BEST TURNTABLE AT COST NO OBJECT

Carl well said and not to go off on another tangent (but I will) I for one will not renew my subscription to Stereophile (after 15 years) for exactly that reason. I disagree that it has been only the past 2 years, it has been longer than that. I can't handle Scull and there aren't enough insightful reviewers there to warrant it. Stereophile has finally become what they always professed not to be, a tool of the manufacturers, the conclusion to "Animal Farm", the ideal is dead long live the PIGS!!! But I can't handle that Harry (bitchy) Pearson at TAS either. If HE would leave, I might try them. I sent in for a free copy recently but found the same stuff (stereophile bashing) was still going on after a 10 year hiatus, no thanks. Why aren't there more like J Gordon Holt? I love his original ideal.

The problem with Holt, is that now he thinks anyone who listens to 2 channel is wasting their time. Truth be told, I've not read much of any of Sphl over the past year, ever since I got my computer. Not that the net-zines are worthwhile either......Agree on Pearson, he's as bad a Scull in many ways. Somebody needs to tell both of them that they're too old to hear as well as they think they do, and they need to just do their wine tasting full time. AS LONG AS FREMER AND ATKINSON ARE STILL THERE, my subscription to Sphl will stay renewed. At least Atkinson knows what he's doing, always...

Atkinson is really the ONLY reason I have continued with the subscription although I do enjoy MF, since I still listen to vinyl and am interested in what is going on with analog. Reviewing all analog gear and the set-up involved is a quite formidable task, he does it quite well. What I always liked about JGH is the fact that he will absolutely say what he believes. I agree that for listening to music 2 channel is the only way to go and I can speak through my own experiences with multi-channel, ambience extraction etc. The fact that Holt is going down another path doesn't negate his integrity. When I first started subscribing to Stereophile, his comments and reviews were the one's I always sought out first, no BS with that man, he uses common language and is completely irrepressible. It is unfortunate there aren't more like him.

Integrity or not, we agree that JGH lost touch with what's important to music lovers; and every last word out of his mouth/keyboard wasn't necessarily beyound refute, IMHO. Fremer's writing style is easily the best of all of them, and he too uses plain language, and knows how to review all equipment, not just vinyl. He interviews Beatles producer George Martin in the latest Listener, you should check it out.