New magazine format likes & dislikes

[spiny norman]

This section of the forums is called;

"About the mag - Got a point of view on something we’ve said in print? We’re listening" Are you really listening?? If you were maybe you'd feel the need to comment on all the negativity, especially concerning the Buying Guide, or lack of it! But obviously you're not listening...*sad*

"Good morning, could I have this shirt cleaned express, please?"
"Yes, that'll be three weeks, dearie"
"Three weeks? But the sign outside says '59-minute Cleaners'"
"Yes, that's just the name of the shop, luv. We take three weeks to do a shirt"

 

[Andy Clough]

It's getting worse. this month has 0 turntable reviews, 0 CD players, 0 Stereo amps, 0 AV amps nor receivers, 0 stereo speakers and 0 surround sound speakers. It has 3 DACS, 5 TVs, 3 portable MP3 players, 2 headphones and 2,764 wireless speakers. Throw in 1 soundbar, a review of Amazon prime, an advert for Apple and Now TV and that's it. No hi-fi at all.

As I have explained elsewhere, there is a simple reason for this: before Christmas we had to move offices, and build brand-new listening rooms in the new location. Unfortunately, the builders ran about two months behind schedule so we have not had fully completed listening rooms to work in for the last eight weeks or so.

In the circumstances we were not in a position to review any core hi-fi or home cinema products, and were severely restricted in what we could review (headphones, Bluetooth speakers, desktop DACs). This has been as frustrating for us as it has for you.

The good news is that the construction of the new listening rooms is now complete, and today we have an acoustic engineer in helping us do the final tuning on the rooms. Which means normal service should be resumed shortly. I can assure you that as soon as we can, we will get back to reviewing proper hi-fi and home cinema products.

 

[Andy Clough]

This section of the forums is called;

"About the mag - Got a point of view on something we’ve said in print? We’re listening" Are you really listening?? If you were maybe you'd feel the need to comment on all the negativity, especially concerning the Buying Guide, or lack of it! But obviously you're not listening...*sad*

We are listening. Which is precisely why we have set up our reader tech panel to give everyone who wants to a chance to have a more formal say in wht they do and don't like about the magazine and website: http://www.techpanel.co.uk

 

[chrisr1718]

I've registered for the Tech Panel, look forward to sharing views.

The new 'Buying Guide' really is pants though...*sad*

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I suppose more interaction with the readers on the website wouldn't go a miss. Just seem to be heading more to AVForums for that though but perhaps you don't want to compete with them? It seems you have dug a hole and now are struggling to get out. The website is friendly and good though with some loyal members, I will continue to post while there is a website. Perhaps a completely new format to the mag would help too. And some classifieds are well over due. Or perhaps you don't see the website long term or can't commit to it? I don't know. Perhaps stealing some of AV Forums ideas would be a good thing?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Also this website seems to attract a lot of petty members too, getting rid of that would be a good thing.

 

[chrisr1718]

Also this website seems to attract a lot of petty members too, getting rid of that would be a good thing.

Ok, I get the hint, I'll be off then...*bye*

 

[Simon Lucas]

I won’t repeat what Mr Editor-in-Chief Clough posted earlier today (although I will agree the construction overruns did put rather a crimp in our review schedule). As regards the redesign of the Buying Guide, though, our thinking was broadly thus:

- the previous Buying Guide design gave as much emphasis to old and/or inferior products as those we recommend

- pre-internet, it was difficult to find technical details of consumer electronics products. These days it’s straightforward.

- by paring back the number of products in the Buying Guide and restricting it to those products we wholeheartedly recommend we’re able to make the design more attractive, offer more editorial content and truly be a guide to The Best Things On The Market.

At no point did I think fundamental changes like this would meet with universal approval. But it’s my opinion the new Buying Guide is as useful a resource for making purchasing decisions as ever.

(For what it’s worth, I also think well-implemented hi-res smartphones, USB DACs or Bluetooth speakers are as valid and worthwhile items of hi-fi as CD players or stereo speakers (of which there are twenty pairs in the March issue). Equally, soundbars are what many consumers consider part of a ‘home cinema’ set-up and, consequently, should be treated as such. What Hi-Fi? has never editorialised nor sought to set agendas, but rather to reflect the market consumer demand has created.)

 

[chrisr1718]

- by paring back the number of products in the Buying Guide

Stripping to the bare bones more like!

As the magazine has always said, 'just because it's not a 5 star product doesn't mean you won't like it, trust your eyes and ears'

Now, unless we have a loft full of old magazines, we don't know what those non-5 Star products are!!

As I said in my original post "Blu-Ray players was 30 now 8, and out of that 30, 19 were 5* products." thats a bit more than 'paring back'!

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Also this website seems to attract a lot of petty members too, getting rid of that would be a good thing.

Ok, I get the hint, I'll be off then...*bye*

Not you, to name a few who seem to have left anyway Michael Hoy and Hammil - good riddance!

 

[shado]

The lack of interaction from the What Hifi team is the culprit here, for example where I believe Andy Clough was gutted that the B&W speakers he favoured did not win against the KEFs and Claire threw a bowling ball at a tv was the glue and charm that held this forum together many moons ago. Don't be frightened by political correctness and come out of your shell a bit more, as a reader wife stated; there is a difference between digital cables. Is the Sony portable High Res audio players all what it is cracked to be? In the past some great articles released by What Hifi staff on the forum did filter into the magazine. You are not communicating effectively to your clients on this forum, when you do, should boost your sales.

 

[Clive Johnson]

I took out a subscription under the what hifi/sound and vision moniker, as I'm looking to upgrade my tv later in the year. What do you do? Ditch the SAV tag and revert back to how it was!

