Customer Rating: 
Summary: A look at the high end
Comment: This magazine is fun to read, kind of like admiring expensive watches. And I would love to be able to afford some of the equipment they cover. But when a reviewer gets all excited about a $2100 power cord ("has an effortless musicality and imparts the body and soul of complex acoustic environments with almost erie palpability"), it's hard to take them seriously. "Sound and Vision" is better for mere mortals. "The Absolute Sound" lets you see how the other half lives and occasionally chuckle at them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Magazine
Comment: The Absolute Sound is an outstanding magazine for the serious audio enthusiast. There are two main reasons why I would recommend this magazine.
The first and (to me most important) reason is that this magazine looks at the US market. Components available here are reviewed and rated according to their US price levels. Most of the high fi magazines out there today are from the UK and carry reviews and ratings based on that market. Since relative prices for the same components can be different across the pond, the ratings (which always take the price point of the component into account - eg no $500 amplifier can sound anything but bad next to something 20 times its price) in the UK magazines aren't always a good reference for US readers. Another point of difference is that that certain brands aren't available in both markets - Klipsch, Polk and Theil speakers being examples of items common in the US but not in the UK.
The second reason to recommend this periodical is that it reviews the sonic quality of items in terms serious listeners cannderstand. Audio components and recordings are described as they would sound. The dense technical descriptions and tests are omitted here, since not everyone (myself included) can fully understand them. The descriptions of how you would percieve the sound is what they pay attention to, and pay attention to well.
Add to the above factors the range of products (though as other reviewers have mentioned, the universe of products they examine is very limited compared to the overall electronics market), the honesty and accuracy of the reviews and you have a magazine that is a good read for anyone interested in Hi-Fi.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very High End Audio Information
Comment: This review is not intended to be worthy of its subject, but I'm surprised no one else has proferred, so here is some brief comment, until a more educated audio reader comes along (hopefully soon).I first picked up this magazine at Tower Records last year. It only comes out once every couple of months, it is expensive, and it is thick. You will not be done getting everything out of it in just one or two brief readings. If you are "into" audio, or if you have really caught the bug, this is a magazine that will help you define the unatainable heights.... the super-expensive Ferrari-level equipment that few of us will ever own but is fun to read about. I also have found in reading just two or three issues that there are sometimes highly educational pieces that really delve into important current topics in-depth.
Absolute Sound is a sort of no-compromises, not-going-to-cave-in to the latest industry fad magazine, and in a way it's kind of offensive because most of us need or want to hear about the latest industry gizmos and many of us don't want a cost-no-object assessment for our purchases.
But the strong point of Absolute Sound is the real commitment to trying to discern the very best Sound, with cost being more-or-less not so much of an object.
There is also of course some review of music and recordings, as there should be.
I've found AS to be educational and so I recommend it, particularly for those who are well-heeled enough to afford the best Sounding components and recordings, or who have a super-interest in reading about them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Absolute Sound: Taking Audio/Music Reviewing to a New Level
Comment: Two things will impress a first time reader of The Absolute Sound: 1) The distinctive "tell-i-like-it-really-is" equipment reviews, and 2) the sheer depth and breadth of music review coverage (each issue contains separate music review sections for popular, classical and jazz). Rather than bombarding you with graphs and technobabble, equipment reviews in The Absolute Sound give you a very clear idea of how components sound in the real world (and without mincing words; when components have sonic flaws, reviewers say so in plain English). Music reviews are astute and insightful, and do a lot to point you toward new music you might not otherwise discover. Finally, the editorial staff is a virtual "Who's Who" of high-end audio; the team includes editor-in-chief Robert Harley (author of well-loved Guides to High End Audio and to Home Theatre), Harry Pearson (a legend in high-end audio reviewing, and the founder of The Absolute Sound), and J. Gordon Holt (the unofficial "patriarch" of US audio reviewers, and the founder of Stereophile).
