Quote Originally Posted by Dalek Supreme D L View Post
Hard to see how Choice can be improved unless they abandon their format. When times got tight for me a few years back Choice was the first magazine I stopped buying and based on my occasional looks on the news agents shelf I am not missing anything as it has got worse.

I wasn't really going to comment on this thread but I am quite surprised by this move as David is moving from a magazine that is txt based i.e mostly long form articles to a more photograph based magazine with more short form articles. So unless Choice is going to move away from the comparison based review process (a flawed one in my opinion (1) to more individual long form reviews I can't see that aspect of Choice, that I don't personally like, changing any time soon.

I am curious to see what happens but like Ken Kessler's short lived move to Choice I suspect David will be back in HiFi World before too long unless he has burnt his bridges; which I hope he hasn't as World (while not a fave of mine it did survive the cull of magazines I stopped buying at the time I lost my job nearly 4 years ago, though I don't buy it every month) will be a much poorer title with David gone.


Regards D S D L

(1)

In my view one system being used to review 10 CD players or 10 pairs of speakers etc does not work as system synergy with those components is hardly possible with this reviewing approach. The products that do well only do so so as they just happen to match the test system and those that do badly fail as they don't. Does that make them flawed products no. It was possible to predict which products would do badly with Choices group reviews based on the system used and the panel doing the review, just as it is with What HiFi and their acoustically dead listening room.
I am assuming the new owners have hired David with a view to format change. I can't see him lasting if he isn't largely allowed to do his own thing. Whenever I browse through the pages in WHS there isn't anything realy worth reading in Choice now.

I agree about the comparative reviews but to some extent all magazines do them on occasion with a limited range of systems or without defining in what context the product is reviewed. This also goes for individual product reviews where a reviewer sticks largely to his own system components. As far as World is concerned the queries section gives a better indication of products that they like long term than the 4/5 globe reviews. Hardly anything gets to review stage that would not get at least a 3 globe rating.