Stereophile Article - Holt telling it like it is.


http://stereophile.com/asweseeit/1107awsi/

Gordon Holt telling it the way it is. I have to tell you; I agree almost with 100% of what he's said. I look forward to the Stereophile print where a full article is too be written. I will purchase that issue.
lush
maybe now they will do blind testing. i really hate it when somebody says that this is the best something that they have ever heard. this is so bogus. they need to hear the gear they are auditioning in the same room using the same other gear or it is worthless. when they say that this $50k unit is better than these other $30k unit, i want a blind test. I don't think they want to pick the cheaper unit or they would look bad.
Lush,

They don't make 'em like Gordon anymore. In some way he reminds me of Canadian Hockey icon/legend "Don Cherry" - also a straight shooter - take or leave it - he says what he has to say and you get the message loud and clear (even between the lines stuff is pretty clear). I like Gordon's current choice in speaker in his home - proof he puts his money where his mouth is.
You mean that angry litany pointing fingers at everyone? I loved it and he outdoes my dad for scathing criticism which is pretty hard to do. I think he does have a serious point that Stereophile/JA and others are deaf to, which is concerned with the question of how close are we to the sound of reality as we would hear it live. Many people would just as soon not have to answer that question. It is nice to have good "appealing", musical sound as an audiophile but its nice to be working toward accuracy to the source material as well.
"Audio actually used to have a goal: perfect reproduction of the sound of real music performed in a real space."

"The playback still doesn't sound 'just like the real thing.' People, let's start getting back to basics. Let's put the 're' back into 'reproduction."

"We've lost our direction....The High End in 1992 is a multi-million-dollar business. But it's an empty triumph, because we haven't accomplished what we set out to do."


Was this really the goal of all audio endeavor? I'm sure it was Holt's goal, but I wonder how many really feel the same way he does. We can only REproduce what's on the recording, which in most cases contains nothing like "the real thing".

I think his anger towards audiophiles is misdirected; he should be angry with the recording industry. But in the end, he outs himself as actually angry with the Baby Boomer generation.

The Boomers have ruined his world. No wonder he's bitter.