Stereophile looses Jonathan Scull

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.

I'm definitly not lamenting over the loss.This guy keeps or one would say permantly borrow all the equipment he reviews.If he was like Consumer Reports i would feel that he would be more objective,but when one of the big audio companies throws a bone(ultra expensive} for nothing I would gloat and rave about how good it sound even though it sounds like crap.Just my 2 bits.

All great comments. I have really enjoyed this thread, but "Wow" you guys take this all too seriously. I am into this because it is fun.
I say more power to J10 for being able to live a pampered life, with a great wife, and lots of good food and wine, and get a ton of great stereo equipment in the process. I would think it is a lifestyle that a lot of us could aspire to.
I will have to agree that a lot of recent Stereophile reviews do sometimes lack some substance, but overall, I still enjoy seeing the magazine in the mailbox.
I read Stereophile for entertainment. You want great reviews on equipment, from real world people, just start a thread right here on good ol' Audiogon. All the great equipment that I now own, I got right here. Best place in the world to shop.
Everything has its place. Just my two cents worth.
Thanks Audiogon!
Mike

I am somewhat torn about seeing Jonathan leave Stereophile. I can relate to both sides of the argument being presented here.

Having dealt with him directly via email on a few occasions, i found him to be an easy to talk to individual and someone that truly tried to stay in touch with what was happening in the industry. I think that he truly loves this field and this came through in most of his writing. He might not have been the finest reviewer, but he always tried to at least entertain. That is more than i can say for some of the "dried up" and "talent-less" individuals that have come before him and will follow him.

Then again, who wouldn't be overjoyed to play with ( and potentially keep ) the mega dollar gear that he was given to review ? Herein lies part of my major complaint about Stereophile ( and other "glossies" for that matter ). I think that we've all covered this before, so i won't go there on this specific thread. Either way, i see that others have noticed this, so i'm glad that i'm not alone in those thoughts.

As to the "guts" that it took for him to slag the RGPC piece, keep in mind that Stereophile had been getting MAJOR flack on AA for lack of "responsible journalism" and presenting both sides ( good and bad ) of various products. Since J-10 and JA are known to frequent AA and were reading / responding to those comments, was this merely a ploy to silence the uprising ? Did the RGPC product become a handy scapegoat or was J-10 really that dis-satisfied that he felt the need to warn everyone else about it ??? We may never know.

As to his "fine tunes" column, i always got a kick out of it. It's great to see the industries best selling magazine paying attention to what the little guy has to say and has experienced within the confines of his system. Some of us have to remember that not everone is "on-line", so some material is bound to be re-hashed wherever you go in society. This is true of any hobby or field of individual interest.

As i've tried to make clear, the whole J-10 / Stereophile issue is a two sided coin. Do we dispose of bad at the expense of good ? Does the baby go out with the bath water ? Where does one draw the line or know what is REALLY taking place behind the scenes ?

Either way, i hope that JA can pull things back into perspective. Just as TAS is undergoing plastic surgery, i think that Stereophile may be in the process of changing its' looks also. Whether or not it comes out of this potential "make-over" achieving the benefits of surgery like Raquel Welch or the disastrous results of Michael Jackson remains to be seen. For the sake of the entire industry, i hope that it we can once again call Stereophile "OUR" magazine. Sean
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PS... Even if you don't subscribe to Stereophile for various reasons, i encourage you to check into other magazines. Not only can this help keep you up to date and expose you to different equipment, it shows support for the industry. I recently bit the bullet for a five year subscription to Bound For Sound. While it's not really a "magazine", it is good enough that i want to read it from front to back in one sitting.

I think Trelja is right on. A review should tell us everything about the component and how it sounds with different components. Scull's reviews told us little and they were often totally absurd. As a manufacturer, I would never trust the fate of my company to one of his "reviews". Price was always the main thing with him. He was not even consistent in his subjectivism. Audio's reviews (especially the speaker ones by the great DB Keale) were shorter, but more informative overall. Internal component photos (German audio mags set the standard) should never be excluded. Stereophile is too lean with photos. I like the close-ups you see in the euro mags.