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John Potis - Rest in peace

Hello.

It is with a heavy heart that I come to tell the Audiogon community that John Potis has passed away last night. As I got to read his work at 6moons.com and Positive Feedback Online, I developed a strong appreciation for his reviews of high-end audio components. I came to feel he was perhaps the best writer in the high-end audio hobby currently. Not only did John exhibit the great skill of being able to balance the artistic and technical aspects of a component he was describing, he also did a bang up job in letting the reader know how it actually sounded.

He was a bull of a man, and it still seems impossible to me that the cancer took him down so quickly.

Though manufacturers/distributors and reviewers are supposed to keep a high wall between them, John and I developed a very close and deep friendship over the almost 2 years time that I came to know him. He was a devout family man, possessed a wicked sense of humor, was a great guy to hang out with, but most of all, he was a genuinely good and decent man who did his best each and every day.

Godspeed to his wife and two daughters,
Joe
trelja
trelja OP
3,223 posts
 
Let me just throw out there that Bill was also one of John's many friends. So, I completely understand and appreciate where he's coming from here.

Newbee and Mapman are two of my favorite Audiogoners, and I just hope you guys make peace with Bill, as his intentions are more than genuine and sincere in this instance. Let me fall on the sword and come right out and say that all of us who knew John are going to be more emotional than we normally appear in these threads so I suggest we agree to give a little bit wider a berth in accordance with that.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,388 posts
 
Trejla, Thx for the kind words.

I'm a big Audiofeil mark. No need to make peace......
newbee
4,768 posts
 
Trelja, FWIW I have corresponded with Bill and I think he better appreciates my POV as I do his. I will not reiterate it here.

But FWIW, I think John's works deserve to live, in what ever form or manner that his estate finds appropriate, so others, on both sides of the counter, may benefit from them and appreciate their (and his very human) value.

Unlike yourself or Bill I did not know him personally but I certainly appreciated what he did and the manner in which he did it. He claimed much respect, from me at least, that was not so freely extended to many others. I would have enjoyed seeing him published more widely, much more!
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,388 posts
 
BTW,

A "Mark" is piece of slang terminology that is used in professional wrestling to identify one who is an unmitigated fan of a particular wrestler or stylistic element of the craft:

Mark -
" ....The term can ... be applied to a fan who idolizes a particular wrestler, promotion, or style of wrestling to a point some might consider excessive."

To be a "mark" for a particular wrestler is a compliment to that particular wrestlers style or appeal in performing his craft.
trelja OP
3,223 posts
 
Mapman, thanks for the clarification, I was scratching my head there for a minute, then again, English isn't my strong suit. Bill certainly has his fans here, me among them.

Newbee, I'm sorry I don't have the links, but the perfect illustration of how good (the best, IMHO) a reviewer John actually was would be the review of the Bryston 28SST(?) monoblock writeup he did for PFO. Compare and contrast that with Stereophile's Larry Greenhill, and you wonder who's review should have been published by Stereophile. In short, John's was night and day better. I was over his house to hear the Brystons, which he was in absolute love with, and they truly were mind blowing and thunderous with his Tidal loudspeakers, although I'll still take a tube amp, thank you. John was just like most of us, not a big money guy, someone who had to work a real job to support his family and make ends meet, and he simply could not afford to keep this pair, no matter how much he wanted to.
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