On 17 Jun 2005 08:13:24 -0700, "RickH"
wrote:

wrote:
IMO, Stereophile crossed the "beyond worthless" threshold quite some
time ago. It is now simply an advertising vehicle for the
manufacturers. Period.


IMO, most "electronic related" magazines are not what they used to be
pre 1980. They are all dumbed down for observers and not doers, and
foster a culture of end-users as opposed to true amateurs (lovers of
the hobby). I think it stems from the fact that the American male,
(with the exception of folks on groups like this), are no longer
do-it-yourselfers. By the time I was 7 I already knew how to square a
board, solder a wire, drill a hole, dismantle a 5 tube radio, etc.
Today boys grow up playing and watching video and not building or
dismantleing equipment. They get no feel for how things work, they
just see the output. I remember when every issue of Popular Science
had an electronic project to build, and when hi-fi magazines regularly
had speaker projects, or pre-amp projects, or whatever. Stereophile is
a classic case of this dumbing down effect, a magazine run by marketers
for folks with lots of money who couldnt fix a lamp cord and regularly
cross-thread their toothpaste caps. You know a good magazine by how
long it takes you to read it, when my Stereophile arrives I'm usually
done with it in 7 minutes, same old dribble over and over. When my
copy of Circuit Cellar arrives I'm with it all month because of it's
depth. When I did'nt renew my last Stereophile subscription they just
extended it for free, they must be desparate to keep their subsription
numbers up.

All of this is just a sign of the times. You can thank microprcessors
and convenience for the "dumbing down" effect. You can thank the
"black box" aspect of audio these days. I think it's supposed to be
called "progress". For bench hobbyists, there are still specialty
low-circulation mags like Circuit Cellar And Vacuum Tube Valley that
they can subscribe to.

I think that you are feeling nostalgia for your youth, when in
actuality, things are quite different now and the mass market 'zines
have evoloved to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Nothing wrong with being nostalgic, mind you. However, I think that
you were in the minority, even in those days. And you still have
options to fill your need. Obviously, you don't have any use for a
review-type magazine, which is cool.