?

What about forums? What are the best forums for stereo and HT discussions?

I dont read too many audio magazines because i feel that they are somewhat tainted by advertising dollars. by far my favorite forums are Club Polk,the DIY audio forums and the Audio Circles forums. thanks....WCW III

Holydoc

Tour2ma wrote:

Forums can be a great source of information, but as is the case here, the more specific you can be with your questions, the more useful will be the replies. Ask a very general question and you normally have to shift through widely varying opinions and have your "bias alert systems" set to high.

My bad for not being specific enough.

I am totally engrossed in the Home Theatre hobby. My goal is to get the best reproduction of theatre presentations in both the picture quality and especially the sound.

I am also under some constraints. The largest constraint being the fact that I do not have the facility to dedicate a room as a HT room. The room I am forced to use is an open plan Living Room. What I mean by open plan is that the living room is open to the dining room and the foyer. The living room itself is 12'x20' with Vaulted ceilings.

The fact that the Living Room is my HT and entertainment room, I cannot use a projector because of the light seeping in from the other rooms. Therefore I had to rely on a 50" plasma to be the video. I selected a plasma because of its incredible picture reproduction.

The nice thing is that my house is separated from my neighbors and insulated enough that it becomes fairly sound proof. This allows me to crank the system up as far as necessary to produce the sound I want. It also allows me to create sound loud enough to shake the pictures (these all have felt behind them to prevent rattle).

So though I understand that I will probably not get the total sound of a dedicated HT, I have positioned the 7.1 speaker system and calibrated to such a point that my system impresses most and delivers a pleasing production.

So with those specifics, I am now constantly searching to improve the experience. However, I do not want to purchase something just to purchase it. I want to research and understand why something will improve my experience. That is the ANALYST in me. That is why I am asking about magazines and forums.

This forum has been a tremendous help to me. But I need to understand and research where I should concentrate my next upgrade. For instance I would not want to purchase a pre-amp for several $1000 just to find out that the improvement was negligible. However if that $5000 speaker will substantially improve my sound or that $25 DVD player will produce a much better presentation, then I want to know about it.

Tour, I hope I have given you enough specifics to understand my desires.

Holydoc

LuSh wrote:

Having subscribed to a number of magazines including UHF and The Absolute Sound I can only recommend one thing. Audiogon.com The reason's are simple. There are some blokes on that forum that have the cash and the knowledge to put together reference systems that the mag's simply can't afford or keep long enough to obtain intimate knowledge.
QUOTE]

Lush,

Audiogon.com seems to be a good place to ask specific questions. I do not think I am to that point right now. Currently I could not tell you what is considered mid-fi as opposed to High-fi. I am beginning to learn but need that sort of reference first.

Holydoc

Tour2ma wrote:

There've been several similar threads oin the past. Seach titles using "Magazine*" or "read*". .

Tour,

Thanks for the heads up. Found a very nice link there to a free online magazine:

http://www.avguide.com/index.jsp

It is an interesting read.

jeffwalter

Hometheatremag.com is good.