Originally Posted by
Filterlab
It's almost impossible for a hi-fi publication to be completely objective when testing, the writers have generally been in the hi-fi game for years and years and consequently have expectations and experience of what manufacturers offer. This has to influence their opinion either negatively or positively as their test then becomes subjective, however subjectivity from memory is tricky as if one recalls something that was very good from a while ago, the mind tends to hold it in exceptional light if the current point of comparison is not as impressive. This leads to an inner monologue along the lines of "well, it's not as good as X, and it's certainly nowhere near as good as Y" etc etc. Of course a strict A/B comparison may yield more accurate results but publications inevitably don't have the time.
As for Howard's original question, there is a notable decline in magazines of every genre, except maybe computer related magazines, and that's the crux of the reason; when one is looking for information on anything the first port of call is usually Google.