Greg Smith Book Reviews

Introduction and About the Book Review Series

To really know what's going on in high-end audio, there's a whole lot to learn. While you can pick up a lot of things by letting them seep into your brain as you read magazine articles and reviews over the course of a few years, it's tough to beat a good book for a comprehensive view of a subject in a short time. Rather than trying to explain everything there is myself, the Book Review series will look every month at something I've read that I think is useful to those who'd like to learn more about audio and related issues.

One of the things that has slowed up creation of this series is the difficulty of finding some of these titles. While there are the occasional exceptions, you may have trouble finding these books in your local bookstore. Accordingly, we've teamed up with on-line book retailer Amazon.com to make purchasing the books that interest you easier and (bonus!) cheaper.

I wouldn't be recommending Amazon if I weren't a happy customer myself. But, at this point that we wish to make a few things clear about this service so there is no perceived conflict of interest for you, our Readers:

• For most mainstream titles, they can have the book delivered to your door in a few days at a considerable discount off of retail. Accesibility, speed of delivery, and competitive prices are advantages for you. Furthermore, Amazon carries a huge selection of books that you may not find elsewhere.
  
  
• More importantly, you should know that by having their logo on our page and if you purchase the book a small referral fee is paid back to us. I know that the cynical will claim that this means I'll be doing book reviews with nothing but glowing praise to try and raise a few bucks. That is why at this point we want to be upfront with you. I am taking an objective look at this book and it is up to you to read the review and see if it suits your needs. Frankly, there's little risk to you--all Amazon.com sales come with a 15 day return window, so you'll only be out shipping costs (please visit their site for the complete policy on this). Furthermore, we are telling you this now so you know up front. With all books reviewed I will also be listing alternate sources to purchase so if you do not wish to support this series in that way, by all means purchase where YOU want to.

Sound fair to you? I hope so (if not, please see the paragraph below from DAS). I sincerely hope you find this new series helpful.

.....GS (gsmith@westnet.com)

Doug Schneider (DAS) adds:

We intend for this book review series to be first rate in terms of interest and use to our readers. However, it also brings to forefront a new, controversial form of 90's advertising now prevalent on the web - that of linking to and referring potential customers to web-sites that have the sole purpose to sell. Some will argue that it will prejudice editorial content, and one can certainly how that perception comes to be. Others have argued that it is no different than a company purchasing advertising in conventional publications (eg. magazines, etc.) and persuading a publication to provide editorial content. I've seen good arguments on both sides.

We hope that by being up front with our readers on how this works, it will allow you to make a purchase decision by knowing all the facts. I know that there are a lot of sites out there that simply mislead you. The Amazon association is not the only such site of this type with which we have had dealings with in the past. Other music related sites have asked us to put a link on our pages for similar purposes. We have neglected to do so for the same reasons that the critics cite. However, we have elected to try this out with the book review series for the following reasons:

• Unlike music, particularly CD's, the books Greg will be reviewing are not as readily available to purchase locally. Let's face it, the high-end market is not a large market and trying to find high-end audio related articles can be difficult (no wonder mail and internet ordering is thriving).
  
  
• Furthermore, we do feel that the Internet provides and incredibly valuable service and with a wealth of 'linkable' information. Would we be called martyrs if we simply linked you to their site and never enrolled in their program? Perhaps. But we'd rather do what we can to make SoundStage! an even better site for high-end audio enthusiasts..
  
  
• And finally, we wish to find our reader's feelings on this topic. If you do not find this association appropriate, by all means tell us now (via e-mail of course).

Thank you for your time and please feel free to write me directly with your comments.

Doug Schneider
das@sstage.com