John Atkinson

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We Are What We Are
As We See It
John Atkinson  |  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 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.
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Trumpets to the Back of Me?
As We See It
John Atkinson  |  May 26, 2001  |  0 comments
As part of this issue's coverage of the recent Consumer Electronics Show (see Sidebar), I report on my dissatisfaction with almost all the surround-sound demonstrations I experienced in Las Vegas. As a music-lover, the last thing I want is to have trumpets and drums attacking me from behind, yet almost without exception, that is what record producers seem to feel is an essential part of the DVD-Audio and SACD experiences.
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Music Before Numbers?
As We See It
John Atkinson  |  Apr 12, 2001  |  0 comments
This letter from Mike Pageau appeared in the April 2001 issue, and triggered the following "As We See It" essay:
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"Where's the Real Magazine?"
As We See It
John Atkinson  |  Feb 12, 2001  |  0 comments
The affair started quietly enough, with the following exchange that appeared in Stereophile's January 2001 "Letters" section, following my decision to put the Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe high-end PC soundcard on the cover of our September 2000 issue:
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"Where's the Real Magazine?" Part 2
As We See It
John Atkinson  |  Jul 05, 2007  |  First Published: Feb 12, 2001  |  0 comments
"Jonathan Scull told me there'd be trouble when I decided to put the Denon AVR-4800 surround receiver on our December cover."
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Ludwig van Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas
Music and Recording Features
John Atkinson  |  Jan 17, 2001  |  0 comments
"All of them?!"
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Recording of December 2000: Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat
Recording of the Month
John Atkinson  |  Dec 26, 2000  |  1 comments
Little Feat: Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat
Warner Archives/Rhino R2 79912 (4 CDs). 1970-2000. Russ Titelman, Ted Templeman, Lowell George, Van Dyke Parks, Erik Jacobsen, George Massenburg, Bill Payne, Paul Barrère, Bill Wray, Ed Cherney, Frank Zappa, Michael O'Bryant, Richard Moore, orig. prods.; Gary Peterson, Bill Payne, Paul Barrère, reissue prods.; Bill Inglot, reissue sound. AAD. TT: 5:13:48
Performance *****
Sonics ****
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Upsampling or Oversampling?
ReferenceAs We See It
John Atkinson  |  Dec 06, 2000  |  0 comments
Charles Hansen said it best, in a recent e-mail: "People have been holding back from criticizing this technology because they weren't certain that some new discovery hadn't been made." Ayre Acoustics' main man was talking about "upsampling," whereby conventional "Red Book" CD data, sampled at 44.1kHz, are converted to a datastream with a higher sample rate. (Because of its association with DVD-Audio, 96kHz is often chosen as the new rate.)
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Stereophile's Products of 2000
Products of the Year
John Atkinson  |  Dec 03, 2000  |  0 comments
Since 1992, Stereophile has named a select few audio components its "Products of the Year." In doing so, we recognize those components that have proved capable of giving musical pleasure beyond the formal review period.
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RME Digi96/8 Pro computer soundcard
Budget Component ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
John Atkinson  |  Nov 17, 2000  |  0 comments
In the early days of digital audio, I remember talking with Dr. Tom Stockham, the developer of the groundbreaking Soundstream system used then by Telarc. As well as using a 50kHz sample rate, the excellent-sounding Soundstream stored its 16-bit data on large drum-shaped Winchester drives connected to a minicomputer. Twenty years later, the advent of ultra-high-density magnetic storage media and fast microprocessor chips has put high-resolution digital audio manipulation and storage within reach of anyone with a modern PC or Mac. And facilitating the transformation of the PC into a high-quality DAW has been a new generation of soundcards, such as the Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe I reviewed in September 2000 and the subject of this review, the German RME Digi96/8 Pro.
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