The Bible at the Back is getting smaller and smaller

[admin_exported]

The buying guide in WHFSV is one of the most useful features in the magazine and it's been running for as long as I can remember, except that it seems to be shrinking. There must be more model's of Plasma TV than the paultry collection you included last month.

Why are all the items you've reviewed (and still on sale) not in the guide? It used to be a comprehensive list. It doesn't seem to be any more.

As it is considered by me, and I would imagine by most of us, to be the veritable bible when it comes to buying Hi-Fi, could you re-establish it's pre-eminance by bring it back up to size?

 

[Andrew Everard]

It's a seasonal thing. Many models have been discontinued, according to the manufacturers, and the magazine hasn't been supplied with samples of the new models to test yet. But it's certainly not shrinking, as our Empress of the Information never ceases to tell us as she struggles to shoehorn all the products in each month!

 

[Clare Newsome]

I can assure you, we've cut no current TVs out of the Buyer's Guide - but there has been a huge carnage of 2006-7 models dropping out as 2007-8 models come into the shops (and our test rooms).

It's been the same for 26in LCDs, for example - I think we're down to two or three. Plenty of new sets here at IFA though, and we've been running around securing exclusive tests all day.

So, to reiterate, every single TV we've tested - and we've tested more than any other mag - is in that BG every month.

The only thing that ever gets slightly squeezed from the BG to make it fit the allocated pages is the odd incredibly odd and/or poorly starred review - but we're talking kit that's five-years old here, nothing more recent, and if we have to cut, it's the more esoteric stuff (cables etc) that goes before equally ancient 'core' kit.

PS Nice to put a face to the name!

 

[Anonymous]

Fair point Andrew and Clare, but I would ask that you don't scratch items that are about to be discontinued as they may well be available as great buys. I'm thinking of the Pioneer PDP427XD and 4270XD for instance. You have only about 3 power amps below £500 and there must be more than that on the market, aren't there?

The back of the mag IS the bible. A little overzealous prunning is making it just a little bit too current. I know it takes up pages and pages equal pounds but they're the bit of the mag that we rely on, long after reading the reviews.

Nice to have my lovely face adorning your pages Clare xx

 

[Clare Newsome]

Point noted. One day, technology willing, it'll all live online in an everlasting archive....

 

[Anonymous]

Oooooooooooooooooooo now you're talking!

Have great weekend Clare ;-)