Scull? You mean Mr. Italics? Mr. Large Butt? Ribbon Chair? The sad part is that through attrition, he had actually become one of the more interesting writers they had left, which I mean as a backhanded compliment. You might remember how lots of folks voiced their dismay when he was promoted to Senior Editor. If you ask me, it was Scull who needed an editor! Yet compared to a stodgy sountrack-maven like Greenhill, or a gee-whiz superlatives-monger like Reina, Scull, even with all his excesses, could at least sometimes bring a smile to my face. And I for one was puzzled to say the least when he caught so many accusations for his honestly negative review of the Richard Gray power conditioner, in light of the longstanding charge that the mag and its advertisers were in bed together to produce nothing but raves. 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. (Dare I suppose he could still contribute reviews, even if he is not a member of the editorial staff? His predecessor, Wes Phillips, still writes for Stereophile occasionally.) But as one who never quite cottoned to J-10's "tweakage-'n'-leakage" school of reveiwing, I must say that promoting him then or loosing him now is the least of Sterelphile's problems. Recommended Components is a "Class A" bad joke gone stale. The best writing is in the columns and the occasional feature, not the Incredible Shrinking Review Section. Their most technically informative contributors, Dickson and Colloms, are MIA. The long-promised upgrade of the photographic content vanished almost before anyone could see it. Intriguing new products languish unreviewed. The whole thing feels like JA & Co. are just going through the motions, and grudgingly at that. If it wasn't for the borderline amaturishness and mayfly-like endurance often displayed by most of their print and online competition, not to mention the fact that no one else is doing tests since the demise of the late (and unlamented by me) Audio, Stereophile would be in real trouble. If TAS takes advantage of the situation the way they should, it will be (although if the copy-cat tendencies begun in the last issue are any indication, I wouldn't get my hopes up). But at a buck an issue, what can we expect? I think most readers would gladly pay double, if the advertising won't cut it, to get back the old gutbusting Stereophile 12 times a year.
