Magazines and negative reviews

[james]

I found the following online ..

".... You should know that it is the written policy of most audio publications to never print a negative review. Their policy is to send the product back and never publish the reviewer's opinion.... One example is Positive Feedback Online. From the website a quote: "If we work hard, but cannot find the "magic," then the gear is returned without review."
...."

see
http://www.stereomojo.com/LENEHAN%20ML1 ... peaker.htm

[Sligolad]

Good post James, they have a good review of JKs Ciunas and an excellent DAC shootout with the Lampizator coming out on top.
A nice approach to reviews here and nothing too flowery in the conclusions. Will be visiting the site more often.
Cheers, Pearse.
http://www.stereomojo.com/JKenny%20Ciun ... Review.htm

http://www.stereomojo.com/Stereomojo%20 ... ootout.htm

[Fran]

I think you simply do what everyone does - you read between the lines.......


Its interesting that stereomojo have that policy though. I wonder what their readership is like.

Fran

[jkeny]

Hi Pearse,
I just saw this Stereomojo review today & I wrote to Isaac DaHan, the writer of the review (I didn't know he was doing a review) to tell him that his problem with charging the DAC was probably his misunderstanding of the function of the blue led on the front of the unit i.e when both USB signal & charger cable are both plugged into a PC, the led lights (meaning DAC is turned on automatically) but when the USB charger cable is instead plugged into an external PS, the led doesn't light (no automatic turn on) - the DAc is charging in both of these configurations.

So I think he is mistakenly interpreting the switch led not lighting as a sign that the DAC is not charging? This was all explained in the (old) user guide - I've since changed this operation as it was a bit confusing.

We had corresponded via email in which he said the DAC was not charging except through the PC USB charger cable but he never explained that what he meant was the blue led was not lighting so I didn't cop it until now!

When he initially received the DAC he made this comment "midrange is recessed, dynamics seem constrained, and bass is light."
After some time I contacted him again to see if burn-in had changed the sound - "The sound didn't change noticeably after about 48 hrs of burn-in. I'm still experiencing the same type of sound characteristics that I described before. It's certainly not bad, but I'd have wished for a bit more presence and livelier dynamics while still keeping the Ciunas' smooth sound that is not fatiguing. I'm going to continue to listen though and see what I think. I'm using it mostly with MOG on my PC. I've tried it w/ Foobar playing lossless recordings and it sounds a little better, but not dramatically so."

I asked what MOG was & he said this "MOG is a streaming service that streams music at 320kbps. In terms of USB I use a generic cable that's about 10 ft long." OOps a daisy on a two fronts which I told him!!

I suggested he try Jplay & lossless files - he did but on a Win 7 with 4Gb RAM & found it unreliable & bright sounding.
After many emails he eventually wrote this "After finicking around with JPlay settings and getting xtreme engine to work, I can finally hear what everyone is talking about. I need more time for a more critical listening session, but suffice it to say I couldn't draw myself away from the music until 2am."

But then he tells me that he really bought it for connection to an iPad but he never told me this when purchasing it or I would have advised him that it firstly needed a firmware change before I sent it & that the iPad was no patch on the sound from PC/Jplay

Anyway, just thought I'd give some background to his review & the origin of some of his comments

The sub-text on Stereomojo "Stereo for cheap bastards" has negative as well as positive aspects to it - i.e you can't just throw anything together & expect it to give of it's best but if chosen well & setup with care you can get excellent sound for relatively little money

[Fran]

While the sentiments of the site are laudable, ie negative and positive reactions included, I have to say that I would be very wary of sending them anything for review. John's post above proves that point I think.

That kind of stuff gets around very quickly, and if they are publishing negative reviews they might very soon run out of items to review!


Fran

[nige2000]

well id hardly call the ciunas cheap, maybe comparatively cheap
i think it was a good review,

he didnt know how it worked so thats why he thought there was a problem, i think these type products need to be completely foolproof other than that its the usual thing about the case not been fancy enough. the review was mostly positive other than that

[Sligolad]

I read it as pretty positive as well Nige apart from the case, this case issue has been discussed before among several of us and we all concluded that John could be selling the Ciunas for much more money with a better case but then this might be pushing it out of a lot of peoples price range.
Hard to please some of the people all of the time but no doubting its sonic qualities.

[tony]

I remember an incident reported in the Independent years ago. Knew the guy and the real story was completely different to what ended up in print. So I wouldn't be too bothered about wrong interpretations maybe they should offer the option for the manufacturer to respond.Maybe contact him John as he might change that part. Pity the ciúnas didn't get into tthe dac test. Think John should take some of the criticism on the chin. In reality he probably should try to do something with the appearance. Wonder are there many sales lost because of that. The logo idea is worth considering and maybe include a large brown paper bag in the box to allow for any wigwam owner who would like to conduct DBT's.

[jkeny]

I'm not complaining about the review - I generally think it is positive - I'm just giving the background to it & correcting what I believe is his misunderstanding of how the product charges.

In my experience, when a review is going to be published, the manufacturer is usually contacted & asked if there is anything factually wrong with the review before publication. It saves a lot of bother on both sides.

I didn't know this guy was going to review it - the last email contact I had with him (at the beginning of June) was to suggest that he send it back (I would pay the postage) & I would replace it (with new firmware for iPad) because he said it wasn't charging from anything other than USB port. I didn't hear from him after that.

Stereomojo considers equipment under $1,000 as cheap, in the scheme of audio things - so my DAC qualifies.
Yet the winner of their DAC comparisons was the Lampizator @ $4,790
Yes, it's a pity my DAC didn't get into that test I would have been interested to see it's ranking

[tony]

Don't get wrong John in relation to taking it on the chin I am talking about the case only. For you it is a decision is it worthwhile producing one in a nice box with a logo and charge more for that. There is I assume a market out there that needs the product to look 'gorgeous'
Suffer a bit of that myself(don't care in relation to the dac as my pocket suffers less). This is just a free marketing class. Could charge €20k for product market development!

It is a pity he didn't contact you as the negative bit about charging is at the start. But reality is if you put a search in for your stuff other than the stuff on forums you have dirtied your bib there isn't a bad review out there. That is some going.