Editorial Rating Methodology
How AudioFu Editorial scores 40,000+ musical instruments
Why we publish this
Trust matters. Every product page, brand page, comparison and best-of list on AudioFu carries an editorial rating — and you deserve to know exactly how that number is calculated. No hidden algorithms, no paid placement, no manufacturer influence. This page is the canonical source we link to from every single rating across the site.
Four weighted factors
Each factor is scored independently from 0 to 1, then combined using fixed weights. The final composite is mapped to a 4.0–5.0 scale — products below that range are not surfaced in our discovery feeds.
Brand reputation
Weight: 30%Tier 1 (legacy/established): Fender, Gibson, Yamaha, Martin, Roland, Korg, Shure, Neumann, Native Instruments, Moog, Pearl, and similar 40+ brands. Tier 2 (respected modern): Squier, Schecter, PreSonus, Focusrite, Universal Audio, Beyerdynamic, and 30+ others. Unknown / niche brands receive baseline score.
Content completeness
Weight: 25%Length and depth of the product description in our database. Products with detailed manufacturer specifications, feature lists, and technical write-ups score higher than placeholder entries. Threshold: 200+ characters = full score, 80+ = partial, 30+ = baseline.
Price visibility
Weight: 15%Products with active retail pricing in our database score higher than ones marked as discontinued, out-of-stock, or with missing price data. This favours instruments you can actually buy today.
Model specificity
Weight: 15%Specific model variants (e.g. "American Professional II Stratocaster HSS RW") are typically more curated and accurate than generic series labels. Longer, more detailed model names lift this component score.
Stable diversity factor
Weight: 15%A deterministic hash of the product ID provides small diversity between products that score identically on the four objective criteria above. Hash-based, reproducible, and stable across page loads — never random.
What we don't do
- • No paid placement. Brands cannot pay for higher ratings.
- • No fake user reviews. All ratings carry the AudioFu Editorial author — there is no synthetic crowd.
- • No undisclosed affiliations. We earn affiliate commissions on outbound links to retailers, but commissions never influence the rating.
- • No random numbers. Every score is reproducible from the four factors above.
Updates and corrections
Ratings recalculate automatically when the underlying product data changes — a new description, a price update from the retailer feed, a brand promotion from Tier 2 to Tier 1. We review the brand-tier list and weight balance quarterly. Spot a product that you believe is mis-scored? Email us with the product URL and your reasoning — we read every message.
Who is "AudioFu Editorial"?
AudioFu Editorial is the in-house team responsible for curating the catalog, designing the rating algorithm, and approving brand-tier classifications. Founded by Denis Kataev in 2024. We do not employ paid product reviewers — every rating reflects objective product attributes processed by the methodology described above, not subjective hands-on testing.
