Best gear review source

[TonyCrazyMan]

There's zillions of gear out there and I'm glad there is! :D But there are zillions of ears too, some better than others. :) With great ears, much experience and a great skill of knowing what to focus on you are able to write gear reviews that are very knowledge centered and have great value. In combination with much gear reviewed, you get a good picture of what to purchase. It's called high quality! Among all these gear review sources that exist, is there any that you know of that really stands out in the crowd and has been very useful when you've made purchases? Any source that you read regularly and think is really great?

This thread is about finding the best gear review source on the planet! :cool:

[Phil O'Keefe]

Well for me, the best source of gear reviews is.... me. :D

I'm not being fat headed or egotistical here... what I mean by that is that no review can make up for the experience of trying something and experiencing it myself... what I want from reviews is an unbiased and objective view of what the product does and doesn't do, and its weaknesses and strengths. I want to have a review let me know what using a product is like, so it can help me narrow down the field of products that I will personally try out in my search for something that meets my needs and fits my preferences.

I've been reading reviews for decades now, and I've been writing them for a few years, and IMO, you can eventually get a feel for a particular reviewer's tastes, personal tonal and style biases and their overall "match" to your own tastes and preferences after reading a few of their reviews, then trying the products out yourself and seeing how well the two opinions match up. I therefore give some reviewers more "weight" than others... for example, I always trust Craig Anderton's reviews for honesty and integrity, but his needs and tastes sometimes differ from my own... for example, Craig looks for some features and capabilities in software that are not always what I'm looking for or that are not as important to me as they are to him. And that's cool too, because it can open my mind up to some potential uses that I might not have considered otherwise. But in general, I give his reviews a lot of "weight", because I know they're honest and fair.

And "fairness" is a big issue to me too. When I write a review, I try to give people an idea of what it's like to use a product. If a company makes a factual error in their ads, or a strong statement, I go right after that and address it. For example, when Audix released the i5 mic, they called it "the best all purpose dynamic mic on the planet" or words to that effect. Well, that's a BIG claim IMO... and most engineers would probably say "57" when asked that questuion... so rather than just let that slide, I addressed it head on and tried it on all sorts of sources, in all sorts of ways. And the "problem" was that while I personally wouldn't have used that marketing approach, I really couldn't rake them over the coals for it either - because in my tests, I found that it really IS a very useful and versatile mic. Another company's "flagship" mic didn't really float my boat sonically, and I said so. Another company's nearfields were advertised in their lit as having a woofer that was larger than what I found on the actual product... you better believe I brought that up. They said that was a typo... and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that, but I'm not going to just gloss over it and let it slide either.

To me, fairness goes in several directions. My first and foremost duty is to be fair to my readers. They deserve to know what I honestly think. I do my best to give them exactly that. However, you need to be reasonable and fair to the manufacturers too.... if a product is clearly intended for the home recording / hobbiest market, and is priced accordingly, is it REALLY fair to complain when it doesn't completely measure up to a ultra high end product that is priced accordingly? IMO, no. And I may mention where it falls short compared to an ultra-expensive product, but I'm going to be more likely to point out how it compares to other products in its same general market class.

OTOH, if a product performs beyond its intended price and market range, I should point that out too, because those are "high value" products. A great example of something that perform well beyond its price point (and intended "market") would be something like the FMR RNC... even though that's really a "home studio" product, a lot of pros like them too based on their performance and sound.

Now to address a couple of often heard complains about product reviews before someone else brings them up:

First of all, a lot of people complain about never reading negative reviews. Yes, a lot of reviews are generally positive, and I can not speak for every reviewer or every publication... but the magazines I've written reviews for have never - not ONCE - asked me to tone down the negative side of reviews. Actually, my editors at EQ have given me very little guidance insofar as my reviews other than to say "be honest, be fair, and tell it how you hear it". I wouldn't write for anyone under any other conditions. But I think the reason why we see a lot of generally positive reviews is that not many of us reviewers are interested in reviewing junk, and because magazine space is generally limited, most of the editorial space is going to be dedicated to products that people might actually be interested in rather than dedicated to products that no one is going to want... and with the web, news gets around pretty fast on truely "junky" products. :) Plus, a lot of reviewers get to see some products "pre release", and if a product is really not ready for prime time, we'll send it back to the company with a note telling them what they should address before it should be released.

One more complaint I hear fairly regularly is that reviewers get to purchase things directly from the company if we like them. Actually, that's true. But some people think that reviewers will give something a bit better review than it actually deserves so we can get a better price on it.

