What Hifi - they have got to be the worst hifi. magazine. They never seem to give any bad reviews.
How does one make sense of reviews of the same type of gear by totally different reviewers.
The reviews use pointless and meaningless terms such as “lacks a little inspiration” “needs more poise”. What does that mean?
Noticed the possible bias to UK manufacturers?
I’m pretty sure the buying decisions have moved from those magz to forums and other ways of communication without the business involved. Which in reality is more close to the source/truth. The magz and their reviews are mainly clapping each others back. When Naim gets 5/5 awards from say What Hifi it means less to me than an unknown single users feedback on this forum.
Just flicking through the December issues of HFN and they have reprint of Martin Colloms original NAP500 review. Quite an interesting read.
I do read a magazine from time to time; always the digital version. Notice (and I perfectly understand) that magazines tend to focus on their « home-brands ». To get the broadest overview, I therefor occasionally purchase StereoPlay (very good music feviews) or HifiNews.
Furthermore I have a subscription to The Absolute Sound: suprisingly cheap, a ton of advertisements, lots of ultra hifi, but the reviews itself are good. I do think though their music reviews are less good
Iver
Thanks again all for the comments. I have bought a few back copies of HiFi Critic reviewing some Naim gear (NDX2 which I own and NAP300 which I want to own). Think Santa clause will get me the annual subscription 
You profoundly misunderstand the publishing business, and how it works. Who is this “someone” who “summarised” the reviews? I doubt they exist, or the “summary” for that matter. And how were “someone’s” stats compiled?
This smells like anecdote to me, not proof of anything. And even if this “someone” did exist, and their “summary” did say that 75% of WHF reviews were four-star, it means nothing, because WHF can only review a tiny amount of the product that comes out each year; and because their resources are limited, they tend to write about the good stuff that people might want to buy - they are a magaine of recommendation, after all.
Oh FFS!
Now that needed more poise! 
Here’s my idea for a new business. Please tell me what you think:
I will publish a hi fi equipment review magazine. I will aim to identify poorly performing gear and then publish reviews of it. While my process might not be perfect, I would aim that at least 50% of the reviews would be 1 or 2 stars out of 5.
Because I think that there is pent-up demand for people to read reviews of poorly performing gear.
Very helpful knowing about HiFi Choice - now subscribed!
Also agree about Tone - mostly just fun. The vintagey vibe is great. Holding down the US PNW.
Coincidentally Michael Lavorgna is currently offering the rights for crappyhifi dot com for the first person sending him 50 reviews of bad gear, each review with a minimum of 2000 words.
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