Welcome to Free Audio Reviews

What is it?

A free information dissemination facility maintained and edited by Akhilesh Bajaj. The aim is to disseminate audio component information for free to anyone interested. This is an experiment on the dissemination of carefully edited knowledge, as opposed to anyone-can-post-anything sites.

Disclaimer Applicable to Entire Website:

The contents of this website are managed by me, Akhilesh Bajaj (akhil1266@yahoo.com).

No other party, including my employer, are responsible in any way for its content. The contents of this website are provided for free usage, as a means of information dissemination only. Neither I nor my employer are in any way responsible for any consequences that may result from the usage of this information.

What is the point of this website?

Some people feel there is a lack of good unbiased reviews of audio components. For one person’s viewpoint, please read:

http://www.high-endaudio.com/magaz.html#Critique

Disclaimer: The weblink above has some blunt language and personally attacks many periodicals. I am in no way affiliated with it. However, the website does make many points that may make some people think.

On this website, I review audio components in as unbiased a manner as I can.

Motivations

Mine:

I have no motivations other than to provide a free service to the audio hobbyist community. I do not get any payback at all from any audio manufacturer. This means: no discounted sales (other than normal street value discount available to the general public), no long term borrowing of equipment, no free equipment, no free trips or meals and, of course, no monetary remuneration of any kind. You will not find any advertising on this site either (no manufacturer or dealer logos).

Readers:

If you want free unbiased information, this may be a good place to get it. You won’t find glossy photographs, ad-copy disguised as a review, or hyperbole (like “my jaw dropped” or “I was shocked”). Instead you will find a dispassionate review. You decide. Read my disclaimer above, though! Always try before you buy! As a responsible consumer, use the review here as just ONE of many inputs into your decision on what to buy. Make sure you go and read the websites of the components to learn more about the details of the products not covered in this review. Also, try and read up on what technologies are used in the products. The reviews will give you ONE input. The important thing is that it’s an honest, unbiased and pertinent input.

Manufacturers/Dealers:

I will call it as I hear it. Manufacturers/dealers are allowed to point to a relevant review on this site. However, they cannot quote from a review, without prior permission. Why should they agree to send me a product? Every product has strengths and weaknesses. One problem facing a manufacturer is how to get these evaluated in an unbiased manner. If you believe you have a good product, and want an honest review, this is the place to get it. It will cost you nothing, except the cost of shipping me the product, and having it shipped back.

Another point to consider is the following: the audio market is becoming fragmented and shrinking (my opinion). With the recent trend of high end audio stores rushing towards home theatre, manufacturers and dealers of high end audio stereo products HAVE to consider the internet as a marketing channel. There is such a SATURATION of for-profit review sites that post glowing ad-copy type reviews, that consumers may be becoming overloaded (I know I certainly am). So, seeing that a product has three rave reviews really does nothing for me. Most consumers, after a while, realize this too. The credibility of the reviews on this site can be utilized by manufacturers/dealers to a) market their products by posting links to the entire review; and b) improve their products by getting free and honest feedback.

Basic Review Methodology on this site:

1. No pricing will be mentioned. Pricing changes often, and most products are discounted anyway. You can contact the manufacturer or dealers for pricing. Only the sonic appeal is evaluated here.
2. Each component reviewed is compared to at least one other similar component. In my opinion, this method is the only way to bring out the strengths and weaknesses of a component. Hence, all reviews are relative here. Most products nowadays are good enough that a marketing type audio magazine can say something good about any product. True insight is gained only by comparing products to bring out the strengths and weaknesses of each product.
3. The rest of the setup (other than the components reviewed) is kept the same.
4. I don’t do any blind listening, just careful, unbiased listening. No other reviewers here, just me.
5. My current home systems are sensitive enough to bring out differences between most components.
6. I will not get into the technical details of a component (in other words, reviews will not contain superficial technical information or anecdotal legends designed to appeal to & impress the novice reader). The reviews will be purely subjective listening-based, regardless of what is IN the component.
7. The manufacturer/dealer is allowed to post one response to a review of their component. This response will be edited by me (like all information on this site). IF necessary I will post one response to their response also.
8. Definition of Review Parameters (for example, what do I mean by “soundstage” when used in a review on this site?)
9. For each review parameter used, the best component in the comparison will get a score of 100. Other components will get a percentage score less than 100 for the parameter. This lends weight to the relative review, and gives the reader an idea of the magnitude of differences between the components, along the different review parameters.
10. All components will be warmed up for a reasonable time. Volume controls will be set with a sound level meter using sine waves at particular frequencies, when comparing components. Often the differences between components are so subtle that any volume differences will seriously affect the outcome. Hence volume differences are minimized. The same music segments will be listened to on all components being compared. The placement of the components will be as similar as possible. I will listen to components at the same time during the day, consecutively. In short, I will try my best to eliminate the effects of any confounding variables.

Component Reviews:

Power / Integrated Amplifiers

Dacs

Transports

CD players

Preamplifiers

Speakers

Interconnect Cable

Speaker Cable

Audio Meet Reviews

My Current Home System Components & listening tastes

Recommended: A moderated platform to meet fellow hobbyists (http://www.audioroundtable.com). From May, 2004, I moderate the single driver forum there.

Ó Akhilesh Bajaj, 2004. All rights reserved.