I was really going on that music server until the $12,000 price tag came up at the end. 
I prefer reviews that start out with the high points: brief description, pros, cons, price, and vendor contact information. Writing in the style of a mystery novel assumes we read for entertainment or general knowledge and don't mind spending our time reading about products beyond our means (at least of many readers).
I don't know how many still use dial-up and I do understand the value of PDF format, but perhaps a one page sort of summary prior to waiting for a 148 pages of PDF to download would also be valuable.
Very polished looking document, but was hoping to see the Rega Saturn review (something at the outskirts of my budget). Along that thought, what is the average MSRP of a systems that we're listening too?
We are working on having a TOC for each issue, so that you can decide what's inside, but we kind of figure that seeing it's free, even if you only read a couple of articles, what's the harm? It takes less time to download the issue than it does for me to walk to the mailbox and get my paper copy of the absolute sound.
The Saturn review should be online within the next two weeks. And the Apollo will be shortly after that. We also have upcoming reviews of the Meridian G08 ($3995) and the Ayre CX-7 ($2995) All four are very good.
According to Google, 97% of our 75 thousand readers have a broadband connection, so it's working so far.
As for the format of the Sooloos article, it was not a formal review, but it was a feature story. Hence we did not go into as much of the techie and related components as we normally do. Sorry you felt hoodwinked into reading a mystery. It wasn't intended to be a review and was not labeled as such.
As for related components, I use three systems to evaluate gear, depending on said piece of gears relative price and performance. My main system is probably worth about 125K and is the reference by which I judge most things. My second system is worth considerably less and my living room system is very modest: a pair of B&W 205S's (the Vinyl Anachronist has my DeVore Gibbon Super 8's that used to be in my living room), a Valve Audio Predator, the Sooloos and whatever reasonable ($500-2000) CD player that happens to be in for review.
So, we try to evaluate components within a reasonable range of like things. Sometimes I will put a thousand dollar component in my main system, just to see what it's ultimately capable of.
Also, my reviewers all have systems across the board from very budget to very expensive. I have tried to make an effort to have everyone review gear that they are comfortable with performance and price wise, so that our readers don't get someone listening to a really expensive component for the first time and immediately proclaiming that "it's the best thing they have ever heard"....
Hope that answers some questions!
