Which of these publications is worth spit? (1 Viewer)

[EricHaas]

OK, I told my daughter I would buy a certain number of magazine subscriptions so she can get some little doo-dad prizes. Please help me select 1 or possibly 2 of these publications:

Sound & Vision

Stereophile

Home Theater

Guide to Home Theater

Audio & Video Interiors

My criteria are quality and quantity of reviews. Quality means objectivety and good writing. I particularly dislike publications which give everything good reviews.

For whatever magazines you are familar with just tell me thumbs up, down or sideways. And yes, I already know my mileage may vary. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dan Hine]

Eric,
Of those listed I would say for Stereophile: Guide to Home Theater and for Sound and Vision. The rest can just disappear. HT Mag seems to give everything a very high rating and AV Interiors is mostly just for the pretty pictures.
Might I also add The Perfect Vision and Widescreen Review? Both are great magazines with intelligent reviews as well as not giving everything a 5star rating just to be nice. They also seem to lean more to the technical end (especially Widescreen). Good luck with your decision.
Dan Hine

 

[Kris McLaughlin]

My 2-second, 2-mag review:
Sound & Vision - thumb sideways - just started receiving this one.
Home Theater - - Everything gets a glowing review. I'm still kind of a sucker for the pretty pictures and the somewhat large format, but I find it mostly fluff.
Cheers,
EDIT: darn this slow typing ability, darn it all to heck! Dan, you beat me to it.

 

[Joe Schwartz]

Eric, you should also consider the type of equipment that each magazine tends to review. I used to read Stereophile, but stopped because they mostly reviewed very expensive high-end equipment. (Are they still like that?)
Sound & Vision reviews what I'd call affordable equipment -- there's nothing in there that makes me roll my eyes, like a $4000 interconnect cable. Their reviews tend to be overly positive, but if they find a glaring flaw they'll mention it.
I haven't read the other magazines on your list, so I'll let someone else describe them.

 

[KeithH]

For me, Stereophile is good. I am a stereo fan first, and Stereophile gives good reviews of quality equipment, including SACD players. Stereophile Guide to Home Theater is worth having as well. I could do without the others. Sound & Vision and Home Theater seem to love everything. As for magazines showing home theaters of the rich and famous, . I won't spend money to see pictures of other people's home theaters.

 

[Paul_Fisher]

I've been getting Sound & Vision for a couple of months and I really like it. Like someone else said they actually do reviews of equipment that is affordable, not thousands and thousands of dollars.

Hope this helps

 

[RicP]

IMO, Stereophile (I've been a subscriber for 13 years) and SGHT are the only two worth reading.

If you can get S&V for less than $6 for the year it may be worth it as reading material for the bathroom.

 

[Orlando]

I like Sound & Vision as well. They do have a tendency to give a Disney approach to everything. But like has been mentioned, if there is something to worry about or overly wrong they do make a point of it. I like it because it is geared more to the enthusiast (which I am) with modest goals. I could see how the audio and videophiles might not like it because it really doesn’t get into the super high-end stuff.

 

[EricK]

I would go for Stereophile and SGHT...I agree with what Ric P says...Sound & Vision is good for those private times in the Bathroom (although their articles are great for someone who is a novice in the hobby)...
Eric.

 

[ling_w]

Sound & Vision use to be Stereo Review, which, from what I remember, would not publish reviews if it turned out negative. Anyway, S&V and SR, even if it was a bad product, they would put it in a good light.

Stereophile might spend alot of the time talking about the sound quality (nowhere nearly as long as TAS,) but their writers are good enough that you won't wander off if it gets too much over your head (Of course, nothing could shield you from JA and his barrage of measurements.) Others might talk feature, specs, measurements & a brief mention of sound.

 

[EricHaas]

Thanks for all the recommendations. I could have assumed, even without reading anything, that there would be two schools of audio mags - those that review low and midfi stuff but give everything a glowing review (the Disney approach), and those that are more critical but cater to the high end (the snob approach). So I ordered one of each, SGHT and S&V. I figured what the hey, I need some better reading material for the can anyway. I am getting kind of tired of that baseball trivia book we have sitting on top of the tank...

 

[ThomasL]

Eric, I get Sound and Vision and Home Theater Magazine. Like almost any magazine that gets its money from the companies that advertise in it, they are overly positive on everything but Sound and Vision seems to give a little more substance to their reviews and the equipment written about seems to be more in line with my budget. I've also read/looked at Perfect Vision and a few others, and I have to say most are no different. This may be an obvious statement but the information you'll find on a forum like this, and other on-line sites, will outweigh anything you'll find in these magazines but still, they're good for casual reading on that lazy Saturday afternoon.
cheers,
--tom

 

[Randy Schissler]

I subscribe to Sound & Vision (I got it incredibly cheap) and although the reviews seem overly positive, the "In The Lab" section of the review can be quite revealing as to the true performance of the item. In other words, you have to read the fine print to see how they really feel.

--Randy S.

 

[Ronnie Schildha]

I have been reading Sound and Vision since their first issue. If you are mainly into HT then I would highly recommend it.