any professional reviews of the new 340s yet?

Gene....also a hardy welcome to you.

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Originally Posted by Gene DellaSala

Regarding Reviews of Non Advertisers
We have MANY favorable reviews of companies that don’t advertise with us such as reviews from Klipsch, Aperion Audio, Panasonic, Sony, Mirage, BG, Rotel, Optoma, etc. The list goes on, but if anyone spends more than 5 minutes on our site, they wouldn’t even question this.

On the flipside, many of our advertisers receive favorable reviews for good reason – they MAKE GOOD PRODUCTS! Hence why they are advertisers on our site. Makes sense doesn’t it?

Many of our advertisers have received positive product reviews for years before we ever picked them up as advertisers. We also don’t award companies Product of the Year without having first hand experience with the products. We have learned from many manufacturers that Print Magazines charge for this honor, yet nobody seems to find fault in that. It’s odd how many criticize E-zines more than they do Print Magazines, yet don’t seem to mind the full page ads following the review of the product within the same issue.


Buy it Now links are set up for the benefit of our readers. Many of our online advertisers and Affiliates offer discount promotions and thus we link up to them for extra savings to our readers. Its funny b/c we even have Buy It Now links through our affiliates on projector products that weren’t reviewed favorably.

When all is said and done you can either believe what we are saying, or dismiss it for the misguided propaganda found in this thread. Personally we are too busy focusing on quality content to concern ourselves with this nonsense and won't address it further.
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While I agree that non-advertisers have received favorable reviews on your site, what I haven't seen is non-advertiser product that direct competes with an advertiser's product get a better rating.

Regarding e-print vs print magazines, I think many of us criticize the print magazines just as some of us have done with Audioholics. If you are suggesting we do the same for each medium, I think we are. Galwin said it well.

Your "buy it" and product links go through banners and affiliate links, not directly to product page or discount pages. This means the "click throughs" are being tracked by Audioholics and the advertiser. Can you address the purpose of doing this?

I find it interesting that Gene has said this thread has been one sided, and I agree, it has been. But then you post this:

"Personally we are too busy focusing on quality content to concern ourselves with this nonsense and won't address it further."

Which means it will be one-sided again. I hope this doesn't happen, this can be a very imformative thread for all, not just Ascend and Audioholics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clint DeBoer

Well, actually that's our perception since both the Admin and Forum Founder are participants in this very thread.

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I apologize if that is the perception you got. I, like many others, am very skeptical of the ways of the web.

I think this is the perfect opportunity to clear the air.

I'd like to see reviews comparing brand A to brand B and declaring a clear winner. Dollar for dollar, pound for pound. A blind listening test with no one knowing the players until results are tallied would be fair.

Anyway, I think the internet lends itself to misunderstanding. It is difficult to gauge ones demeanor from a post. Dave F. stated his concern about the removal of a thread, nothing more. /he chooses to allow Ascend forum members freedom of speech without censorship....warts and all. I'll take the cards on the table approach evertime.

Clint & Gene,

Welcome to the forum....

I am very pleased that you guys found your way to this little forum. While I find Clint's post somewhat aggressive towards my company (wrongfully so as neither I nor my employees have contributed negatively in any way) your opinions are welcome just as everyone else's -- without moderation.

As I previously mentioned in this thread, Audioholics had already asked us to review our products and Ascend Acoustics is not an advertiser on their site. The review has not been conducted and no product has been sent but this is simply due to our present backorder situation (of which many of you are also dealing with right now)

As a business, I can understand Audioholics decisions to delete threads from their own forum that they find inappropriate. I have been lucky that I have not had to make those choices yet...

As a loudspeaker manufacturer, I certainly do not want any ill feelings between Ascend and Audioholics. That is counter-productive to both companies and serves no purpose at all. While I do not feel Ascend has, in any way, contributed negatively or made any disparaging remarks towards Audioholics, it appears that Audioholics feels differently about it – and they are welcome to express this and I am glad they have.

I don’t feel Ascend Acoustics should be held responsible for the opinions of others. After reading through the thread I can see how it has digressed. Both Clint and Gene have responded and I most certainly do NOT want to see any additional negativity between forum members and Audioholics. Seriously, it appears that many of you want them to review our products so what purpose would it serve to cause any additional harsh feelings as evidenced by Clint’s post? How would it be possible for Clint to perform a non-biased review of our product feeling as he does? As I said, it is counter-productive. Certain forum members expressed their opinions and Audioholics has responded.

Good enough for me and this thread is now closed