Ever seen a truly negative speaker review? (1 Viewer)

[Kwang Suh]

Funny about the Mission floorstanding speakers... I agree with them that Mission floorstandings in general have terrible bass.

 

[Tim Ranger]

Nope, you'll rarely see very critical reviews. However, as Keith mentioned, if you follow how certain reviewers write, you can start to read between the lines and see when they are't all that thrilled with a product.
Anyone who buys because of reviews deserves what they do or don't get. Read lots of reviews and you might get a bit of a flavor for a product. Take the time to listen for yourself and you'll really taste it. I'd also add that I think that quick listens are pretty worthless. Your really need a lot of hours to really know what something sounds like.

 

[Evan S]

For those of you looking for a negative review, look no further than this month's Stereophile Guide to Home Theater. Amazingly, they were critical of the same Cambridge Soundworks Newton 500's that I mentioned earlier in this thread. I am not trying to bash Cambridge by any means with this post. I will provide what the reviewer said and the manufacturers follow-up.

From the review...

We are puzzled by Michael Fremer's review of our Newton Series T500 speaker system. Our many hours of listening have yet to reveal the "slow, dark, grainy" sound he describes. We are particularly confused by his approval of the tonal balance and resolve of the MC500 center speaker, in contrast to his disapproval of the T500 main speakers. The tweeters, midranges and woofers of these two models are identical. As to the comparison to the "similarly priced systems", we would invite your readers to make the same comparison, taking advantage of our 45 day satisfaction guarantee. We think they'll like what they hear.

So I guess bad reviews exist after all.

 

[Scott Cunninghm]

Good point on listening to stuff.

10 years ago I bought a pair of Bose 10.2 (yes, Bose, I know what you are thinking) based on listening to them compared to about 15 other models. Back then I knew NOTHING, not that Bose was good or bad, just bought what I liked to hear. While grossly mediocre by today's standards, they were solidly built (I moved them overseas twice, and here in the US 3-4 times) and still sound fine.

Sure I will eventually upgrade, but these actually sounded the best to me at the time. I didn't bother reading reviews, and it was before the internet so my ears were all I had to go with.

 

[Phill O]

I remember reading a review of some German speakers, I think they where the Kirkseater( or some such thing). The reviewer from Listener did not like them at all, thought that they where too bright. To listeners credit they did re-review them when the manufacturer said that they where not setup proper. When they where setup to the manufacturer specs the review did say that they improved. Apparently these rear ported speakers need to be almost butt up against a wall, kinda goes against what we are told. But he still dindn't like them. But he said there was an improvement.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Was that review on the Newton T500's on a forum. I have only read glowing reviews in national publications

It's in the upcoming January issue of "Stereophile-GTHT" that the CSW Newtons rec'd an overwhelmingly negative review.

 

[Mike Sloan]

Evan...I guess that underscores the importance of listening first hand. I have spent many hours with the T500's and would disagree with the finding of Stereophile. I find this disquieting , howerver, because I regard SGTH as a straight shootin mag. This review does not help their credibility. I know "first hand" that this simply is not the case...go to my original post and see speakers in the "shoot-out." There is always the chance that they received a mod that I didn't get...far fetched, however. They also made the statement that the VTF-3 is the best sub in the 1000 and below category (Dec issue)....maybe close...but not entirely accurate. Oh well...still fun to read!

 

[Bill Law]

An aside:
Fremer is a liberal first and reviewer second.
He can barely stop himself from going off on some liberal tirade while writing his reviews.
His reviews may still be accurate, though (as long as Al Gore or President Bush don't make speakers that is.)

 

[Rich Malloy]

As for the CSW-Newton review, I was somewhat taken aback by the apparently brief listen he gave them, comprised as far as I can tell of a single album and a single DVD, the former I'm not familiar with and the latter the fantastic, but far less than "audiophile quality" DD-5.1 track of "The Last Waltz". Then again, if the reviewer is quite familiar with those two sources, then they may well serve as excellent barometers for judging the performance of these speakers. Still, one would think a wider variety of material might be illuminating.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the review, he does spend a long time describing his respect for Henry Kloss and some of the products that CSW makes. It doesn't read like a hatchet job, though one can never quite tell, and he seemed very reluctant and dismayed about imparting such a negative view. Perhaps that's why it was so brief. Or perhaps he simply didn't give them their due. And I doubt it has anything to do with presidential politics.

