Stephen Mejias

Illustrator Jeff Wong is working on a portrait of Stereophile founder, J. Gordon Holt, to appear in our October issue. Since Jeff will need some reference material, John Atkinson and I have been having a whole lot of fun sorting through great, old Stereophile memorabilia, trinkets, photos.

Here is Vol.1 No.1. Wow. The thing nearly turned to dust when I took it into my hands. Inside, the Contents page informs us that the issue's main articles include:

&#151Amplifier Power; How Much Is Enough?
&#151Antennas for Fringe-Area Multiplex
&#151How to Write an Ad, by Lucius Wordburger
&#151Phasing Stereo Headphones

In Departments, we had:

&#151The Forum: Farewell to the Paper Cone, by Irving M. Fried
&#151Tall On Tape
&#151The Baffle Board
&#151Equipment Report: The Weathers Professional Stereo Pickup
&#151Record Reviews (including Bach, Berlioz, Mozart, and, of course, Wagner; strangely, there was no Sonic Youth review)
&#151Audio Mart
&#151Letters
&#151Stereophile Chart File: Reactance vs. Frequency

The staff consisted of editor and publisher, JGH; managing editor, Philip C. Geraci; and editorial consultant, Eleanore B. Wright.

In 1962, a subscription to 12 issues of The Stereophile would have cost you $6, just about half of what it costs today. And, finally, a note about the cover:

As befits a first cover, Phil Geraci's photo this month is fraught with deep significance and symbolism.

Audio, like chess, is a challenging, stimulating and enjoyable pastime to those who've learned the ins and outs of the game. Those of you who know chess (as well as audio) may conceivably recognize specific chess men among the audio fetishes on our chess board, and may even notice that this "game" is just getting under way.

As far as we're concerned, it is.