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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
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.
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Perhaps, in hindsight, disrespectful may have been a better choice of words.

Lastly, comments regarding products in my line are always restricted to technical, compatibility, and service issues.

Unlike oracle, bobbyp, robert, and a host of others I don't use the threads for financial gain; my posting history is testament to that.
gkevink
1 posts
 
I just stumbled across this thread, and am in shock. I haven't spoken with John since last April, but this has blindsided me. Virtually every speaker that I own right now has some connection to John, from the Genesis APM-1's, NHT 3.3s, ACI Sapphire XLs and Emeralds, and even the old Apogee Centaur Minors. John and I first connected back in the old CompuServe audio forum, and then we met in person when I moved to Baltimore 12 years ago. We had spend many hours over the years listening to various systems, to the point that when John wrote something about how a piece of equipment sounded I could directly relate his words to my own shared listening experience and understand how the item sounded. His untimely passing will be felt for a long long time... I need to try and get in touch with Becca.

Kevin
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