Jonathan Scull

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500 Issues And Counting: a Publishing Milestone
Features
Jonathan Scull  |  Jul 15, 2021  |  14 comments
We're all involved with the world we live in. Friends from 20 years ago? Hey, nice to see ya, put on a little weight I see. Generally, you hang with your crew, although you might miss the bigger picture that way.

I wrote for Stereophile from 1993 through 2002, and I remember my experiences fondly, including the pure pleasure of listening to music on all that wonderful audio equipment. But I hung with my tribe and never fully appreciated the crucible in which Stereophile was formed. It's a genuine saga; cue Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in the West.

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Fun with Moose and Squirrel
My Back Pages
Jonathan Scull  |  May 26, 2021  |  11 comments
'Cause it's hard to say what's real / When you know the way you feel—Flaming Lips, "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21," from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

In a recent Zoom meeting, some friends got into a dust-up about how "real"-sounding high-performance audio systems can be. The consensus was that there was no chance at all of real, live sound. A label owner waved it off as impossible: "Fuhgeddaboudit," he said. He's from New York, like me.

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Tim de Paravicini, RIP
News
Jonathan Scull  |  Dec 18, 2020  |  11 comments
Dammit! Tim de Paravicini, the Baron as he was known, passed from this mortal coil on December 17th, 2020. I loved the guy. His deep, steeped, sharp-elbowed engineering bona fides in matters of electronics, cars, planes, and life earned him plaudits from all over the world. [Editor's Note: this appreciation of Tim's life and work now includes personal memories from John Atkinson]
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Something's Coming
My Back Pages
Jonathan Scull  |  Nov 23, 2020  |  45 comments
So, what's "this thing of ours"? I'm only half-kidding. High-end audio is deadly serious for many passionate audiophiles. Some measurement types defend their turf without thought—without mercy—and often deride subjectivists, like me, who believe if you like what you hear, then that's what counts, enjoy. Objectivists say if you can't measure it, then it doesn't exist. Well, goes the retort, you don't know what to measure, your instruments aren't refined enough, and on and on.

The struggle continues to this day for some reason, and boy-howdy is it ferocious, especially regarding cables.

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Road Trip!
Features
Jonathan Scull  |  Feb 11, 2011  |  First Published: Jan 11, 2011  |  7 comments
Illustration: Jeff Wong

John Atkinson and I were On the Road, whistling down I-95 in a big, Kona Blue Metallic 2011 Ford Edge Ltd with voice-command everything. To paraphrase Raoul Duke at the very beginning of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, we were somewhere around Princeton, New Jersey—not quite the edge of the desert—when the drugs began to take hold. Just as in the original text, "there was a terrible roar all around us, and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car . . ." I decided that there was no point in mentioning the bats to JA. He'd bought the Criterion Collection DVD of Terry Gilliam's film version of Fear and Loathing at Princeton Record Exchange. He knew about the bats.

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HeadRoom BlockHead headphone amplifier
Solid State Preamp ReviewsHeadphone Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Jul 07, 2002  |  0 comments
With whom are you most intimate? Your wife? Husband? Your modern-times Significant Other? Your pet? Or, like a lot of audiophiles, is it your audio system? Do you nitpick and tweak it as if it were your pet?
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Fine Tunes #48
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  Jun 13, 2002  |  0 comments
In his first e-mail to "Fine Tunes," Rafael Teodoro (RBT@wolfenet.com) addressed a subject that Mark Gdovin, that faithful frequenter of the Stereophile soapbox, had already brought up. Mark had gone so far as to give readers sage advice from his brother, a materials engineer, regarding the dangers of applying Armor All to speaker cones and surrounds.
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Fine Tunes #47
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  May 19, 2002  |  0 comments
Sometimes tweaks take on a life of their own. Take the one of using Armor All to keep speaker surrounds from drying out, which you can read all about in the November 2001 "Fine Tunes No.41" I recently got another e-mail on the subject from Dan Mazza at Arizona Hi-Fi, who agrees with Mark Gdovin's objections to using Armor All. (Read Mark's comments on the entire issue in the readers' letters linked to "Fine Tunes No.41.").)
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Theta Digital Citadel monoblock amplifier
Solid State Power Amp Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  May 12, 2002  |  0 comments
As we all know, it's the sound that counts. However, good looks enhance pride of ownership, and Theta Digital's class-AB, 400W Citadel is as handsome a monoblock as these jaded eyes have laid eyes on.
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Fine Tunes #46
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  Apr 14, 2002  |  0 comments
"Hi, Jonathan," Bob Matthews began his e-mail to "Fine Tunes" (matthewsr@hqamc-exchg.army.mil). "I enjoy reading your column every month, and enjoy hearing from other people about some of their cheap tweaks!"
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