Audiophile Style Launches Polestar Beta

I've created a forum topic for discussing how to use Polestar and for feedback.

Interesting concept, it definitely has potential. 

It seems mostly AS affiliated brands / sponsors are listed (ie no AudioLunix or Euphony in the Software category). How can other brands/models be added?

I'm liking, seeing the cost of the product at first glance.  To often reviews leave this bit information until the very end or they forget to mention it at all.   

This is a big undertaking, you hiring😉

3 minutes ago, ShawnC said:

I'm liking, seeing the cost of the product at first glance.  To often reviews leave this bit information until the very end or they forget to mention it at all.   

 

This is a big undertaking, you hiring😉

It’s a community effort for the greater community benefit. We have enough Ministers of Information talking from very high horses. We need more reviews and ratings from people using the products. 

Hi Chris--

Cool idea, and I'm sure this will get to someplace good.  But I'm a bit confused.  When I click on the Niagara 7000 power conditioner, just for example, I get a blurb from the manufacturer (they appear to give themselves a great review, haha), but no real reviews.

On a related(?) issue--I'm on the edge of my seat for the new CASH List--will it be a spin off of Polestar, or maybe Polestar's greatest hits?

Thanks

12 minutes ago, PeterG said:

Hi Chris--

 

Cool idea, and I'm sure this will get to someplace good.  But I'm a bit confused.  When I click on the Niagara 7000 power conditioner, just for example, I get a blurb from the manufacturer (they appear to give themselves a great review, haha), but no real reviews.

 

On a related(?) issue--I'm on the edge of my seat for the new CASH List--will it be a spin off of Polestar, or maybe Polestar's greatest hits?

 

Thanks

Hi Peter, there are no reviews or ratings of the Niagara 7000 because nobody has left a review or rating. Given that we launched the feature a few hours ago, this isn't surprising. I highly recommend everyone who has used a product, click over to Polestar and leave a quick review and star rating. 

CASH will not be a Polestar greatest hits, but it will use Polestar to provide a more balanced set of recommendations. If we only recommend products we've reviewed on the front page, this leaves many good products off the CASH List. Using some Polestar data we can easily include more products that the community has rated very high.

This is a top idea, thanks for starting @The Computer Audiophile. In a year's time, can see quite a contribution.

Big thanks also for the analog section.

1 minute ago, One and a half said:

This is a top idea, thanks for starting @The Computer Audiophile. In a year's time, can see quite a contribution.

Big thanks also for the analog section.

 

Thanks for the kind words 1.5. I'm happy to see the response so positive. My inbox is full of similar statements. It's really nice to see others believe in the idea as well, and I'm not a fool for thinking about something like this. 

I know it's a big ask for people to spend their precious time on any site, but I think the ease and speed of both leaving reviews and checking reviews in Polestar is key. 

P.S. I'm not totally against and analog forum section.

Looks fantastic. Hope it takes off.

Sorry if I've missed it ... will Polestar feature products not currently in production and available via retail; in other words, the second-hand market?

If so, "Price" when adding a product will be arbitrary in a particular way.

If not, what happens when products become "end of life" or no longer manufactured.

I would love inclusion of older products. Polestar would be a more comprehensive resource. I hope it would become the go to internet reference.

Absolutely agree with keeping reviews to those from actual owners - and keeping the zone free of contamination by others who just have to have a showy opinion about everything.

2 hours ago, Iving said:

Looks fantastic. Hope it takes off.

Sorry if I've missed it ... will Polestar feature products not currently in production and available via retail; in other words, the second-hand market?

If so, "Price" when adding a product will be arbitrary in a particular way.

If not, what happens when products become "end of life" or no longer manufactured.

I would love inclusion of older products. Polestar would be a more comprehensive resource. I hope it would become the go to internet reference.

Absolutely agree with keeping reviews to those from actual owners - and keeping the zone free of contamination by others who just have to have a showy opinion about everything.

On the second hand aspect, the Reddit vintage audio thread is very active, a review would complement the equipment as a reference. I wouldn’t have thought end of life was important, audio gear can be 30 years old plus and still going, finding out extra information on that topic would be very enjoyable and interesting.

