As for Stereophile's method of letting the reviewer use and write about
the equipment without knowing any measurements, I say bravo. The
philosophy is how something sounds in use is important. So doing it
this way only makes sense. I also say they show some integrity beyond
many other publications by also doing some basic measurements. And
publishing both.

However, I begin to think the subjective review process is broken
(yes, I know many have said so for so long) when an amp this bad
in terms of power output ability can get a pretty darn good review.
The reviewer had to be prejudiced by the price, it is the focus of the
first few paragraphes. And also by the idea these things are 150 watts.
Then the huge size and weight do nothing to make you ever believe it
really is only 2 watts or so of clean power.

I also believe many people prefer an amp that goes from neglible
distortion to a couple percent over the last 15-20 dB of output ability,
if that distortion is rising linearly with output and is of low harmonic
content. But this Wavac would be far beyond even that. It had to be
used pretty grossly overdriven for fair parts of the review process
considering it power output capabilities. Again if such was detectable
and preferred, I feel building a line level box to do this connected
in front of a clean power amp is much more cost effective. That such
gross behaviour wasn't perceived for what it was calls in to question
this type review process.

Dennis