I liked J. Gordon Holt's reviews and I still remember back in the 1960's the earliest editions of Stereophile that looked like a small pamphlet and had either no advertising or virtually no advertising.
Although Gordon had a soft spot for DIY audio, the present day Stereophile (or StereoPhool as some call it) magazine now totally ingnores the presense of DIY Audio and any products sold by internet only. They have a rule that they won't review an audio product unless it is sold by at least "five brick and mortar stores". I once wrote to John Atkinson and John Marks at Stereophile a nice Email extolling the virtues of DIY audio and the large DIY internet business and forums dedicated to DIY audio. What I got back from both was that "they had polled their readers and there was no interest in DIY audio". I wrote back that there was no interest from their readers because true DIY audio buffs had long left their readership because of their lack of DIY audio articles. Lets face it > They won't take any interest in DIY audio because DIY audio or an internet only based business just doesn't advertise in their magazine - SO - they continue to cater to audio "salons" that sell overpriced audio gear at inflated prices.
Stereophile's biggest competitor, The Absolute Sound, doesn't seem to have that strict a rule for reviewing products. A couple of years ago they reviewed the Tyler Acoustics Linbrook II speaker. Tyler Acoustics in Kentucky is an internet only business and has no dealer network. They make high end speakers with excellent quality drivers and crossovers at prices maybe 2/3 of what a comparable speaker would be sold for in an audio salon.
Maybe some of you know this already but the parent company of Stereophile, Genesis Technologies, filed for bankruptcy in April. They are over a million dollars in debt and if they can't find a way to restructure in the near future then Stereophile will be dead in the water.
Bob
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J. Gordon Holt has died on Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:24 pm
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