Hi-Fi Magazine Ethics

[YNWaN]

I don't have a problem with what the dealer wrote - they are bound to recommend their own products.

However, I do think it is wrong of the editor to ask them in the first place.

[Yomanze]

I don't have a problem with what the dealer wrote - they are bound to recommend their own products.

However, I do think it is wrong of the editor to ask them in the first place.

Yes and yes, I'd be more worried if they weren't recommending their own products. Dealers should stock what they consider to be best at a range of price points.

[The Grand Wazoo]

That's exactly my point, Mark.
I know that dealers want my money, & that many will do what it takes to get their products into my consciousness and hopefully, into my living room.
However, a magazine editor and publisher has a responsibility to the readership. In this case, that responsibility has been either forgotten or ignored, & in a way which I think is pretty deplorable really.

[MartinT]

I feel that the editor passing on such an enquiry to any dealer is shirking his responsibility as a supposed authority. He's an editor of a Hi-Fi magazine, FFS. If he has no recommendations of his own after all the listening and reviewing he has done, he's not much good, is he?

[Joe]

I feel that the editor passing on such an enquiry to any dealer is shirking his responsibility as a supposed authority. He's an editor of a Hi-Fi magazine, FFS.

That's stretching the definition of HiFi Magazine a bit. WTF is basically a huge advertising supplement.

[Spectral Morn]

I feel that the editor passing on such an enquiry to any dealer is shirking his responsibility as a supposed authority. He's an editor of a Hi-Fi magazine, FFS. If he has no recommendations of his own after all the listening and reviewing he has done, he's not much good, is he?

Well actually I would have to say no. If the question is outside his area of expertise or his staff - assuming its not a one man band - then to not say so would be wrong. In this case he/she should direct the enquiry to the most suitable person or persons who can answer the question. That could be the original manufacturer/distributor or in this case a dealer.

Now if the question is within the capability and experience of the editor to answer and he does not then that is a poor show.

Personally I find answering questions on individual systems and rooms and how a series of components - I may or may not know - might sound in that environment is a hard one to answer. I have many years of experience but without the ability to be in the room or know all the variables of the system and the listeners foibles I can't with any accuracy answer such a question - even if I know the component personally in my own system. One of the things I always point out re the reviews I write is I give context and point out that my findings are in my set up, my room and with my music.

In cases like this I always suggest the questioner go to their closest dealer and get an audition there and then at home. If there is no dealer - increasingly the case - then that makes things much harder.

I am very aware that some - note I say some - people park their own judgement and want a trusted other - maybe a reviewer or a magazine editor - to make that decision for them by telling them it will work. Well I am sorry to say this that I for one am very concious of how much money might be resting on this so I am always very careful with what I say.

Even when a dealer I was careful in situations where I did not know the customer well or been in their room and listened to their set up re what advice I gave.

There are though occasions when an opinion can be offered with certainty re tonal compatibility/matching, specification matching, quirks or weaknesses in items etc but the subjective opinion is I feel a potentially dangerous one and I for one do shy away from these types of questions.

[MartinT]

That's stretching the definition of HiFi Magazine a bit.

That's why I said supposed. However, Chris was talking about HFW.

[MartinT]

In cases like this I always suggest the questioner go to their closest dealer and get an audition there and then at home.

Firstly, any advice received should only go into a shortlist. No-one should be requesting an exact recommendation and no-one should be offering it.

Secondly, if a magazine passes on a request for advice to any dealer, they are simply going to receive a list of that dealer's stocked products. It's human nature, I'm afraid.

So I stand by the point already made that the editor should not have passed the enquiry on to a dealer. He has staff to advise him, doesn't he?

[Marco]

+1 (with bells on).

You can't blame Cawley, as he'll try and flog whatever bollocks he sells, but the magazine should be completely impartial towards any dealer... It's a fooking joke and shouldn't be allowed!

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I'd like to think that if I were the editor, & if I were forced into a position whereby I simply had to ask a dealer to help me out and, if in receipt of that copy (which was published) from the dealer, I'd tear the copy up into very small pieces and put it in a very deep hole. If push came to shove, I'd rather not use that letter in my letters page.

But, then I'm not the editor, I'm just one of his readership.
Very, very sloppy journalism.