Stereophile looses Jonathan Scull


General Asylum
FYI, Stereophile looses Jonathan Scull
66.161.175.28

Posted by Gordon Rankin (M) on March 29, 2002 at 12:39:56
FYI,
Heard about this yesterday and conformation today from J10 that Primedia (Stereophile's parent company) wanted to slim down it's staff in all magazines let J10 go yesterday.
I have know Jonathan for sometime now and his certain wit will leave Stereophile a little colder than it was before.
Thanks J10 for the bandwith!
Gordon
J. Gordon Rankin
albundy15000696a
I never considered Scull's articles as merely product reviews. I just liked reading them. He seemed very enthused about every product he reviews, and he also seemed to have a history with every manufacturer or designer of the products he reviewed. This always gived me a behind the scenes feel in addition to just a plain review. I can't say I always agree with his reviews, but, being the ony guy on Stereophile who reviews "cheap" stuff, he WAS a breath of fresh air.
I have been a Stereophile reader since the mid 80's. In that period, I have held a subscription about 50% of the time. My opinions of the magazine are strong, but it is because my love for and expectations of the magazine are strong.

It is obvious the magazine is a shadow of what is was a decade ago. The writers today do not hold up at all against those who have left. I long for the days of intelligent review and commentary from people like Dick Olsher, Jack English, Larry Archibald, Martin Colloms, and even Corey Greenberg. For the vast majority of these people, when I was finished reading their reviews, I actually had a good take on how a component sounded. A lot of people thought I was crazy when I was sorry Wes Philips left, saying he was a paper tiger, yet who replaced him? No one superior.

One does not need to look past Recommended Components to see how far the magazine has fallen. It is the exact opposite of what was created. Like grades at Harvard, the weighting into Class A is much, much too heavy. Whereas there used to be 2 or 3 components which held the distinction of "Best Attainable Sound", the category now stretches several pages. Maybe I am mistaken, but while times are good, they aren't nearly THAT good.

How is it possible for Class A to dwarf Class C? Class C should be the largest category, containing the likes of Conrad Johnson(most of it), Musical Fidelity, Rogue, VTL, etc. Instead, it is basically a bucket for entry level equipment that the magazine has reviewed, and doesn't necessarily hold in such high regard.. Class C used to be not a slap in the face, but the category where most real world equipment fit into. Stuff that 95% of audiophiles owned. Today, it means your component is not very good.

While I am dealing with Class C, its inclusion of the Legend Audio Starlet Integrated is preposterous. It is a fine sounding amplifier, as most people who have heard it will attest. While it is true that I believe if things were the way they should be, this amplifier WOULD be a Class C component, if the Adcom GFP - 750, Bryston 7B - ST, Musical Fidelity A3 power amp, Creek 5350SE, B&W 803 Nautilus, Krell LAT - 1, Revel Peforma M20, and Triangle Celius are all Class A Components, then the Legend should either currently be Class A or Class B.

One thing I have never brought up is how Coincident Loudspeaker Technology has been dealt with by Stereophile. They are an advertiser, and I do not necessarily correlate ad money with golden treatment, unlike a lot of people. Coincident is a facet of my argument. They feature an ad every month, and some of the reviewers even use their products(check Associated Equipment), yet they have never had a product even listed in Recommended Components. Not even Class D. They have reviewed two Coincident speakers, and either one or two of their cables. What is the story here?

While I am on the inexplicable, how about the never to occur review of Legacy? Here is an advertiser that has spent as much as anyone on ad copy in Stereophile. Yet, in the 15 years I have been reading the magazine, seeing them all the while, they have zero reviews to my knowledge. It used to be a discussion topic every other month in the magazine before I took a four year hiatus. And, while I feel their equipment is mediocre at best and should highlight their flaws in review, unless Legacy feared the review(and refused, which I have heard on occasion), one of their speakers should have sat in Recommended components since 1990.

Yes, the magazine has fallen far indeed.

I would like to add that Sam Tellig is my favorite reviewer of the magazine. Which, at this point, embarrasses me to no end. As has been stated, his reviews of the past two years especially have been utter dreck. Please do not forget the Conrad Johnson reviews of a couple of months ago. The CJ rep lavishes Sam with enough expensive steak, London broil, hamburger, wine, and a night on the town to purchase a component. His reviews are now consistently filled with this fluff. My experience usually is that I find myself entertained by his writing, but always needing to reread the review, due to not having a clear picture of the "featured component's" sound, there is nothing there.

