J. Gordon Holt founded Stereophile in the fall of 1962 in order to promote the idea that the optimal way to judge audio components was to do what end users did: listen to them. Since then, Gordon has had an unbroken relationship with Stereophile, through its sale to Larry Archibald in 1982, my coming on board as editor in 1986, the sale of the magazine to Petersen Publishing in 1998, and the subsequent sale of Petersen to Emap in 1999. Through all this time he has been listed on the magazine's masthead as "Founder & Chief Tester." (A fascinating interview with Gordon, conducted by his associate and friend Steven Stone, can be found in this website's "Archives.")

Sadly, his response to a reader in the October 1999 issue's "Letters" column is the last writing of Gordon's that will appear in Stereophile. On July 20, Gordon submitted his resignation to me as a fulltime employee of Emap Petersen, stating that this would be "in order to freelance and do some self-publishing." Although his byline will still occasionally appear attached to component reviews in Stereophile Guide to Home Theater, it is our understanding that Gordon's thoughts on audio-related matters will now appear in The Abso!ute Sound.

As a tribute to Gordon, I am republishing in our website's "Archives" section a classic "As We See It" essay of his in which he outlines one of his fundamental beliefs about music reproduction—a belief that I know he holds as strongly today as he did in 1985, when he wrote this piece. Enjoy. And aloha, Gordon, from your colleagues at Stereophile.