Stereophile Products of the Year 2008 - No CLX!

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That doesn't mean they are better than the CLX. It only means they think they are the best from what they reviewed this past year. Only components that have been reviewed by Stereopile are considered for speaker/component of the year. Another factor is that Martin Logan doesn't buy ad space in this magazine and they are not going to reward a manufacturer that doesn't "pay to play".

There are other magazines on the shelf and a lot of really good equipment on the market. There are some really good British magazines and they cover gear from the European market that you don't see in American magazines. I saw a large selection of high-end audio magazines when I was in Sweden this past year but unfortunately, they were not written in English so I couldn't read them.
 
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My take on this is that it is an indication of how irrelevant Stereophile has become. When you have one of the most technologically innovative speakers ever invented, which, by all accounts, sounds as good or better as speakers costing two to three times as much, and they fail to review it, give it a write-up, or list it in their products of the year, then it is obvious they have lost touch with the concept of true high-end reporting.

They are biased for and against certain manufacturers and utterly fail their readers in presenting fair coverage of the state of the art in High Fi gear. This is one of the many reasons I let my subscription lapse last year and don't ever intend on renewing.

As Craig alluded, other magazines like HiFi+ simply blow them away in quality and content.
 
John Atkinson couldn't review and Etch-a-Sketch. Its the worse possible audio mag in publication. Pay to play is just that.
 
Rich said:
They are biased for and against certain manufacturers and utterly fail their readers in presenting fair coverage of the state of the art in High Fi gear. This is one of the many reasons I let my subscription lapse last year and don't ever intend on renewing.
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Completely agree. Quit them a about three years ago myself, after I figured out their obvious "pay to play" scheme. I consider this a worthless, fraudulent rag. I continue to resist their entreaties to me to subscribe, even at their give-away subscription pricing.

A complete waste of time...
 
who cares! stereophile is for people who listen to adds and not there ears.
 
Perhaps Tom should vet new members for Stereophile subsciptions... and deny access where they exist.

I call on all devoted MLOC types to cancel any existing subscriptions in protest!:rocker:

Well maybe that's a bit extreme, but you get the gist...

If the CLX doesn't blow those KEFs away I'd be amazed.
 
Rich said:
As Craig alluded, other magazines like HiFi+ simply blow them away in quality and content.
Click to expand...

HiFi+ this month issue 61 picked CLX's for 2008 awards.
"Martin Logan's Mighty CLX-- Clear Winner"

Nice 6 page article about ML and CLX's.

The only thing someone not a ML fan could say is a negative about CLX's from the article is that you really needed a sub.
That appears to be common knowledge for most who have heard them so you would have to really stretch it for that to be a fault.
 
Much as I hate to defend John Atkinson, the earlier post was pretty close to reality about product of the year awards coming from the pool of stuff that you reviewed.

I'm sure even if ML would have sent a pair to Stereophile, with availability on product (I didn't get mine till about the end of October) and print magazine deadlines, they probably wouldn't have been able to move fast enough to get them in the magazine this issue.

As you recall, Jonathan Valin got his CLX's about a month before I did and they did not make this year's print deadline. We will have the CLX review (and it's a long one...) out in the Dec issue, which should be ready for download by late DEC 23, or I may walk in front of a bus!

This is why the awards thing is so tough. We struggle with it all the time, because we've reviewed so much good stuff. Our awards are going up on our website next week and we are giving the CLX/Descent combination one of our exceptional value awards, but product of the year is going to the Meridian DSP7200...

We did give the Summit product of the year last year though...

But seriously, the award thing for the print magazine is really a tough call. Pretty much everything that was reviewed in TAS this year either got an editors choice award or a Product of the Year award.

We've tried to keep the award thing to a minimum, because I feel if we give everything an award, the awards become meaningless. Even then it is often tough to make the call, because the guys that don't get the award want to know why their kid wasn't "cute enough"...

The ads/awards/review thing is a very delicate balance. I know I've lost a lot of sleep over it, I trust the other guys have as well.
 
Great post Jeff.

One more thing - I've got a bone with the whole "awards" thing anyway - what's the point. There are many many good [excellent] products out there. They are all there to suit different people and different tastes. You cannot be so narrow-minded as to say "these few speakers are the best in the world". There are many good speakers, and many more that are good for different people with different requirements.

As I've said in another post, if the speaker exists then that's proof enough that there is a market for it. MLs suit us, they don't suit everyone - get over it.
 
I couldn't agree with you more...

When I worked at TAS, Harry Pearson always said to "Never use the B-word", because it backs you in a corner. Change is a given.

That was why originally we only did the exceptional value awards, for stuff that we just felt went a bit above and beyond what you might expect at a particular price point.

This year we've expanded product of the year, to six categories rather than just one last year, but it's still a "staff favorite" award rather than a "Best" award.

Just because whatever product you might own hasn't won some kind of award, doesn't mean it isn't good and I wish our industry would do less of this. That's why we only hand out about 20 awards at the end of the year.

One website I saw gives 50% of the gear they review an award. How can that be valid?
 
Jeff,

Will your CLX review include any in room measurements? I would like to see some of that...
 
No, we really don't spend time on that. My amateur measurements will at best confuse anyone trying to make a purchase decision.
 
tonepub said:
No, we really don't spend time on that. My amateur measurements will at best confuse anyone trying to make a purchase decision.
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Why would it confuse anyone? Do you measure for yourself at least?
 
As you probably know by now, TAS will review the CLX next issue. In the current issue, there's a review of the new, very expensive MBL loudspeaker. In the review this speaker is mentioned as possibly the world's best. (At close to 200 grand, it should be!) However, the review states there are some things audibly that the CLX does better! Tune in next month for the review. FWIW, I always liked TAS better than S'phile.
 
Len44 said:
Completely agree. Quit them a about three years ago myself, after I figured out their obvious "pay to play" scheme.
Click to expand...

Whats wrong with "Pay To Play" thats how the state of Illinois has been run for generations.
You can buy yourself a Senate seat for a mere $500,000.
How much could a favorable audio review cost? :D
 
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