I've wondered about that in the past but I think it's more along the lines that magazines choose to review components that they know in advance will be good.
I don't own Vandersteen speakers or care one way or the other about Stereophile; I just got to thinking about the steady stream of positive reviews in the various magazines which led me to my friendly stereo store to see if I was being duped by unscrupulous journalists which then led to every penny being sucked out of my wallet but that's another story.
While I can't speak for John Atkinson, there are a lot of positive reviews these days because none of the majors are really making much crap anymore. If you're an adult with free will (and I'm hoping you are) you shouldn't be getting "duped" by "unscrupulous journalists" that are sucking money out of your wallet. I certainly can't think of anything Stereophile has reviewed in the last 8 years, that we listened to that I felt they missed the boat on. My hope is always that you as the reader, can learn a little something (or at least have a good laugh) from all of us. In my opinion the word "journalist" is highly overused in the audio world. But that's an argument we can all have another day.
I can't tell you how boring this constant whining about how everyone that writes for the magazines is a crook and we're all lying to you to sell product to sell advertising. None of you go to work in the morning and work without pay. Why should John Atkinson or I work for free?
Again, I can't comment on most of the other online magazines, but I've talked to enough people that write for them. Other than SoundStage (which runs and conducts itself like a business, paying its writers accordingly) we're the only online hifi magazine that pays close to what the print magazines pay their writers.
For a print magazine like Stereophile, TAS or HiFi Plus, the major expense isn't the writers, editors and photographers, it's the cost of printing, packing and mailing the damn paper magazines.
While I haven't dealt with everyone in the hifi industry, we deal with most of the majors. It's business.
They obviously want to advertise in a publication that writes a decent review of their product, which confirms a purchase as often as it helps to make one.
But a decent review (at least in my opinion) isn't merely a positive fanboy experience. It's about describing the sound AND functionality of a component accurately enough that it helps you the reader decide if said product is worth your time to listen to for yourself. Only you can decide if you've heard what we've heard. It's not always positive or negative. Knowing that magnepans need a ton of power to drive and that they won't really work with a 9 watt SET isn't being negative, it's describing the product. Etc etc etc.
If a decent review helps a manufacturer sell their product and it helps you find a product that suits your needs, we all win. You get gear you're happy with, the manufacturer makes a few bucks and we look like we know what we're talking about.
On the rare occasion that we get a product not up to snuff, we send it back, but I can't say I've done this five times in well over 500 product reviews.
The tough part in all of this process is to take enough of the emotion out of it to be rational and leave enough in to be entertaining so you don't fall asleep reading the copy.
In the end though, in order for all of us to succeed, they need to make the best products they can, and we need to do the best job we can telling you about them, otherwise it comes to a halt pretty quickly. We feel that if we ultimately serve our readers, our advertisers will be served, because we
aren't duping anyone. I know many out there are always clamoring for negative reviews so that it can all feel so much more honest, but there's just no big conspiracy to uncover.
And hopefully, in the middle of it all, we all make a living doing something we really enjoy.
Vandersteen has always made a great product. And I've never gotten a dime of advertising money from them. Whether you like them or not is up to you, as it should always be. Hopefully a good review or two will give you some insight into what they (or any other manufacturer) have built.
