 Good home theater magazine for neophyte consumers.
A review of Sound & Vision Magazine, December 10, 2007
Submitted by: eezip from CA
Sound & Vision has a lot of basic information which is quite useful for beginners. They also have fairly in-depth reviews of many home theater comonents. This includes whole-house audio and video systems. Unfortunately, the review quality has dropped over the past couple of years. Much detailed, technical information has been moved to the website, leaving those of us with comprehensive knowledge of this gear wanting. Since I paid for the magazine to have and to hold, I expect to see all information inside. If that means a couple pages have to be added and the price goes up, so be it. It's distasteful to me to dumb down the reviews by leaving out the cold, hard facts in favor of subjective information. However, the subjective part is quite good. If you want to know how a remote control feels in your hand, or what features are available in the menu, S&V is a great resource. To me, it's mostly helpful in finding gear that I want to check out personally from other components that I'm not interested in. Be aware, S&V usually only reviews equipment that appears to be good from a quick glance so don't expect bad reviews. It's not that they're paid off, which might be the case for all I know, just that the gear reviewed is likely already a strong product for it's intended market. Reviews of systems and installations are oftentimes interesting and showcase the thought-provoking and daydream-inducing 'what if' scenarios you conjure for yourself but know you would never actually be able to have. The music and movie reviews, which had been unfortunately cut but appear to be making a resurgence, are also top notch. As for the staff, E-I-C Mike Mettler is a simpleton and Ken Pohlmann is a whiny, Grade A blowhard. His reviews are OK, but his self-serving and pointless columns continually degrade his already questionable ethics and intelligence. At least he now only has half a page to belch out his mindless prose. Overall, it's the most accessible and general magazine of it's type I know of. Most of the high end magazines are filled with tweaky types who need to take the gauze out of their ears and listen to music instead of getting their rocks off imagining improvements in sound from esoteric components that have no actual impact on sound while depleting your children's college fund. And moving in the other direction from S&V takes you into a land where the products and system reviewed are based on their touchy-feelyness with little to nothing written about how they actually work and sound. That unfortunately means that S&V is still marginally worth purchasing for a seasoned vetran of the trade, but likely quite worthwhile for a newbie. Every other month or so something in the magazine will earn the rag it's keep, but in general it's something of a continual dissapointment yet still at the top of it's heap. If you keep in mind the target audience for the magazine is the "average Joe consumer", which is a quite broad category, I think you'll find enough to like to justify a subscription.
A good magazine that used to be great.
A review of Sound & Vision Magazine, August 21, 2007
Submitted by: Technofriar from Loudonville, NY
This magazine used to be called Stereo Review. Several years ago it morphed into Sound & Vision. I still like it, but frankly in more recent years I have found less and less to like. The format has changed several times, not always for the better.
One of the greatest things about the magazine was the movie and music reviews, which suddenly (earlier this year) were reduced to a few pages, with an invitation to go online to read further reviews. On the positive side, the equipment reviews, featured articles, and A/V Q&A column (Tech Zone) are always quite good. The latest issue actually tips its hat to us audiophiles who were the backbone of Stereo Review readership in years past, by reviewing three turntables.
Still, with my favorite parts of the magazine now relegated to the web, I ask myself if it is really worth renewing the print version. Granted that magazines like this are basically just thinly veiled advertising, I wish that S&V would contain much more pointed criticism of the entertainment industry, which has foisted two incompatible high-definition DVD formats on consumers.
In short, Sound & Vision is a good magazine that used to be great. Certainly worth trying for a year.
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