Nonetheless, it's the most current example of a "truly negative speaker review in a professional magazine", but certainly not the only one I've ever read. Whether any of the other bigger publications aside from Stereophile (or maybe The Absolute Sound) ever publish "negative" reviews, I simply don't know. Having leafed through a few absolutely worthless, though very glossy home theater/audio mags in the airport recently, though, I wonder. There was one - can't remember the name - that was positively dreadful, nothing more than a huzzah chorus for their advertisers, near as I could tell.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I'm surprised no one has considered that perhaps, and I'm saying only perhaps, the editors don't bother publishing the bad reviews. Its possible that these magazines are hard pressed to put in every review they write, so they pull the bad ones in favor of showing their readers more good products worth their consideration.

Can anyone show a case where a glowing review of some speakers was published, and later most people found those speakers to actually be crap? I think its unfair to say that the publishers are trying to protect their ad revenue without citing examples of clearly sucking up to them.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Can anyone show a case where a glowing review of some speakers was published, and later most people found those speakers to actually be crap?

Bose AM-15 Home Theater Speaker System by Rich Warren
Phil

 

[Evan S]

Mike, again I'm not bashing CSW products as I own quite a few myself (two Center channel plus speakers, along with two ensemble sat/sub systems). That's why I included the manufacturers response to the review in my post. I wanted Cambridge's voice to be heard here on the forum and didn't want my post to sound so one sided.

If you enjoy your speakers, that's all that matters, let the reviewer's opinion be damned. I haven't heard these speakers so I cannot comment.

 

[John_M_W]

One reason why you rarely find a truly negative speaker review in a magazine is becuase there are about 400 speaker manufacturers in the industry and a limited number of places to have them reviewed by professionals so you must offer something unique or special just to get your foot in the door. If the manufacturer has gone to that much work just to set up the review, it is unlikely that they are going to submit a product that is truly bad. If it were bad, the manufacturer would know it and it is very unlikely that the product would ever get into the review cycle in the first place.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Well Phil, you found a good one, that is amazing. At least the measurements are in line with what's stated on the forums and such. I can't say for sure that I've ever read Sound & Vision, but I can definitely say I'll avoid it like the plague now.

Personally I read Home Theater Magazine and Stereophile, and I believe what I and John M W stated probably holds for those magazines. I do recall reading some somewhat negative reviews in those magazine over the years, but I can't remember which specifically, and I don't know who owned them at the time. So the best I can do is say I trust those magazines, and believe some of the others can be trusted to. I use them as a guide for products I should consider, but not as my only source for choosing.

 

[GeorgeTW]

I've read some bad reviews about Cerwin Vega from Stereo Review, but that was many years ago.

 

[Fletch]

You re gonna hear anything about all speakers at one time or another.Back in 78 I heard a pair of Klipsch Lascallas for the first time.After that all I wanted was a pair.Since then I have listened to a lot of brands,but my favorites have been those.Still don t have a pair,but I did buy Klipsch.Purely a personal preference.But they do sound so gooood.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

Hehe, I got it!
Occasionally mainstream magainse DO have negative speaker reviews but have you noticed they always mention some "pros" as well?
The negative review is put together in a way so that people don't remember it as totally negative. They also write the reviews so that nobody will remember them.
People then read what they want to hear and find a way to agree with the reviewer thus keeping an interest in the magazine.
It's also a good thing that negative reviews are made hazy and non-memorable because the magazine then has a better chance at keeping a sponsor.

 

[Andrus_R]

My kind of magazine, too bad it's in UK eh? When i read reviews either from online or from magazines i go straight for the negatives first then read the positives with a grain of salt.

 

[GeorgeTW]

"Back in 78 I heard a pair of Klipsch Lascallas for the first time.After that all I wanted was a pair"

know what you mean. The first time I heard a Bryston pre-amp /power amp with a Boston Acoustics electrostatic panel, I was in Heaven! At 15, I couldn't afford them, but nothing compared until I heard Klipshorns a few years later. Couldn't afford them either, so I settled for Heresy.