Evaluating Recommendations

Choosing equipment is a easy enough at one level but choosing the best sounding items is another matter altogether due to the incredible number of brands in the market. Choice usually boils down to who you trust and personal experience. Key reference points may be summarised as:

1. Reviews
2. Forums
3. Shops
4. Demonstrations
5. Personal Experience
6. Technical Specifications
7. Brand Reputation

The Hi Fi community is generally very friendly at all levels and a pleasure to belong to. We love serving our customers and contributing to their listening pleasure. We also respect and generally get on well with shops magazines and the people involved with competitive brands.

In the context of the above we should add that it is easy to be confused at what is read when one is fresh to the world of Hi Fi ( it still is confusing!). After nearly a quarter of a century in the community, we feel it may be helpfull to pass on a few observations that might help those new to the scene. This is to understand what is said in various circles and read between the lines. In common with most industries there are politics involved between magazines, manufacturers and shops. There are people who will say exactly what they think without fear or favour, but most of the time diplomacy rules. Hence opinions aired are influenced in varying degrees by factors such as profit, survival, alliegences, personal preferences, nostalgia, sentimentality, loyalty etc.

The number of product recommendations available is overwhelming. Time is simply too short to audition everything - when a reviewer says "put this product X on your shortlist" it would be to add to a list of over 30 already on it if you read all the magazines! At the end of the day all of us have to consult an "expert" - a guru with vast experience and infallible knowledge. That's the dream at least! Finding sources and people you can trust is enormously beneficial - we hope the following will help to avoid some of the pitfalls and ensure you get the best results.

Printed Magazine Reviews - are regarded with everything from blind trust that everything is true, to well informed cynisism that they are plain misleading. The truth lies somewhere in the middle depending on the reviewer and magazine concerned - it is important to realize that reviewers don't claim to be infallible (there are a few exceptions of course!).

The magazines do a great job of informing us on what is out there in the market place - they tend to be a lot more accountable for what they write than some of the stuff you can read on a forum and therefore are a very worthwhile source of information. On the whole we support the magazine industry for these reasons.

Most people like to trust reviews and make their choice based on what the "experts" say. By all means consider what is said but it needs to be weighed in context of factors not always considered which make it a very dubious course of action to simply go by a magazine recommendation ALONE.

• If you go by magazine reviews then make sure you aquire them from a number of different magazines. Reviewers have different room acoustics, different systems, different preferences - all of which influence results.
  
• It is best not to trust the latest "flavour of the month" - just because something is new, is no gaurantee that it is better than something designed 40 years ago. Also older products from say 5 years ago can have outstanding reviews that are forgotten now but still equally valid.
  
• It is said that almost everything gets a great review - This makes product selection tricky at times unless you really know what you are looking for. Magazines need to earn money, which mainly comes from the advertising revenue of Hi Fi dealers and manufacturers. A magazine has a difficult path to tread in recommending one product over another, as it may be at the expense of offending the other manufacturer. The general consensus nowadays seems to be to avoid giving too much air time to any one brand as this is unfair. More to the point, it is a fairly suicidal course of action in terms of alienating other manufacturers and readers who happen to own other brands than the chosen favourite.

Internet Magazine Reviews - these are catagorised differently to printed magazines as they tend not to be run for profit. They are relatively free of the influences that can plague those that rely on advertising revenue. The writers are genuine enthusiasts who have full time jobs outside the Hi Fi industry - they write in their spare time for very little if any cash return. Again try and get a consensus as there are always whacky opinions.

Forums have the apparent advantage of being totally objective and free of the influence of advertising revenue. The advice, experience and opinions of forum members can be very helpfull or extremely misleading. They depend entirely on the quality of people involved - the trick is to discern the genuine enthusiasts with a good ear and great judgement from those with an axe to grind. Worse still are those manufacturers posing as ordinary forum members - manufacturers or one man bands who engage in this practise do so in diguise to dismiss their competitors products as rubbish and promote themselves, so beware, it goes on sadly.

Shops provide access to view and audition a wide variety of brands. There are some excellent dealers and there are others who lost interest in Hi Fi a long time ago or who go for maximum profit at the expense of objective recommendation - there are some products that have much higher profit margins offered by manufacturers. If a dealer can make up to 30% more by selling product from manufacturer (X) over a similar retail priced product from manufacturer (Y), which is he going to recommend?

Also beware of "great discounts" - we put it like this - "would you prefer to buy a £2500 arm with a £1000 discount, or a £675 arm with no discount that outperforms said £2500 arm?

Demonstrations A good demonstration in your own system is ultimately the safest way of purchasing equipment.

Personal Experience Get to know people, and manufacturers who deliver what is promised.

Technical Specifications Technical claims are often not all they are cracked up to be - see why

Brand Reputation Good design is more about a mindset than years of experience. Companies that are outstanding in one area often expand with equal success into new ones.

For further information please email us at originlive@originlive.com or tel/fax us on 02380578877