As We See It

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As We See It

The Tragedy of the Commons

John Marks Mar 31, 2002 First Published: Mar 31, 2002 0 comments

In my January">http://www.stereophile.com//thefifthelement/493/">January "The Fifth Element" column, I discussed the concept of value in the context of audio component manufacture. This month's "Letters" includes a response to that column from Austrian distributor Hans Hirner. In his letter, Herr Hirner writes about some of his Web-surfing non-customers: "If that weren't enough, they also call me or my dealers to tell them how proud they are, after having taken all from me that is possible in system matching and trial—and even denoising their systems—to have been able to find 'our' products cheaper out there."

As We See It

An Amusement Park for the Mind

John Atkinson Feb 17, 2002 First Published: Feb 17, 2002 0 comments

"An amusement park for the mind." That was how, some years ago, one engineer described the Audio Engineering Society's biannual conventions, which alternate between European and American venues. The 111th convention, subtitled "Advancing the Art of Sound," was held at the cavernous Jacob Javits Center on Manhattan's west side in early December. (It had originally been scheduled to take place last September, but was postponed for the obvious reason.)

As We See It

So Many Trees!

John Atkinson Jan 30, 2002 First Published: Jan 30, 2002 0 comments

Trees. All I could see from Route 44 was trees. Many, many trees. How many trees? Exactly 251.1 million maples, hickories, pines, hemlocks, ashes, and oaks of all colors, with trunks 5" or greater in diameter, according to an online survey I later found on the Web. Once you get away from I-95 and the coast, Connecticut seems to be one large forest, its towns peeking out from barely adequate clearings. And not just "seems"—the same online survey says that 57% of the Constitution State's 3,205,760 acres are officially classified as "forest."

As We See It

The Restorative Power of Music

John Atkinson Dec 16, 2001 First Published: Dec 16, 2001 0 comments

It was an unusually fine day for a New York September. The W train crept from the subway tunnel into the sunlight of the Manhattan Bridge—"My God, the World Trade Center's on fire!" came the voice of the woman driving the train. I vividly remember what I did the rest of that day—the day the world terribly changed.

As We See It Audiophile Essentials

The Search for Musical Ecstasy

Barry Willis Nov 18, 2001 First Published: Nov 18, 2001 0 comments

Every once in a while, some mainstream journalist discovers the audiophile underground.

As We See It

One Small Step...

Jon Iverson Oct 21, 2001 First Published: Oct 21, 2001 0 comments

Screeeeeeech, thump, thump, vroooooom...

As We See It

RIP Dr. Gizmo

John Atkinson Sep 09, 2001 First Published: Sep 09, 2001 0 comments

My dogs were killing me. It was the end of the second day of the 1985 Summer Consumer Electronics Show, which I was visiting on behalf of English magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review. I had been dutifully tramping the capacious corridors of Chicago's McCormick Center and the rooms of the (now demolished) McCormick Inn, looking for signs of musical life amid the huge promotion for the 8mm tape format, which was being heavily touted at CES as the future of both video and audio (!) reproduction. Even trade-paper headlines shouting "Audio: Not Just Video Peripheral!" failed to lift my spirits as I took the shuttle bus over to the Americana Congress hotel on South Michigan, where most of the high-end audio companies were hanging out.

As We See It

Drums in the Rear Channels?

Jon Iverson Aug 02, 2001 First Published: Aug 02, 2001 0 comments

"He's putting the drums in the rear channels?!?"

As We See It

We Are What We Are

John Atkinson Jul 08, 2001 First Published: Jul 08, 2001 0 comments

As I write these words, it is exactly 15 years to the day since I left the English magazine Hi-Fi News (then Hi-Fi News & Record Review) to take">http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/352/">take the editorial helm of Stereophile. What has driven my editing of both magazines (and, Carol Baugh, p.10, I certainly do "edit" them) has been the view that the traditional model of a magazine—that it dispense and the readers receive wisdom—is fundamentally wrong. Instead, I strongly believe that a magazine's editors, writers, and readers are involved in an ongoing dialog about their shared enthusiasms. Stereophile's involvement in Shows stems from this belief, and it is in this light that its "Letters" column should be regarded as the heart of each issue.

As We See It

Surround Sound & Cognitive Dissonance

Kalman Rubinson Jun 26, 2001 First Published: Jun 26, 2001 0 comments

Listening to multichannel music with the new SACD and DVD-Audio players has produced equal parts contentment and consternation. The contentment is easy to understand: Here are media that can reproduce music with better-than-CD resolution and, for the first time, re-create a believable illusion of the entire acoustic space in which the performance was recorded. The consternation is related to those same two issues: 1) maintaining the resolution and tonal balance relished with high-quality stereo, and 2) making the psychological transition from two-channel to multichannel listening. Both of these are barriers to audiophile acceptance of multichannel music.