Gordon's favorite music?
Editor: I have often heard and read people's arguments for using their favorite music to test music systems. I have never seen such an effort cloaked in such opaque terms as Mr. Holt did in "The Acoustical Standard" (October 1988). Why was he trying to hide the fact that he likes to use his favorite music to test out components? It is easy to find fault with his analysis. It is well known to anyone who studies acoustics that concert halls have the deadest, and some of the most peculiar balances of any listening chamber. In concert, the reverberant soundfield…
As We See It: A Tale of Two Systems
STEREOPHILE November 1988, Vol.11 No.11
John Atkinson "When you read...that an electronic recording has 'excellent' sound [it] does not mean you can use that record as a system evaluation tool," wrote J. Gordon Holt in October's "As We See It." Yet, if you are a regular reader of Stereophile, you will be aware that the magazine's equipment reviewers do make use of a considerable number and variety of recordings, including many which would appear to be totally electronic, to reach value judgments about hi-fi components.
"The pursuit of…
When it comes to the music, however, George Szell felt that there was nothing wrong in altering scores to achieve balances more in tune with modern-day needs. Sir Thomas Beecham, too, felt that the interpreter had a duty to adapt music to suit its circumstances in order to be true to its needs. "What largely distinguishes good music from bad is the beautiful sound of the one as compared with the ugly sound of the other," he stated in the first volume of his autobiography, A Mingled Chime, and went on to ask the rhetorical question: "Does music which is beautiful when played exactly in…
A letter in response appeared in March 1989, Vol.12 No.3 More of a frontal assault?
Editor: Mr. Atkinson's rebuff of Mr. Holt's argument ("As We See It," November and October '88, respectively) seemed more a frontal assault than a well-reasoned reply. But for whatever reason, the reply misses the point. Taken by itself, Mr. Atkinson's position is simple enough, and undoubtedly quite correct. People, singly as consumers and hobbyists, or collectively sitting on a "relatively formal listening" jury, can and will make value judgments about the quality and likeability of the reproduced…
As We See It: The Chicken and the Egg
STEREOPHILE March 1989, Vol.12 No.3
John Atkinson It is inarguable that the quality of magnetically recorded sound has improved immeasurably in the last 101 years. 101 years? Yes, according to a fascinating account in the May 1988 issue of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, it was in 1888 that the Cincinnatti-based engineer Oberlin Smith experimented with recording information on steel wire by drawing it across the corner of an electromagnet around which a coil had been wound. Smith only carried out experiments without producing a…
I am sure that in Oberlin Smith's time, it was felt that if only the technical problem of the recording process could be overcome, then everything would be perfect. But even with perfect recording equipment, questions arise as to how it is used, as I endeavored to describe in this space last November. That "As We See It" essay outlined opposing philosophies concerning how to record classical music. First, and one to which I adhere in my own recordings, is to treat the recording process as documentary, where the recordist attempts to capture as faithfully as possible on a two-channel recorder…
Attempting to use the absolute sound—love that phrase!—as a reference, you may think that you can make value judgments about a hi-fi component because you already know what a classical recording should sound like—the real thing. In actuality, as the recording doesn't have that potential, you need first to assess its quality by listening to it through components that you need already to know the sound of when compared with the sound of live music. You need knowledge of the chicken before you can assess the quality of the egg, but you only have access to the quality of the chicken if first you…
Similarly, I use Wilson, Reference, Water Lily Acoustics, and Sheffield Lab classical recordings to assess departures from tonal neutrality, pink noise to look for the presence of resonant problems, pretty much any modern rock album to assess the ability of amplifiers and speakers to present tight, well-defined midbass, good organ recordings and sinewave sweeps to investigate low-frequency extension, drum and percussion recordings to investigate "jump factor" and overall dynamics, in fact any recording where I can break the logical judgmental loop due to the fact that I have independent…
Letters on this subject appeared in April 1989, Vol.12 No.4 Mellow out!
Editor: I am highly annoyed with certain elitist snobs among your readers whose attitude toward rock & roll can only be described as ugly. Some have likened listening to rock through Apogees to hauling lumber with a BMW, and claim only classical music is appropriate for their high-end equipment. This attitude seems to begin with the reasonable idea that audio equipment is best judged by its ability to reproduce acoustical instruments. There then follows a mystical leap to insisting that classical music is…
As We See It: The Last Word on Fidelity
STEREOPHILE May 1989, Vol.12 No.5
J. Gordon Holt Last October, in Vol.11 No.10, Stereophile's Founder and Chief Tester J. Gordon Holt stated, in his acerbic editorial "The Acoustical Standard," that, in his opinion, only recordings for which there is an original acoustic reference—ie, typically those of classical music—should be used to evaluate hi-fi components. And that in the absence of a consensus over such a policy, high-end component manufacturers were losing their way over what does and does not represent good sound quality.
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