Perhaps we should go with a Tellig - like pun, "There's no THERE there."

I am waaaayyy past hearing about his weight, and before that I was even more tired of all the ink given to his wife.

Kalman Rubinson has to be the most boring, uninteresting, uninspiring audio reviewer I have ever come across. I would rather read Julian Hirsch anyday. Unlike after exiting a Tellig review, I find myself exhausted at the end of a Rubinson submission. Painful and tiring. I can't say it's like going to the dentist, it's not. But, it does bring me back to my college days and my chemistry books. Maybe he could ask Ben Stein for advice in how to liven up his demeanor.

Hopefully, Fremer will be the next to go. I have always felt that his inexplicable popularity was solely related to the magazine putting him on vinyl. Otherwise, he would still be a stand up comic.

Jonathan Scull was a lousy reviewer in my opinion. I am on record of stating this several times. Even when he was on top. I will not miss him in the least. I never read a review by him that really gave me what I want; insight. Rather I read about his wife, his chair, and his appreciation for fine wine and fast cars. I always felt he was a kept man. Someone more interested in having the best equipment, and serving the masters it required to get it. Of course, I know none of this to be fact, it was just the cold, clammy feel I always got from his writing. His skill at writing cannot be criticized, but rather his over the top, cloying praise for anything he heard with a price tag of at least $5000.

Fine Tunes featured cheap or free tweaks, yet Scull was always a man who could not bear to live with less than multi - kilobuck equipment. His use for the Cary 300b SEI was solely to power his headphones. Many components that he reviewed wondrously leave me scratching my head as to what good sound they produced. And, I always return to the one instance his superiors had the gall of him reviewing a less than $1000(OK, $995) piece of equipment. He "fixed" them by serving up the only negative review I can remember coming from him. For a component that people I have true respect for hold in high regard.

For me, rather than lament losing Jonathan Scull, I rejoice. Seeing this as either the dawn of the magazine returning to its roots, or maybe Primedia beginning to pry into why Stereophile has become what it has become under John Atkinson.
I second Zaikesman's words as follows: "He deserves credit for communicating his obvious love
of music and audio, for trying to entertain, for employing
diverse styles of music in his auditioning, and for never
taking himself seriously - despite his predilections for big
bucks and purple prose."

There is no one else besides Stereophile; no print magazine, no online magazine, not even audiogon, that expresses so well the pure love, lust and excitment for the best equipment money and ingenuity can create (well, except maybe Valin over at TAS).
Too bad, what the heck is Jonathan going to do? God forbid he have to actually purchase equipment like the rest of us! Maybe he'll have to go back to double malt scotch or what! move from the fricken loft!

I find him the most pompous of the group, maybe a simple review without the reference to his deep knowledge (sarcastic) of the arts, architecture, literature and the rest would make him a bit more palatable. I find his "utopia" not his Utopias to be a bit more than sterile and edgy, I think the first thing he should be required to do before he writes again is have a full hearing examination to see if he actually has any nerve ends that respond above 15,000 Hz.

O.K. I've been harsh, but the man dug his hole with me, and I for one hope he comes down from his loft a bit in the future. J-10, give me a break!

His Tweaks used to be a real highlight, but the past year or so all he's done is rewritten letters and web postings. I've learned far more from Audiogon and Audio Asylum for free than dear J-10 will ever know.

As for Stereophile, well they just cut there poster child so I guess the future is easier to see now. I have been hoping for my subscription to run out ever since they cut the context in half and doubles the advertising. To bad for me I bought the three year deal. The Absolute Sound has proven again to be the only true audiophile publication. I can only prey they think long and hard before they consider adding Mr. Skull to their writing staff.

As for the real world, keep up the great site Audiogon!

J.D.
I never liked Jonathan Scull. Others in this thread have provided criticisms of him, most of which I agree with. He is a pompous, spoiled individual, whose pretentious reviews were both sickening and of very poor quality. I didn't feel he was truly serving the readers; rather, he was ass-kissing the manufacturers who provided him with a constant flow of their expensive toys.

I found his prose to be boring, tedious, overwrought, and generally vacuous. He was very careful to avoid making hard comparisons between competing products. It always boiled down to a "matter of flavors" with him. He eschewed negative commentary of any piece, and was careful to minimize the sonic flaws. Further, I think his powers of discernment were limited, as is the case with many so-called professional reviewers.

Stereophile has gone so far downhill, and has so many mediocre reviewers, that it really doesn't matter either way in the end.