So now I guess I have to fork out more cash for a seperate SAV subscription?!

clive

 

[spiny norman]

I took out a subscription under the what hifi/sound and vision moniker, as I'm looking to upgrade my tv later in the year. What do you do? Ditch the SAV tag and revert back to how it was!

So now I guess I have to fork out more cash for a seperate SAV subscription?!

No, I think you'll find they dropped the Sound and Vision thing and reverted to What Hi-Fi? so they could review more TVs and phones and stuff, and not just hi-fi.

Yeah, I know. Me too. ;-)

 

[Clive Johnson]

The buyers guide has changed from a very useful to a nearly useless guide in my opinion, especially concerning the "The only products worth considering" strapline.

For example, if you want an under 5" size phone which also plays high res music files is the iPhone 6s really the only option if music quality and format support are more important to you than other features?

Also the new buyers guide doesn't really give any information to compare product specifications when compared to the older guide.

If I'm looking for a soundbase/bar with HDMI connections then the new guide gives me one £600 option, what if I only have £300 to spend or would prefer a sound base?

If an easy comparison of products that have been reviewed is available on the What HiFi website then I could understand the change but I can't find that option.

the best thing that could happen is for that buying guide to be binned from the mag altogether and have the whole thing online! As it is, it takes up about two-thirds of the magazine, which could be put to better use...and as customers/subscribers, we're paying for that!!

 

[spiny norman]

the best thing that could happen is for that buying guide to be binned from the mag altogether and have the whole thing online! As it is, it takes up about two-thirds of the magazine, which could be put to better use...and as customers/subscribers, we're paying for that!!

Except the buying guide part of the magazine seems to be favoured by a number of retailers who use it to place great wodges of pages advertising their current stock/latest offers, etc. Maybe that's why it's still there: one might suggest those retailers would do so much better to run those adverts on the internet so they could update them as often as they liked (not to mention being seen by a lot more people), but it seems some are still stuck in the old ways.

 

[RickyW]

For the last couple of years I have been subscribing to the iPad version after buying the magazine since I was in my teens in the eighties. The new magazine feels like a downgrade to me, like the budget has been cut and an inferior product is the result. I dislike the new buyers guide, it has minimal information, it feels dumbed down and is just glossy style over substance. I think the value of the previous buyers guide to subscribers has been underestimated.

The iPad version is not produced to the same standard as previously, for example there are only a few hyperlinks from the contents pages, is it too much trouble to put them in to make life easier for the reader?

 

[MartinS21]

I am just glad that I do not have a subscription, I found the "old" style full of useful information when buying (short list & general information), I could also spend ages checking the different ratings just to keep up to date. The "new" style is no use for any of this.

After reading the magazine for MANY years I may give in!

 

[expat_mike]

For all it's faults, the WHF magazine staff will still need many more years training, before they can hope to emulate classics like these:

http://wathifi.com/

 

[spiny norman]

For all it's faults, the WHF magazine staff will still need many more years training, before they can hope to emulate classics like these

If you follow the links on the quotes, quite a few of those come from the WHF staff.

 

[expat_mike]

For all it's faults, the WHF magazine staff will still need many more years training, before they can hope to emulate classics like these

If you follow the links on the quotes, quite a few of those come from the WHF staff.

Guilty as charged mlud, with not rigorously checking the links.

 

[spiny norman]

Guilty as charged mlud, with not rigorously checking the links.

Quite understandable not to do so: that way madness lies! ;-)

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_975549455831451]

The buying guide is completely useless now. If I wanted to compare power output, number of connections, supported formats and the like, it was easy with the old table-style guide, but with this new one all you get is a mini review with no comparison data. What's the point? We can get the FULL review online anyway, but we can't get that comparison table anywhere. I've a feeling they've done this to make the magazine look prettier with more pictures, but in doing so they have made it harder for the reader to choose "what hi fi".

 

[Green Bow]

When I go to my home page, I no longer see the threads I started. I can easily find which threads have been replied to. I just see a list of posts made, and many will be from the same thread. It's impossible to use now. I have to go to the formu's page which now hides under 'more'. Then try aswer other folks questions or ask there. Then I can't easily find where I did that later. Mess. I am giving up using it.

 

[spiny norman]

The buying guide is completely useless now. If I wanted to compare power output, number of connections, supported formats and the like, it was easy with the old table-style guide, but with this new one all you get is a mini review with no comparison data. What's the point? We can get the FULL review online anyway, but we can't get that comparison table anywhere. I've a feeling they've done this to make the magazine look prettier with more pictures, but in doing so they have made it harder for the reader to choose "what hi fi".

It really needs a 'compare' function on the specifications provided on the online reviews, so you could choose several products and then line them up side by side to see the relative specs. But that's more a website thing than a mag thing, so sorry if off-topic.

 

[Richard Lockwood]

In common with a lot of magazines now, it seems that pictures are valued over words/useful content (in reaction to the web content or the Digital Age? cf the dumbing down and demise of NME et al!). Apart from the fact that the useful, comparative function of the old format is not available on the website, the new Guide has far fewer products: it far less useful as a reference, has less information, and just serves up a limited choice of 5-star products/current favourites - what about those of us who have a bit less cash, perhaps, or have a chance of end-of-line purchases? What about those combinations of separates that might work terrifically well, but include a 4-star model or 'last year's favourite'?

Please What HiFi, go back to what worked well - and remained a useful reference for months & years after publication. The current format/mag just goes in the recycling (and is, frankly, less appealing at the newstand)!