J. Gordon Holt

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Tube Preamp ReviewsJ. Gordon Holt
Audio Research SP-11 preamplifier
Anthony H. Cordesman, J. Gordon Holt  |  Jun 10, 1995  |  First Published: Jun 10, 1986  |  0 comments
If there is indeed a renaissance of tubes in high-end audio—and it is clear there is—much of the blame lies with Audio Research Corporation.
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As We See ItJ. Gordon Holt
Seeing Red
J. Gordon Holt  |  Jan 04, 2010  |  First Published: Jun 04, 1986  |  0 comments
Although inclined to mood swings bordering on the manic-depressive, I am generally a very patient, tolerant person, willing to accept and overlook the foibles of those less perfect than myself. But even my incredible equanimity has its limits, beyond which the milk of my human kindness curdles, becoming as lumpy as last month's yogurt.
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As We See ItJ. Gordon Holt
Transparent, My Dear Watson
J. Gordon Holt  |  Jun 09, 2007  |  First Published: Apr 09, 1986  |  0 comments
Much of the descriptive terminology used in subjective reporting describes things we hear in live music, and expect—or, rather, hope—to hear from reproduced music, too. I'm referring to terms like width, depth, perspective, spectral balance, and tonal accuracy. If you read our reports, you know these terms as well as I do, and since they are (for most people) self-explanatory, I will devote no more time to them.
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Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsJ. Gordon HoltHistorical
VMPS SuperTower IIa/R loudspeaker
Anthony H. Cordesman, J. Gordon Holt  |  Dec 05, 2008  |  First Published: Apr 05, 1986  |  0 comments
One of the nicest features of the High End is its diversity. Regardless of whatever trend is fashionable, there will always be manufacturers to buck it, and sell alternative concepts and sounds. VMPS is just such a case. With few exceptions, the recent trend in speaker systems has been toward small-to-medium-sized "monitors" with good imaging and high resolution, but limited bass and dynamics (footnote 1). The VMPS SuperTowers provide the former, but buck the trend by adding reproduction of the deepest bass and outstanding full-range dynamics.
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J. Gordon HoltRoom Treatment Reviews
Acoustic Sciences Corp. Tube Traps
J. Gordon Holt  |  Mar 02, 2009  |  First Published: Apr 02, 1986  |  0 comments
In my rather jaded report from the 1986 Winter CES (Vol.9 No.2), I remarked that there was nothing really new in the field of high-end audio. Well, I was wrong. I overlooked the Acoustic Sciences Corporation Tube Traps, a patented new acoustic device designed by Arthur Noxon (president of ASC). The Traps represent the first practical and effective solution to a perennial audiophile problem: standing waves in the listening room.
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HistoricalJ. Gordon Holt
The Big Announcement
Larry Archibald, J. Gordon Holt  |  Jun 01, 2007  |  First Published: Apr 01, 1986  |  0 comments
The rumors have been flying, and his arrival is imminent—a couple weeks after you read this—so it's time our readers know: John Atkinson, for the last four years Editor of Britain's prestigious Hi-Fi News & Record Review (left), is joining the staff of Stereophile as Managing Editor and International Editor.
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As We See ItJ. Gordon Holt
The 1986 Winter CES
J. Gordon Holt  |  Apr 09, 2010  |  First Published: Mar 09, 1986  |  0 comments
I always enjoy CES. Like the Big Apple, or the City of Angels, the Consumer Elecronics Show is stimulatingly frenetic and enjoyably fatiguing—things that would soon put me in the funny farm if I lived with them year 'round, but can easily cope with twice a year. In fact, attending CES is rather like visiting the city of my birth, a place whose culture is one with my own because I grew up there, and where half the pleasure lies in seeing once again those audio people—the Allisons, Marantzes, Frieds, Beveridges, Haflers, and Tuckers—whose durability as friends always reminds me of how rapidly time passes and how little of it we may have left.
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HistoricalInterviewsJ. Gordon Holt
Meridian's Bob Stuart
J. Gordon Holt  |  May 13, 2015  |  First Published: Mar 01, 1986  |  0 comments
Meridian's MCD CD player was perhaps the first audiophile-quality player to be introduced in the high-end market. I met with Bob Stuart of Meridian at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in January, 1986 (footnote 1). My first question was about the name of the company he runs with industrial designer Alan Boothroyd:

J. Gordon Holt: Meridian in England is called Boothroyd Stuart, right?

Bob Stuart: Yes, the company is called Boothroyd Stuart, Limited, and the trademark is Meridian.

