View Full Version : What Hi-Fi ratings explained…
Like the cut of this guys gib.
https://youtu.be/tyWvjiPdbwo?si=SgDDpbWs438PrMPk
He's often highly amusing. One of the few I can actually watch the whole video without skipping chunks of it or just switching it off.
I don't read hi-fi magazines any more - and when I did it was never 'What Hi Fi' (which to my mind was missing a question mark from its title).
The worse is probably HiFi+, where everything seems to be lauded with gushing praise; the praise increasing with the price. In fact the more expensive an item, the greater should be the critical assessment, but I don't read this in any of the mags.
I don't read hi-fi magazines any more - and when I did it was never 'What Hi Fi' (which to my mind was missing a question mark from its title).
The worse is probably HiFi+, where everything seems to be lauded with gushing praise; the praise increasing with the price. In fact the more expensive an item, the greater should be the critical assessment, but I don't read this in any of the mags.
Should be 'Which Hi-Fi?' anyway, if we're going to be pedantic.
You can read most magazine reviews on line now anyway - for what they're worth. No need to buy the glossy advertising brochures any more.
Never understood the attraction of Hi-Fi 'Plush' myself. Endless pages of waffle, no measurements. Mostly reviewed massively overpriced kit I wouldn't dream of even considering.
‘Which’ would only be correct if there is a limited number of choices . ‘What’, on the other hand, leaves the question open to any number of answers.
Magazine and internet reviews are IMO meaningless. In the early days of putting a system together of course I took good reviews as gospel and luckily I never wasted my money but it was all budget stuff anyway.
Pigmy Pony
14-03-2025, 11:00
They were probably a good way of persuading folk considering their first system to look beyond the ubiquitous midi- and stack systems and music centres.
I was in the 80s influenced to some degree by mag reviews, though I did always audition before buying. With the exception being my old LP12/Grace G707/MP11. I went for that purely on what I'd read at the time, but was actually very pleased with it. Ofc I could probably have done better, but then it was a secondhand purchase.
hifi_dave
14-03-2025, 11:14
I don't read hi-fi magazines any more - and when I did it was never 'What Hi Fi' (which to my mind was missing a question mark from its title).
The worse is probably HiFi+, where everything seems to be lauded with gushing praise; the praise increasing with the price. In fact the more expensive an item, the greater should be the critical assessment, but I don't read this in any of the mags.
Exactly so. You can add Hi-Fi News to the list of mags reviewing and raving over megabuck gear, the great majority of which is imported. It's almost as if the UK Hi-Fi manufacturers don't exist.
Anyone flicking through these mags would be convinced that Hi-Fi starts at £50K per unit and would sink their hard earned into a holiday instead.
Pigmy Pony
14-03-2025, 11:35
Exactly so. You can add Hi-Fi News to the list of mags reviewing and raving over megabuck gear, the great majority of which is imported. It's almost as if the UK Hi-Fi manufacturers don't exist.
Anyone flicking through these mags would be convinced that Hi-Fi starts at £50K per unit and would sink their hard earned into a holiday instead.
For that kind of money I could build a good size dedicated listening room onto the house, with enough change for an excellent home-grown set up.
hifi_dave
14-03-2025, 14:27
Well, that is nothing unusual for Hi-Fi News. There was a rave write up of a cartridge at that price and last month a DAC/streamer for £217K, £92K for ARC monos this month and so on. Where is the sensibly priced, UK made gear, the stuff that actually sells and is interesting to real people ?
I miss the old Comet newspaper...
Hi Fi News has become a joke and is only read by people who like to read about equipment they will never have the chance of owning.
Even the scoring system makes no sense: it moves with the cost of the gear. I would expect anything costing 5K or above to score at least 95%, but it never does.
I also get annoyed by KK's OTT writing. He used to be one of the better writers in the early days, recommending items which cost-wise punched well above their weight, but now just eulogises over every megabucks item of kit. It all started when he visited the US and met Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound magazine and wrote the most fawning claptrap ever.
Taking of which, The Absolute Sound magazine was very good in the early days. An item to be reviewed would be inserted into any of three reviewer's system, which would have different front ends, amplification and speakers. That way you could get a sort of 'common denominator' of the quality of the item being reviewed. Sadly that too has changed, and not for the better.
