Previews vs reviews?

[Cygnus]

I seem to recall a few years ago that there were a lot more actual reviews than just previews. Now it seems like everything is a preview, and a lot of stuff that gets previewed never actually ends up getting reviewed. What gives? I don't mean to come off as rude or ungrateful, because I really do love the site, but I have often wondered why this seems to be the case now.

 

[j_garcia]

Other than the fact that they actually call them "Preview" now, I don't see much different than how it was done before. Preview is a teaser of a product, not testing of it. A review would generally include measurements of some type and an opinion of it.

 

[Cygnus]

Well I just seem to recall far more products being thoroughly tested than now.

 

[j_garcia]

There do seem to be fewer in depth reviews than before, but I think that may just be that there are a wider variety of products being reviewed as opposed to a lot of subs, speakers, players and receivers that we were used to reading about.

 

[Adam]

Previews probably supply more buzz for the buck. Faster to create, and they can cover a wider range of topics like John mentioned.

That's not a critique, btw. I like the previews because I see some things that I didn't know were out there, and I'm really glad that they started doing them. I don't pay much attention to the "First Impression" rating, though. Most of the in-depth reviews have limited value to me unless it's a product that I'm in the market for, which is basically never.

 

[lsiberian]

Sub reviews are now being done at John's site data-bass. They are much better than the former AH ones because you have an expert in subwoofers doing ground plane measurements. I seem to remember AH worked hard to help launch this and it's been a great asset to the community. To me the strength of AH is the education section which is the best I've found on audio topics.

 

[its phillip]

I don't think audioholics has anything to do with data-bass. Whenever ricci does a review for audioholics, they get the super in depth review & measurements, and ricci of course posts the measurements and a short review at data-bass. I'm sure he is contracted by other companies to do reviews (I know he reviewed a chase product previously). He also does a lot of his own testing, probably to satisfy his own curiosity as well as helping out the community

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I don't think audioholics has anything to do with data-bass. Whenever ricci does a review for audioholics, they get the super in depth review & measurements, and ricci of course posts the measurements and a short review at data-bass. I'm sure he is contracted by other companies to do reviews (I know he reviewed a chase product previously). He also does a lot of his own testing, probably to satisfy his own curiosity as well as helping out the community

very much agreed

 

[Steve81]

Previews probably supply more buzz for the buck. Faster to create, and they can cover a wider range of topics like John mentioned.

Indeed. In addition to being quicker on analysis and writing, there's generally not a lot of need for peer review, saving time on the back end as well. Obviously it's not going to be in depth coverage, but IME more often than not there seems to be something worth pointing out, be it a cool feature or a problematic design.

Most of the in-depth reviews have limited value to me unless it's a product that I'm in the market for, which is basically never.

True, but it's still good entertainment, like reading the review of a Ferrari in C&D.

 

[gene]

I seem to recall a few years ago that there were a lot more actual reviews than just previews. Now it seems like everything is a preview, and a lot of stuff that gets previewed never actually ends up getting reviewed. What gives? I don't mean to come off as rude or ungrateful, because I really do love the site, but I have often wondered why this seems to be the case now.

Your concerns are valid ones.

It's often difficult to find qualified reviewers that can do good reviews and get them done timely along with objective measurements/analysis. Ironically preview articles tend to get more views than multi-page reviews and spider even better in the search engines. We had to do more previews to keep up with competitor so called "reviews" that read more like massaged press releases than formal reviews.

see:Reviewing Home Theater Product Reviews | Audioholics

That being said, you should start seeing more actual reviews this year now that I hired Hugo to handle advertising and I can get back into doing more writing at some point.