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FeaturesHistoricalJ. Gordon HoltStand Loudspeaker Reviews
Dick Olsher Dahlia speaker
Dick Olsher, J. Gordon Holt, Martin Colloms  |  Jun 07, 2018  |  First Published: Feb 01, 1986  |  0 comments
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) loudspeaker projects are quite common in the UK, where details about several excellent designs, including a recent one by Martin Colloms, have been published for public domain consumption. Stateside, the situation is rather grim, where only an occasional subwoofer project (always popular) makes it into the commercial magazines.
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As We See ItJ. Gordon Holt
Directional Questions
J. Gordon Holt  |  Dec 29, 2006  |  First Published: Jan 29, 1986  |  0 comments
As I write this, I am recuperating from four days of frenzy at the 1986 Winter CES in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am also pondering why I was so unexcited by most of what I saw and heard of the high-end exhibits; high-end audio may have reached a developmental plateau of sorts.
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Solid State Power Amp ReviewsJ. Gordon Holt
Threshold SA-1 monoblock power amplifier
J. Gordon Holt  |  Oct 08, 2006  |  First Published: Jan 08, 1986  |  0 comments
Eleven years ago, Threshold Corporation entered the high-end audio market with the first amplifier ever to use sliding bias (footnote 1) in its output stages. Some 10 years later, Threshold spawned another innovation: their so-called Stasis circuitry, which yielded the S-series amplifiers. The SA-1 and its lower-powered sister SA-2 are the latest from Threshold, and are the first Threshold amps to abandon sliding bias for straight class-A operation. Both use the Stasis circuit.
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J. Gordon HoltSolid State Power Amp Reviews
PS Audio 200C power amplifier
Anthony H. Cordesman, J. Gordon Holt  |  Dec 29, 1995  |  First Published: Dec 29, 1985  |  0 comments
Several issues back, I mentioned a major "new wave" of power amplifiers coming along: the Adcom 555, the New York Audio Labs transistor-tube hybrids, and the latest Krells, for example. They demonstrate that major audible improvements are still possible in something as well-explored as the power amplifier. Not only that, some of these products demonstrate that superior performance can be combined with relatively low price.
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As We See ItJ. Gordon HoltHistorical
Stop Digital Madness!
J. Gordon Holt  |  Dec 03, 1985  |  0 comments
The title of this month's column is the legend Sheffield Labs emblazoned on a T-shirt a couple of years ago, to promote their jaundiced view of digital audio. Since then, even Sheffield's reactionary perfectionists softpedalled their anti-digital crusade, perhaps because of the number of CDs they've been selling! Their personnel no longer wear those T-shirts at CES, which is unfortunate. Although most people in the audio field no longer see digital audio as madness, digital denouncing is still very much with us.
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Recording of the MonthJ. Gordon Holt
Recording of December 1985: Respighi: Church Windows
J. Gordon Holt  |  Mar 18, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 01, 1985  |  9 comments
rotm1285.p.pngRespighi: Church Windows
The Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Keith Clark conducting.
Reference Recordings RR-15 (LP). Tam Henderson, prod.; Keith Johnson, eng. AAA

Some years ago, Harry Pearson, editor and publisher of That Other Magazine, announced his intention to help finance production of a no-holds-barred symphonic recording. The only question was, who would produce it?

Reference Recordings' Tam Henderson assures me he did not have HP's grant in mind when he conspired with the Pacific Symphony's conductor to record "something" in the Crystal Cathedral, a huge barn of a place in Santa Ana, CA. When that hall, graced by a large, romantic-sounding pipe organ and superb acoustics, proved to be unavailable because of some legal wrangle, the idea of recording something big and romantic for orchestra and pipe organ refused to go away.

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CD Player/Transport ReviewsJ. Gordon HoltAudacious Audio
Kyocera DA-910 CD player
J. Gordon Holt  |  Apr 10, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 01, 1985  |  6 comments
Those of our readers who are still anti-CD are going to be offended by what I am about to say. Partly because they do not want it to be true, but mainly because it is. I shall utter the heresy anyway: the Compact Disc is, right now, doing more for the cause of high-end audio than anything that has ever come along before!

There, I've said it. Now I shall explain it.

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