Here's the real deal: Most reviewers can buy something at or near "cost" if they decide they want to keep it. But consider this: when I review a product, I end up using it for at least a couple of months, and frequently longer than that... and I REALLY use it... to the point of trying to break it, or at least subjecting it to normal use and wear / tear. So when I'm finished with it, it's not likely to be something the company is going to want to send to another reviewer, yet alone that they could sell as a new item to a regular customer. So getting it at dealer cost is really not that big of a sacrifice for them... nor a big benefit to me either. I can pick up the phone and get dang near anything I want "factory fresh" at dealer cost, or at "cost plus ten percent" from a variety of dealers anyway, without having to write a review for it.

And to take it a bit further, I like to use my "five gallon bucket of poo" analogy (with apologies to OJ ;) ) - if someone sends me a five gallon bucket of poo to review, why would I write a good review for it? Even if they offered to sell it to me at "cost", or even to GIVE IT to me, why would I want it? It's still a five gallon bucket of poo, and who wants THAT? So it really has no bearing on the type of review I'm going to write.

Finally, let me bring up one last important point: any review is just ONE PERSON'S OPINION. Ask any ten engineers what they think of something and I can dang near guarantee you'll find a wide range of opinions about it. Reviewers are really no different, and everyone has their own tastes and preferences. To me, that means it's ultimately going to come down to MY needs and MY tastes... but I can look for patterns, for overall reviewer consensus on certain aspects of a product. If most reviewers have similar opinions about some aspect of a product, then there is likely to be something "there". And of course, I also give weight to what reviewers have done insofar as their prior "track records" - if someone's reviews are frequently at odds with my own opinions after I've had a chance to try a product, that doesn't automatically mean they were dishonest, but it does mean that their tastes and preferences might be considerably different than my own, and I take note of that and tend to keep it in mind when reading future reviews from that person.

Anyway, there's a lot of comments about reviews... sorry for being so long-winded, but I feel that it's important to be fair about the whole process and that people have a right to know where I'm coming from and where I stand on the subject. I tell you honestly what I think, and then hope that you'll use that information if you find it useful to help you narrow down what you want to try out so you can form your OWN opinions.

PS. FWIW, all modesty aside, I think I have pretty good "ears". ;)

[Anderton]

Excellent answer, Phil! Then again you write really good reviews :)

Now let me provide another answer: I really think that in six months, these forums are going to be the place to find the best gear reviews. I'm not going to say anything more just yet...heh heh...

[Phil O'Keefe]

Shhhh... that was "eyes only" and I'm sworn to secrecy, remember? ;) :D

Thanks for the kind words Craig - coming from you, that's high praise indeed. :o

[TonyCrazyMan]

Phil O'Keefe , thanks for you long answer! It was really interesting to read your thoughts about reviewing gear, because it was processed from different perspectives and very knowledge centered! I mostly agree on what you are saying. I have some comments myself about what I'd like to find in reviews.

First of all, I would really like the reviewer to not be "fair" against the company for the sake of it. The fairness should be rather low in priority if there is some important aspect of the product that simply makes the product hyped and expensive. I think it's better that the reviewer is fair with the product, not with the company. I think the best reviewer are those that in the end recommend the product to some and also warn some people if there is some reason to. This is fair enough to me. I also like to read reviews where they compare the product with other alternatives and really say it like this: "This product is better than X, because..."
A good reviewer can be trusted. If he says it's great, it's really awesome, if he says it's bad, it really sucks. Without this trust you will end up looking for a better reviewing source.

I also think it's important that the reviewer knows what the people that are interested in the product really wants! This is done by basing the review on the most professional priorities. The reviewer needs to know how weighted these qualities should be.

A really important thing, that most reviewers kind of miss out on, is that they don't put the product in a useful context much enough. Some reviewers think they write good reviews simply by going through the specs and testing them a little. I really don't care what specs a product has if it is not well equipped with usefulness in practise. Let me take an example. I have a Yamaha Tyros keyboard. Anyone that is reviewing this keyboard should give it a 10 (or 5 if that's the best score), because the sounds are fantastic, the usefulness of this keyboard is peaking to the extreme and the price is fair! I don't wanna go into details, but check it out if you are a keyboardist! Tyros 2 is coming out in (October-November). I think I will buy it if I like it after I've tested it. I tested the Tyros before I bought it. Something I really hate is when you read a review where they brag about the sound quality and you start looking at the price tag and realise this has to be a bargain, when you later try it out and realise this is only digital distortion. That has been the case with a lot of amp simulator guitar units for example... If the sound quality is that good and the price tag is sweet I also want to know how sweet it is in comparison with a high end gear famous for high quality sound with a price tag that is way higher.

So I want to sum up the qualities I want to find in a reviewing source:

1. The review is based on the most professional priorites:

1. Sound quality (something that sounds great always is gonna be useful, a keeper, who wants something that doesn't sound that good?! A couple cheap units might result in a loss of a great unit) Always compare the sound quality with other units (in the same price range and in different price ranges. The company behind the product needs to be smart enough to sell a product that sounds good. It is done by making it the first priority.)

