[net.audio] Audio Magazines

mjs (03/03/83)

I'm interested in hearing which audio magazines this community reads,
and why.  From my perusal, the ones that look most useful are Stereo
Review & High Fidelity.  What else is out there?  Which is better
(least biased, best coverage of the state of the art, etc.)???
Replies to the net, please, as I think this is of enough general
interest to warrant it.

	Marty Shannon, Jr.
	BTL MH 5F120 x3199
	DDD (201) 582-3199

mt (03/07/83)

I find the following magazines useful:

Audio: Excellent classified section.  The rest of the magazine is
	very marginal.  I have never read a negative equipment
	review.  Recently purchased by CBS, and appears to be
	headed downhill.

The Absolute Sound:  (Quarterly).  Unabased subjective reviews.  Editor
	Harry Pearson farms out review assignments to a staff of 6-8
	reviewers, whose opinions are printed largely intact.
	Disagreements between reviewers occur occasionally.  While
	spending a lot of time on state-of-the-art equipment, this
	is a useful periodical for anyone serious about audio.
	Pearson's personnal reviews are definitely the most reliable --
	the man has good ears.

The Audio Amateur:  (5 times/yr.)  Extremely useful for equipment
	constructors.  Editor Edward Dell Jr. solicits articles from
	readers, including some respected people in the high-end
	equipment field.  In the last three years I have found
	numerous construction articles whose authors attempted to
	correlate electrical performance v. auditory performance --
	always a tough assignment.  A companion magazine exists for
	speaker constructors called "Speaker Builder" (I have not seen).


I am interested in people's experience with other non-commercial magazines.

                                  Mike Tucker
                                  ...!hplabs!hpda!mt

tom (03/08/83)

First, as requested here is my reply to the question "which stereo mags
do we read?".  I get High Fidelity, not because I necessarily think it better
than the others but because I subscribed to it while also helping out a
good charitable cause (the special olympics).

Second, I am replying on the net ONLY because it was so requested.  A general
question of this type, particularly one which is addressed to the ENTIRE
net.audio community for replies, should be answered by MAIL.  The amount
of replies could be huge, and I am a strong proponent for a streamlined
Usenet.  The proper way to handle a query which could generate such a large
number of short replies is for the replies to be mailed, and the requestor
doing a proper job of summarizing the results and presenting them to the
net community.  Marty, I'm afraid that I think you are being too lazy
about your responsibilities as a topic coordinator (which comes from being
a topic originator).

That's my view, anyway.  I AM interested in how others feel about this.
So, everyone, feel free to MAIL (!) me your thoughts on this issue.
I will post the results if enough interest is shown.  I'm sure that,
as usual, both viewpoints are correct to some extent.

- ToM Beres
  RLG Corp.
(...!duke!mcnc!rlgvax!tom)
(...!brl-bmd!rlgvax!tom)

chip (03/12/83)

     A favorite magazine of mine has been DB - The Sound Engineering
   Magazine. It caters mostly to professional sound-recording-and-
   reinforcement people, but I've found it full of practical information,
   designs, and explanations that would interest anyone wanting know more
   about what happens to most of the recorded music we hear. The writing
   style allows the articles to get fairly technical without getting boring.
     Looking through some back issues I find articles on: Acoustic Wave
   Theory, Broadcast Signal Processing, Stereo Microphone Techniques,
   Recording Studio Design and Acoustics, Books on Architectural Acoustics
   (review), Time, Energy, and Frequency Measurements, "A Visit to KEF
   Laboratories", Audio Control of Laser Displays, Digital Delay Systems,
   Electronic Digital Editing, Creating Synthesized Sounds for Star Trek
   (!) -- as well as: a monthly column on digital audio by Barry Blesser,
   reviews of various recording/production studios around the country,
   and reviews of professional & semi-professional equipment.
     DB offers a very nice look into the values and concerns of the
   recording industry.

     Their address is:  DB - The Sound Engineering Magazine
			Sagamore Publishing Co.
			1120 Old Country Road
			Plainview, New York 11803

     I think the yearly subscription rate is around $14, though I've seen it
   as low as $10 for new subscribers.

             Chip Hoover
	     ...!mcnc!chip
	     Chapel Hill, North Carolina

barto (03/21/83)

	I am a follower of the IAR (International Audio Review). I find
this magizine to be excellent and refreshing in its outlook on audio and
other things musical.

	Recently on the network, there has been a LOT of discussion on
interconnects, and speaker cable.  The IAR did about 5 issues on just
these things.  Comparing various cables for impedence, resistance, and
just plain musicallity. (Did the cable add shadows, fluf and other veiling
to the music?)  I will dig out my issues, and summarize what the IAR said
about interconnects.  (I do remember that some [believe it or not] Radio
Shack Archer wire, with aluminum foil around it rated with the top cables!)

	A summary from the IAR, the address for subscriptions, and a few
notes of interest tomorrow.

	-barto

	(..!ucbvax!sdcsvax!bmcg!barto)