Review Suggestions
I have two comments:
1) I'd like to see all products within a category (receivers, speakers, etc) evaluated using the same scale. Often, I read a review of two products that I'm interested in and one uses a 5 star rating while the other uses a 1-10 rating. It is hard to compare these two reviews to decide which product performed the best.
2) I am fully aware that the ratings are the subjective opinions of the reviewers and I think that this is a perfectly valid way of reviewing this type of equipment. I think that many of the suggestions for “shoot-out” type reviews are a way to get around the problem I addressed in #1. Along those same lines, it would be beneficial to post the definitions of each of the criteria somewhere on the website so that members can reference them when reading the review. For example, when a reviewer gives a set of speakers a 5 in Build Quality, what exactly does that mean? What is the definition of a 4? a 3? a 2? When is the build quality unacceptable? Does a rating of 5 mean “the best Build Quality I have ever seen,” “the best Build Quality at this price point,” or “the best Build Quality that can be achieved?” Many times members (like myself) and perhaps even reviewers are not clear what the differences are. Establishing a specific rubric for each of the categories (and ratings within categories) will help members understand the reviews and use them for comparison purposes. It may also help reviewers to give more objective and less subjective ratings of equipment