1 hour ago, One and a half said:

I wouldn’t have thought end of life was important, audio gear can be 30 years old plus and still going, finding out extra information on that topic would be very enjoyable and interesting.

Agree very much that "end of life" isn't important in an absolute sense. I still maintain and love my Snell Type A III speakers, and wouldn't be at all disappointed if I never replaced them. And yes - information on re-foaming drivers and all sorts of other things is going to be useful wherever it can be found. But is Polestar the place to review my Snell Type A III (along with all sorts of other vintage gear) if the AS vision for Polestar is more that of a "shopfront". Oops I was a bit blunt there, but Chris will know exactly what I mean to be sure.

If Polestar is for "current" products, are they removed when production ceases? Where are the lines (if any)?

Polestar?  [[grabs a wad of dollar bills]]  🤭

30 minutes ago, scintilla said:

Polestar?  [[grabs a wad of dollar bills]]  🤭

Sometimes things aren't as they look like.

This morning walking my dogs I meet a friendly  lady with her Siberian Husky (we are in France) and noted her phone number as usual with first name - dog name in my adress book. Her name was Elena, and the male dog is named Hooker; the effect of that combination in my phone's adress book is: Elena Hooker. Got a decent feeling I shouldn't give the phone to my wife to call anyone whose name is starting with E .... 😉
Tom
 

This is an awesome move, Chris. I hope this does take off. 

Is there any way to go back and edit my own review?  That might be a good thing as opinions may change as one uses a product.

3 minutes ago, mlknez said:

Is there any way to go back and edit my own review?  That might be a good thing as opinions may change as one uses a product.

Not currently. For now one will have to post a follow-up review. 

Should I post reviews for products that are no longer for sale by the manufacturer?  In other words it may be available on the used market but cannot be purchased new.

Also, what about subwoofers?

What category would a product like the sweetvinyl sugarcube products go into? https://sweetvinyl.com/

They digitize records in real time to remove surface noise as well as allow recording of the records along with retrieval of metadata.

Is there a method that people could use to ask followup questions to the contributors of these reviews?

2 minutes ago, mlknez said:

Should I post reviews for products that are no longer for sale by the manufacturer?  In other words it may be available on the used market but cannot be purchased new.

Absolutely 100%. These are very valuable to everyone.

2 minutes ago, mlknez said:

Also, what about subwoofers?

What category would a product like the sweetvinyl sugarcube products go into? https://sweetvinyl.com/

They digitize records in real time to remove surface noise as well as allow recording of the records along with retrieval of metadata.

Subwoofers will go in Speakers for now. If there are enough to break out into a separate category that will be great and I'll get it done.

The Sugarcube is a unique one. It's an A to D with special features. Cool product as well. For now it can go in Accessories. Similar to subwoofers, if we have enough A to D converters, I'll create a separate category. It's easy for me to mass-move stuff behind the scenes. 

3 minutes ago, mlknez said:

Is there a method that people could use to ask followup questions to the contributors of these reviews?

No. This is a purposeful decision to help people feel free to publish reviews without judgement, snark, or abuse. The downside is that there's no questions for the reviewer, but this can be accomplished by posting in the forum and linking to the review and using @ the person's username if desired. I think the pros of doing it this way outweigh the cons. 

Having a cross-reference to products that have existing full-length reviews on AS would be a nice touch. In fact, before reading about the new section in depth, I had assumed this is what Polestar was. A categorized listing of reviews on the site. Now I realize its scope is intended to be much bigger than this, which is great, but I would have thought this would have been a part of it.

An idea for future enhancement perhaps.

2 minutes ago, jtnt said:

Having a cross-reference to products that have existing full-length reviews on AS would be a nice touch. In fact, before reading about the new section in depth, I had assumed this is what Polestar was. A categorized listing of reviews on the site. Now I realize its scope is intended to be much bigger than this, which is great, but I would have thought this would have been a part of it.

 

An idea for future enhancement perhaps.

Great idea. One step at a time and we'll get there. Won't be too much "trouble."

I like, very much. TY

Don't see a way to edit or add additional comments once I've posted a review.