Anthony (Tony) Cordesman has passed away

I first became aware of AHC from his 1980s Stereophile equipment reviews. Largely based on his rave review of the Apogee Duetta II, I went out of my way to audition them at two different dealers and bought a pair, which I still use as my main speakers.  Around that period he also did a Stereophile survey of top cartridges, and based on his review of the Monster Cable Alpha Genesis 1000, I bought one of those, which I also am still using (has over 1000 hours on it and still sounds like I remember it sounding in the 1990s).  I think he also reviewed the Eminent Technology ET-2 tonearm in Stereophile, which is the tonearm I still use on my SOTA Star Sapphire. 

I later learned of his work in the national security field when I saw him on TV, and assumed it was the same guy--not a common name, and he seemed the right age to be the reviewer.

I enjoyed his reviews for the long gone Audio magazine. R.I.P!

R.I.P. 

I will miss AHC. His ears seemed very similar to mine, though his budget was larger.

I found his email decades ago and we exchanged brief messages every 10 years or so. His advice was always sterling.

A favorite comment by AHC, from one of his reviews:

When it comes to actual recordings, I have not yet heard any reason to even go as high as 192kHz. Some of my colleagues disagree, but I have so far found rates above 96kHz/24 bits to be a waste of money. I do buy the 96kHz/24-bit version of the music I download or stream for safety’s sake, but most of the time, a good 16-bit/44.1kHz version of the same mastering of a recordings will sound exactly the same. One has to be very careful in paying what usually is nearly twice as much for the 96kHz/24-bit when there is no way to hear whether there is any difference, particularly with a modern DAC with really good filtering. Oddly enough, the better your DAC, the less likely you are to hear any difference.

Loved his audio reviewing work.  Not nearly as big a fan of his other work as a national and global security analyst.  I wrote to him once because I took issue with something he had written regarding geopolitics, mentioning that I was a big fan of his audio reviews.  He never replied.  Still, he will be missed.  RIP, Anthony.