Sad News
On Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:21:34 -0700, Mr. Finsky wrote
(in article ):
On Jul 28, 10:43*pm, Sonnova wrote:
On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:50:41 -0700, bob wrote
(in article ):
On Jul 28, 8:51*am, Sonnova wrote:
As audio equipment began to evolve in the 1970's . . . Gordon
started to notice a convergence of sonic characteristics in electronics. A
demonstration of DBT showed Gordon that this was useful for finding out if
any differences REALLY existed between two components and he became an
advocate for that.
As I understand it, Peter Aczel went through the same learning
process, at roughly the same time. Wonder what would have happened to
Stereophile—and the high end in general—if Holt hadn't sold the
magazine to Archibald.
First of all, we all a debt to JGH for emphasizing the concept that
equipment should be listened to instead of reading a series of
potentially meaningless specifications. Whether or not the differences
between every piece of equipment are perfectly detectable by pure
listening or testing is not as important as the concept of listening
versus reading numbers.
Secondly, I think we can agree that JGH was not meant to manage a
magazine or a publishing empire. His strength was in advocating
concepts, not in getting out a professionally produced magazine. Had
not Stereophile been sold, it would have been a distant memory on the
trash heap of semi-forgotten magazines published by amateurs about
subjects they loved. Other magazines have come and gone; sometimes you
need pros with money to keep them going.\
Finally, as much as JGH is beloved, much of his recent writing
descended to the crackpot level. For example. he recently ranted about
how multi-channel audio was so obviously superior and that people were
crazy not to see this. He never even mentioned that listeners would
have to time travel to the 50's or 60's to get many fabulous
recordings redone in 5.1 tapings. In addition, he went overboard
against listeners who desired soundstaging versus dynamics from their
speakers. A discussion in depth about the contrast in belief systems
would have shown the wisdom that his late writings lacked. Finally, I
was personally insulted when JGH stated that Baby Boomers were
responsible for all the evil in the world (or words to that effect).
If we are all so evil, how can Baby Boomers make up most of the high-
end world? If you want to criticize people, dump on those who advocate
fast food and MP3's so that convenience outweighs quality.
Thanks for the great innovations and career JGH, but you were hardly
perfect.
Who is perfect? Gordon was a fan of surround sound, that is true, but he
realized that except with synthesized channels there is no way to add it to
older recordings, so I'd have to say that he was not a "crackpot" about it,
just an enthusiast. I also have to say that as close as we were, I never
particularly shared his enthusiasm for multi-channel sound. I always figured
that it was difficult enough to get two channels right.
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