What's the first thing you do when looking for your next Hi-Fi or Home Cinema purchase? Look at reviews?
Yes, so do I, and it's a sensible place to start. But it can also be dangerous. Reviews are all well and good, and an excellent place to begin putting together a short list. But if we rely on them too much, rather than our own judgement - based on listening - they can become a hindrance.
Star Turn
Thursday, 7th June 2012
Chances are, the decision to buy the new product you are after is based on the premise that it will enhance your enjoyment by bringing better sound and/or pictures into your life. And who will be listening and watching? Certainly not the reviewer! So whose opinion matters most? YOURS!Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't "let's have a dig at reviewers" time - far from it. Reviewers have the advantage of being able to listen to a vast array of similar products and give a highly professional judgement between them, based on years of learning and experience. That's why we should take their opinion seriously. But remember, even they may have come to a different conclusion having made the comparison in your room with your system.
Trust your ears
Cards on the table now: I know that, in the past, I have purchased an amplifier on the basis that it got a five star review when I knew the other I compared it with - the recipient of just a four star review - sounded better in my system. It was clearly better, but I wanted to know I had bought the 'best' product for the money. In other words, I didn't have enough confidence in my own listening. So I settled for second best.
How relevant are star ratings?
It's in this context that I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet this month. Why are we so obsessed with Five-Star ratings? A recent review of our 2-way X2 block specifically stated that it lost a star due to having limited appeal (being just a two-way device); a) it was designed for people who had a simple system of just two components - that's the point! And b), if limited appeal was the reason for losing a star, surely no product over £5000 can ever get a five star review...?
I'm not going to dwell on this - I just offer it as an example of how the difference between a four and five star review is often, to all intents and purposes, irrelevant. More important is how suitable it is for your intended purpose and how it is going to perform in your system, and as long as the product doesn't get a bad review, it may still be worth adding to your listening list.
Sound advice
In his excellent book, 'The Complete Guide to Hi-End Audio', Robert Harley, himself a long term reviewer and editor of The Absolute Sound magazine, offers this useful snippet of advice:
"A common mistake among audiophiles looking for guidance is to select a component on the basis of a rave review without fully auditioning the product for themselves...
Buying products solely on the basis of a review is fraught with danger. Never forget that a review is no more than one person's opinion, however informed and educated that opinion might be... Trust your own ears." Robert Harley
It's this last sentiment which is at the heart of our ethos at Russ Andrews, and the primary reason why we offer the 60 day home trial: there simply is no better way to establish whether a product is worthwhile until you have the chance to sit back and judge for yourself in your own room with your own ears.
First published in Connected magazine, Issue 22, Summer 2012
Written By Simon Dalton
RSS Subscribe
Join us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Pinterest
Find us on Google Plus