I miss the old Comet newspaper...
I miss the old Comet warehouses. Oh, and Laskeys and most of Tottenham Court Road's, hi-fi emporia.
Pigmy Pony
14-03-2025, 15:46
Well, that is nothing unusual for Hi-Fi News. There was a rave write up of a cartridge at that price and last month a DAC/streamer for £217K, £92K for ARC monos this month and so on. Where is the sensibly priced, UK made gear, the stuff that actually sells and is interesting to real people ?
I do still read it (though mostly for the music/record news), and only because I get it for free from my next door neighbour. He in turn gets my copies of Which? magazine.
Pigmy Pony
14-03-2025, 15:51
Hi Fi News has become a joke and is only read by people who like to read about equipment they will never have the chance of owning.
Even the scoring system makes no sense: it moves with the cost of the gear. I would expect anything costing 5K or above to score at least 95%, but it never does.
I also get annoyed by KK's OTT writing. He used to be one of the better writers in the early days, recommending items which cost-wise punched well above their weight, but now just eulogises over every megabucks item of kit. It all started when he visited the US and met Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound magazine and wrote the most fawning claptrap ever.
Taking of which, The Absolute Sound magazine was very good in the early days. An item to be reviewed would be inserted into any of three reviewer's system, which would have different front ends, amplification and speakers. That way you could get a sort of 'common denominator' of the quality of the item being reviewed. Sadly that too has changed, and not for the better.
Yeah it's not good is it? He does a thing called "Off the leash", and it's as though he's run out of things to say so he just spouts any old cack that comes to mind.
Yeah it's not good is it? He does a thing called "Off the leash", and it's as though he's run out of things to say so he just spouts any old cack that comes to mind.
His recommended 'starter system' was ridiculous.
His recommended 'starter system' was ridiculous.
What was it?
Let me guess: Nagra CD player, a Krell amplifier and Apogee ribbon Speakers!
Lawrence001
14-03-2025, 20:09
I do still read it (though mostly for the music/record news), and only because I get it for free from my next door neighbour. He in turn gets my copies of Which? magazine.It would be interesting to get Which? to do a test of the equipment reviewed by Hi-fi News. I wonder how many would be recommended as good value.
What was it?
Let me guess: Nagra CD player, a Krell amplifier and Apogee ribbon Speakers!
He based the budget on what he spent on his first ever system adjusted for inflation which worked out at 6 grand (USD). Not exactly typical for a starter system which was the first ridiculous thing.
Second was his recommended amp (valve) cost $2750 of that.
Part one is here: https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/international/soundstage-uk/1564-ken-kesslers-new-stereo-system-part-one
Pigmy Pony
14-03-2025, 21:00
My first system in 1975 cost about £120, equivalent to about £1100 in today's money, and is probably outperformed sq-wise by a £100 smart speaker.
BSR turntable £40
Bush Arena integrated £40
Wharfedale Denton speakers £40
No idea what the hifi press at the time would have thought of it. It was my 17th birthday present, which I chose over driving lessons.
Mine was £130 in 1988 which is £355 today.
The amp and turntable were okay but the speakers were rubbish. Still, it was better than the midi system it replaced.
hifi_dave
15-03-2025, 15:43
Making me feel old. My first system was assembled in 1962, when I started work. Back then it was usual to build your own which I did with a kit Mullard 5-10 amp, Wharfedale speaker (mono) in a home made 'coffin' and a Garrard AT76 (?) turntable. Would have loved an SP25 but I just couldn't afford it.
Making me feel old. My first system was assembled in 1962, when I started work. Back then it was usual to build your own which I did with a kit Mullard 5-10 amp, Wharfedale speaker (mono) in a home made 'coffin' and a Garrard AT76 (?) turntable. Would have loved an SP25 but I just couldn't afford it.
I too started off by building a Mullard 5-10 valve amplifier and pre-amp, and a speaker following a Wharfedale design using their 8" RS/8/DD unit in a 1.5 cu ft distributed port enclosure. Then a little later I built a second 5-10 amplifier and Wharfedale speaker so as to listen to stereo records.
The only thing I didn’t build, obviously, was the turntable and arm: I bought a Garrard SP25/II with a Shure M3D cartridge.
Happy days.
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