I see the op hasn't been back since starting the thread....
I see the op hasn't been back since starting the thread....
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco
Oops - what was I thinking of?
By only excuse is confusion with Hi Fi Review; thinking that 'World' had morphed into 'Review'.
And yes you are right, HFW is a good magazine, which I continue to buy on occasion. I like the reviews of unusual items of kit, but I don't agree with some of their opinions of 'classical' gear and I miss the days when it used to encourage DIY and the use of vintage items.
But I do stand by my opinion of the defunct 'The Flat Response' and it's successor 'Hi Fi Review'. Both miserable little rags, that seemed to be nothing more than propaganda for the Glasgow-Salisbury axis.
Barry
I well remember HFW giving a rave review to the Leak Troughline tuner and claiming it was the best tuner ever built by a country mile... values (temporarily) went from around £20 to £350 virtually overnight! It probably had something to do with the vast quantities of them most hi fi dealers had in the basement as door stops and paper weights... Some must have made a killing! Vastly over rated and completely trounced by Leak's later Stereofetic/Delta FM which still goes for like £35 or so...
And now I have over the years accumulated about a dozen Troughlines no one wants one... oh well they do hold a door open pretty well I can see me ending up scrapping some for the mains transformers and valve bases etc for building prototype pre amps etc.
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco
My issue with Hi-Fi World was that they produced their own gear which their own reviewers would rave about. They ran multi-page adverts for their own gear which would have cost any other advertiser a considerable sum of money. Many of the products they reviewed would have been in competition with their own products, resulting in a conflict of interests. Their own products were not available through any other retailers and no other magazines reviewed their products.
Apart from the conflict of interests angle, I was never impressed by the technical measurements. Measurements were made and bold claims about how the product "would" sound were made based on those measurements. Frequently their own reviewer's subjective evaluation would be at odds with the measurement-based predictions.
Whilst I hadn't really thought of it that way I guess you are right about the WAD products. There was even (still is?) a forum for users of it!
I don't agree on the measurements though as when they reviewed the Axiom I recall thinking that the measurements and technical comments were spot on and proof that they really had done the tests etc.
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco
yes, the conclusions were sometimes dodgy, or a little cavalier - some Celestion speakers I owned were measured and they concluded that a 50 watt amp 'would be fine'
Yes, a 50 watt amp that was happy with a load dropping down to 2 ohm, never bloody mentioned that!
Current Lash Up:
TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.
Location: Canaries
Posts: 195
IMHO the best was "Answers" - I still listen to LPs recommended by Fred Dellar such as Love Wars by Womack and Womack. I also used to enjoy John Atkinson“s exploits using photographers“developing dishes as light and rigid supports under his Linn.
Hi Fi Answers was the first of the magazines to fall for, and promulgate the Flat Earth mythology.
Barry