2. Usefulness in practise. (putting the product into the most appropriate contexts is resulting in a better overall picture of the usefulness, very important!)

3. Price tag (weighting the sound quality and usefulness against the price tag should result in an indication of it's value from an economic perspective for those that are on a budget)


2. The reviewer should be fair against the product, not against the company. A reviewer that has his favorite companies cannot be objective enough.


3. The review should always include a fair rating. The rating should be based on the priorities and the product, not on the price tag or the company.


The reviewer should always test the robustness of the product before he goes on with the review:

"This product doesn't like me and I don't like the product either. The first unit I got had a damaged level indicator. The second unit was having this awful buzz sound in the background. I don't have to go into more details about this product and I don't care why this product failed me two times in a row, stay away from it or waste money. Now I've warned you! I rate it 1 stars out of 5."

Why is this review so good?

1. It is first processing the obvious qualities it needs to meet.
2. It doesn't say anything more about the product, because nothing more needs to be said about it.
3. It is fair against the product, not against the company behind it.
4. It ends with a fair rating.
5. The reviewer takes responsibility for his words. He stands for the strong opinion about it, he doesn't mingle and mangle until everybody are satisfied with the review.
6. It includes some humour.
7. His feelings about it are obvious.

(The same goes with a professional producer, only know you deal with people, gotta pay them respect and treat them with love)

This is to me a great review! I wish I would find some reviewer with these qualities...!

Generally I think there is a huge difference between a good and a bad reviewer and I also believe there are reviewers that have great ears for sound quality. The BEST reviewer is out there somewhere, trust me! ;)

When these qualities are met and the review is angled with some humour, it's a clean pleasure to read the review!

[Lee Knight]

Reviewing gear must be a challenge. You've got to put yourself in the shoes of others... not just yourself. That's one reson I enjoy Tape Op's "reviews". Just some guy telling how this funky powered mono speaker from Radio Shack was just the ticket to check polarity while tracking...

Or how these funky walkie talkies worked great for a makeshift talkback...

Or how this high end mic U192 1/,2 ribboned, tubified, confibulator is really perfect to mic up his jaws harp.

It's limiting on one hand, and strangly enlightening on the other.

BTW, I still dig your reviews guys, I read it ALL, every month.

[Will Chen]

In reference to the lack of reviews of "junk". Some (like myself) are on strict budgets when it comes to studio/musical expeditures and while we would love to waft away the putrid stench of low rent mixers, consumer grade sound cards, and imported Chinese guitars...it just ain't in the finances!

Its nearly impossible to find literature on equipment in the lowest price points and this is unfortunate considering the growing product choice at these levels. Many of these items don't have the distribution channels that higher end companies do and if you don't live in a major market chances are you will not be able to try before you buy. Additionally, boards such as these where a 13 year old kid might post a "what do you think of" question to which 40 year old pro will snidely reply "its the aural equivalent of passing a kidney stone" aren't always the best place to find info.

I don't fool myself into thinking $100 product X will sound as good as $1000 product Y, but I'm the type of guy who must rely on the solid functionality of a Focus to get to work rather than the flash and power of a Mustang and I know I'm not alone.

As you can probably tell, bang for the lowest buck is a major concern of mine as well as considering what I'm compromising in return the low price.

[lowbasslowbass]

I always read the Harmony Central users reviews when I am interested about gear. 90% of the time the reviews are very helpful and informative.:)

[Dot]

The best review sources are often online. And the best review sources are a combination of sources – including reviews, user comments, and your own Q&A in some of the better forums.

Even though I still write one-shot product reviews, I've kind of gotten tired of the concept, and now much prefer to read about shootouts, overviews and round-ups with several similar products.

I mostly tend to only take the time to write reviews of products that I think are exceptional. And because of that – most of my reviews tend to be rather glowing. I had a guy on the phone with me a few weeks ago, and he said, "I've read a lot of your reviews on mic preamps, and they're all good. And I'm confused about which one to get." I thought he had a good point.

From there we got into his specific needs - and then it was easy for me to narrow down my recommendations to one or two products, and explain to him the reasoning and benefits of each one.

The best review you're going to find anywhere is the one that you can write yourself after you've asked questions and gotten some recommendations from experienced people in a few good forums. And then gotten to spend some serious time in your own studio with the product on lots of applications.

And your initial Q's are prefaced by giving very specific information about things such as your budget, what other gear you have, what kind of music you're recording, and what kind of sound you're wanting. [ Many people don't do this, and often figure others to be mind readers. ]

And often getting someone on the phone whom you trust who's experienced with a lot of gear can be an even better source than what you can get in forums or through emails. I often talk with people for five minutes, and we can cover more ground with more nuance than 10 pages in a forum.