a BRILLIANT business Idea!!!!

[hey_mavis]

why does someone not create a website that just auditions gear and posts the results?

vintageking started doing that, but I mean like an extensive testing, with the same EQ's at different settings and different compressors at different ratios etc.

im sure engineers from all over would visit and the owner could charge for ad space.

[The MPCist]

Yeah but then it'll end up with a forum for all those who want to discuss the results of those tests and we'll end up with another GearSlutz forum...

I'd say why not have Jules set up a satellite website connected with this forum (or a subforum for this exact purpose)....

[KRStudio]

That's what DOT was doing with the listening sessions and I was very bummed when it closed down. Love to see another take it's place.

Jeff

[Dean Roddey]

It might be difficult to bootstrap up, since you'd have to have good stuff to test in order to get an audience, but without an audience you couldn't charge for the ads to get the good stuff to test, not to mention that really doing serious tests would likely require on-staff folks who are very competent (aka not cheap) and multiple good rooms and setups to test stuff in.

[joeq]

while this is something I too would like to see, I would not try to persuade someone to do it on the basis that they were going to make a lot of money from selling ad space on their website.

[Jules]

There are a lot of things that work against this sort of idea working. In random order here are a few examples.

Availability and use of the best possible converters (if the tests are done with mid range quality test equipment many people won't be interested)

Test conditions and the inability to guarantee that shootout conditions were EXACTLY equal.

Manufacturers unwillingness to send equipment in to be tested without guarantees of absolute fairness.

Potential for corruption / bias("Hey I am sending in these mic pres, why don't you just keep em after the tests?") I know of one website that was reported to be rather, er....how do you say?... Slowwww in returning gear sent to it for 'evaluation' (Hoping they could keep it)

Level matching.. (Which seems to be the downfall of a lot of shoot-outs) can be tricky..

Distance of mic placement. - A fraction of an inch closer will generate extra proximity effect and therefore bass, warmth or 'mud' depending on your viewpoint...

What if you are shooting out two large condencer mics to see which sounds best on a singer when in reality a cheap dynamic mic is more suitable for that vocalist? Have you served the people relying on this test well?

Operator error. Mistakes made during shoot-outs..

MP3 file quality issues making accurate assessments difficult.

OK there are some reasons against..

But because people still find them useful we have had a shoot-out / sound file comparison sub forum going for about a year or so now.

I will post the link to it in my next post in this thread.

[The Byre]

May I just add to Jules list, the totally bewildering amount of equipment in some areas.

I test kit and mics in particular for Audio Media and quite honestly I ould never be able to provide even a modest overview of mics alone, never mind all the mic-pres, effects and all the other 'me-too' products out there.

The best that a magazine can do is test stuff that is either so important that we cannot ignore it (e.g. Latest ProTools) or something that just stands out and deserves a mention.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by hey_mavis

why does someone not create a website that just auditions gear and posts the results?

I've done a fair amount of gear and materials testing:

Comparison of Ten Measuring Microphones
Audyssey Report
All About Diffusion
Density Report
Surface Reflectivity

One problem with publishing test results is a lot of people don't like to be confronted with the truth!

--Ethan

[dambro2]

I think people would have a hard time trusting the objectivity of the reviews of gear that was supplied by advertisers.

[Ethan Winer]

Good point, and that's why Consumer Reports always buys what they test, and they do it anonymously.

--Ethan