J. Gordon Holt

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Kyocera DA-910 CD player
CD Player/Transport ReviewsJ. Gordon HoltAudacious Audio
J. Gordon Holt  |  Apr 10, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 01, 1985  |  6 comments
Those of our readers who are still anti-CD are going to be offended by what I am about to say. Partly because they do not want it to be true, but mainly because it is. I shall utter the heresy anyway: the Compact Disc is, right now, doing more for the cause of high-end audio than anything that has ever come along before!

There, I've said it. Now I shall explain it.

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Conrad-Johnson Premier Five monoblock power amplifier
Tube Power Amp ReviewsJ. Gordon Holt
J. Gordon Holt  |  Aug 30, 2009  |  First Published: Nov 30, 1985  |  0 comments
Many audiophiles who have only recently subscribed to Stereophile will be surprised to find that those clunky, heat-producing, short-lived tubes that reigned up through the mid-'60s are still Executive Monarchs in the mid-'80s. Why, for Heaven's sake? Because, despite everything, people like them.
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Getting the Notes Right (Midrange Madness)
As We See ItJ. Gordon HoltHistorical
J. Gordon Holt  |  Nov 07, 1985  |  0 comments
Almost 30 years ago, Columbia records issued a unique disc called The Art of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. Darlene sang and Jonathan played piano, and the jacket notes rhapsodized about the depth of feeling they brought to their duos, despite some imperfections of technique.
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The Carver Challenge
FeaturesJ. Gordon HoltHistorical
J. Gordon Holt  |  May 11, 2009  |  First Published: Oct 11, 1985  |  0 comments
Is it possible to make a $700 "mainstream-audio" power amplifier sound exactly like a high-priced perfectionist amplifier? Bob Carver, of Carver Corporation, seemed to think he could, so we challenged him to prove it.
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"What I Mean..." (review terminology)
As We See ItJ. Gordon Holt
J. Gordon Holt  |  Dec 04, 2005  |  First Published: Oct 04, 1985  |  0 comments
As you may have noticed, Stereophile's approach to equipment testing is quite different from that of "mainstream" audio publications. Instead of throwing a bunch of measurements at you, and telling you how we think components ought to sound because of those measurements, we test them as you would: by listening. But we have an extra problem: we have to convey to someone else—you—a feeling for what we hear from that component. It ain't always easy.
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JBL 250Ti loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsJ. Gordon Holt
J. Gordon Holt  |  Aug 16, 2013  |  First Published: Oct 01, 1985  |  7 comments
685jbl.jpgOnce upon a time, in audio's infancy, anyone who wanted better than average sound—average sound during the 1940s being rich, boomy and dull—had no choice but to buy professional loudspeakers. In those days, "professional" meant one of two things: movie-theater speakers or recording-studio speakers. Both were designed, first and foremost, to produce high sound levels, and used horn loading to increase their efficiency and project the sound forwards. They sounded shockingly raw and harsh in the confines of the typical living room.
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The Case Against Show Reports
As We See ItJ. Gordon HoltHistorical
Larry Archibald, Anthony H. Cordesman, J. Gordon Holt  |  Jan 04, 2010  |  First Published: Sep 04, 1985  |  0 comments
Now that Stereophile's reporting on the 1985 Summer Consumer Electronics Show has ended (I hope!), I would like to express strong dissent with its style and content. In fact, I believe that most of it should never have appeared in print.
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Recording of September 1985: Shostakovich: Symphony 15
Recording of the MonthJ. Gordon Holt
J. Gordon Holt  |  Apr 10, 2014  |  First Published: Sep 01, 1985  |  1 comments
985rotm.shost250.jpgShostakovich: Symphony 15
USSR Ministry of Culture State Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting.
JVC/Melodiya CD VDC-528 (CD). Igor Veprintsev, eng. AAD.

I have been wondering recently if we aren't seeing the beginning of the end of rotten recordings. I'm now not too surprised when yet another superlative-sounding Telarc or Reference Recordings disc arrives for review, but when a Soviet-made Melodiya blows me away with its sound, not to say a stupendous performance, I must conclude that something earthshaking is going on.

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Recording of August 1985: Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Recording of the MonthJ. Gordon Holt
J. Gordon Holt  |  Apr 15, 2014  |  First Published: Aug 01, 1985  |  6 comments
885rotm.250.jpgMozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Posthorn Serenade
Prague Chamber Orchestra, Charles Mackerras conducting.
Telarc CD 80108 (CD). Robert Woods, prod., Jack Renner, eng. DDD.

Holt's First Law of Recording states: "The better the performance, the worse the recording—and vice versa." It's true; really fine recordings of superb musical performances are so rare that the discovery of one such gem is cause for rejoicing. Well, you can rejoice: this is one of them.

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Gale GS402 loudspeaker
J. Gordon HoltStand Loudspeaker Reviews
Dick Olsher, J. Gordon Holt  |  Aug 13, 2014  |  First Published: Aug 01, 1985  |  2 comments
885gale.promo250.jpgThe Gale loudspeaker dates back to the early 1970s. As I understand it, the basic design resulted from a collaboration of Ira Gale and Sao Win, who were college classmates at the time. Their speaker proved very popular in England and was subsequently imported to the USA during the mid-1970s by Audio Technica. Recently, Techport (the folks who import the Perreaux line) has taken over US distribution.

While the Gales have undergone same changes through the years, their distinctive appearance and, according to some, their equally distinctive sonic "flavor," have continued to earn the respect of critical listeners all over the world. Nonetheless, these speakers have also sustained their fair share of criticism; not everybody likes them. This sort of continuing disagreement usually means that what is at issue is a "different" kind of sound—a product that sounds quite unlike others, yet somehow offers a high enough degree of musical satisfaction to appeal to a lot of serious audiophiles. Of such products are cults made.

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