Reviewing Home Theater Product Reviews

In light of our recent review of the Lexicon BD-30 and some of the subsequent A/V publications trying to ride the wave of controversy surrounding it by publishing their own so called "reviews", we are republishing this classic article originally authored by the late Anthony Federici (former President of Acurus/Aragon).  The history of everything that transpired with the Lexicon review is nicely documented here.

When re-reading this article, its amazing how many online A/V magazines fit the mold laid out herein which gives one pause to wonder if these publications actually have product in hand when conducting their reviews.  Did they do any objective measurements or analysis?  Did they discuss the inner details of how the product functions?  Did they furnish their own images of the product under review?  As a reader this is something you must decide for yourself. 

How Many Online and Print Publications are Taking Your Trust for Granted?
We live at a strange TV time when a comedy show reports the news and TV news is a joke. (Some may think I should say "in a strange TV time" but being Einsteinian I prefer "at" .) It was Comedy Central's Daily Show that first broke the news about government propaganda and corporate PR being aired as TV news. Then the NY Times put it on their front page, which caused TV news to finally report that they were airing propaganda and PR as actual news. Shortly after that, the NY Times got nailed for passing off a Columbia University press release as front page news.

The First Step is Admitting You Have a Problem

Now that Colin Powell's son (an apple that fell so far from the tree it thought it was in a banana republic) is gone, the FCC has awoken from the executive branch's and lobbyist's spell saying, "There's been a growing trend of broadcasters just putting on these so-called video news releases wholesale, and putting them on the air without letting the public know it may be from a government agency or it may be from a big corporation," said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. "So the public thinks it looks like a news story, and they don't realize that in fact somebody that may have an agenda is trying to influence their thought."

How Does This Apply to Home Theater Reviews?

So what does this have to do with reviews? Everything. The ancient Athenians knew to look at the large to understand the small and look at the small to understand the large. Notice how the atom's model resembles the solar system? In the case of reviews versus world news, they both have succumbed to the same pathetic influence.

So let us now examine the rather atomistic world of audio/video reviews. Excluding Audioholics' reviews, which are not the norm, let's look at the typical review. First of all they are rather short… kind of like a press release. If you choose, you may later read a typical audio review and then Google search a press release on the product. Look for the similarities of topics covered and compare the depth of coverage. I think you will be unpleasantly surprised.

If you are the audio "press" why bother spending time and money on actually reviewing the component when you can massage a press release in no time, call it a review, and, as an additional incentive, make the manufacturer happy to give you advertising money for plugging their products. This is what happened to TV news. Why spend money on investigating, writing, filming, and paying a reporter when you can take government issued propaganda, or a major corporation's press release, and pass it off as your news?

As a contrast, look at the recent review by Audioholics regarding the Denon AVR-5805 home theater receiver. No print magazine has ever devoted that many pages to a review. This is understandable due to the cost of ink and paper. The Internet has freed the writer from the cost of print. Yet, other than for Audioholics, where are the e-zine reviews that cover a product in such detail? What the Internet should provide the citizen and consumer, via a free press, has been undermined by greed for money and control.

Welcome to Syndication and the " More You See It, the More You Believe It" Approach

On the Internet, fake news and reviews become even more insidious and inbred. Several online "magazines" get the press releases and write 500-1000 word cursory "reviews" which have positive similarities. This means when consumers do "product research" on the Internet they get similar product positives from several "sources" which, in reality, are a single source… the press release. Then the consumer thinks, "If these different reviewers agree, it must be the truth." This is compounded even further with shared reviews which puts the same copy from press-releases-turned-review on multiple websites.

These "reviews" yield absolutely no benefit to the consumer. In today's surround sound world this is easy to prove. The complexity of operation with a receiver or processor gives away the "review" scam. Where is the clear explanation of the positive and negatives of the unit's operation? Where are in-depth descriptions of the use of features such as crossover points, variable settings by input/format (and recall when a format is selected), or the remote's complexity of operation, etc? If they don't cover all the setup parameters, how could they have properly listened to the component to form any useful opinion? These so called magazines and e-zines aren't stupid, they just think you are. Follow their logic. Why bother to do a quick setup that ultimately yields a useless receiver review when it is even easier, and far less costly, to yield just as useless a review by simply massaging the press release? M any casual readers don't even notice.

Faking Out the Consumer

It is easy for them to attempt to sucker you into believing they actually reviewed a component when, for instance, it is a loudspeaker review. They take the press release, add a few comments regarding their opinion of the sound, actually talking more about the source material they allegedly used in the review rather than the product under review, and they have the "review". They can easily do this without even taking the speaker out of the box. After all, it is only their opinion of how the speaker sounds in their room, so how can you prove them wrong? You want further proof? Look at how many photos are actually press release photographs, versus photographs of the component taken in their room or lab.

Do yourself a favor. Don't fall for the hype, neither in so-called audio/video magazines nor in the free press covering world news. If you want to read a press release, please do so. Just don't read a reworked "magazine" press release and con yourself into believing you've read a review.

In the new America "freedom of the press" means freedom to pass government propaganda as news and freedom to pass corporate press releases as reviews. Welcome to the "free" world.

originally published by: Anthony Federici, Feb 2004