J. Gordon Holt, founder of Stereophile magazine and essentially of subjective evaluation of audio equipment, and a fan of Dynaco tube gear in its heyday, died on Monday at his home in Boulder, CO of complications from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and emphysema.
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J. Gordon Holt has died
GP49- Posts : 792
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Location : East of the sun and west of the moon
Luddite- Posts : 233
Join date : 2009-02-04
Age : 74
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GP49 wrote:J. Gordon Holt, founder of Stereophile magazine and essentially of subjective evaluation of audio equipment, and a fan of Dynaco tube gear in its heyday, died on Monday at his home in Boulder, CO of complications from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and emphysema.
Mr. Holt was also a principal contributor to one of the (IMHO) best (albeit short lived, 1955-1958) and earliest of the DIY Audio magazines, Audiocraft, a subsidiary publication of High Fidelity magazine.
Charlie
Bob Latino- Admin
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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
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
rmscar- Posts : 1
Join date : 2009-08-24
Very sad to hear about his death. Always enjoyed his funny & intelligent reviews in the old 'Sterophile' before it became a captive of the over-priced 'high-end' market. Anyone know where else he might have been writing?
Cheers, Robert S. Dynaco fan - homebrew PAS-3, modded ST-70.
Cheers, Robert S. Dynaco fan - homebrew PAS-3, modded ST-70.
GP49- Posts : 792
Join date : 2009-04-30
Location : East of the sun and west of the moon
Ironically, after J. Gordon Holt left Stereophile (and it's been said many times that it was a definite parting of the ways), he contributed to The Absolute Sound.
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