Michael Fremer leaves Analog Planet

For those who think Fremer quirky, you should have met Dr Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg, soi-disant Thermionic Techno-Shaman.

It's the small touches—note the fire extinguisher?

Now he was a truly eccentric and worthy man.

Fremer is the best writer for anything analog period. I'm just hoping his skin thickens a bit with the new gig.

Fremer described himself best when he quoted a reader who said he was, "a haberdasher to emperors." MF has definitely broadened the analog horizons by writing about many different turntables, cartridges and phono stages over the years. I appreciate and have learned from his passion. Like some others have already said, I do not rely on his opinions for my buying decisions. For that I am more likely to trust the British press and even then you need the salt shaker.

@dogberry: Yep, Harvey Rosenberg was the most interesting, entertaining guy in the entire history of hi-fi. I met him at SoCal retailer Havens & Hardesty, where he did an in-store to introduce his New York Audio Labs Super It phono stage.

Harvey was a well-known Decca pickup fanatic and expert, whom I subsequently wrote for advice concerning the subtleties of optimizing that design’s very finicky nature. He actually called information to obtain my phone number, and called me in SoCal from New York! We also shared a love of the QUAD ESL and OTL amps (Harvey is best known for buying the rights to the Futterman OTL and re-engineering it), but in his last years became a proponent of horn loudspeakers and single-ended triode amps.

Yes, he was a founding father of New York Audio Labs but so far as I know not really an audio engineer.  He delegated that job to good people.