Stereophile Article - Holt telling it like it is.

I have several DVDA which I claim do produce the effect of a live performance with frightening accuracy. They are TACET DVDA of classical chamber music where each channel of the multichannel program carries (predominantly) one instrument. The performers are in the room with you. The audio quality is first class, but, as Holt suggested, it is the spatial effect that makes it real.

why not acknowledge that electronics and speakers are flawes and attempt to voice one's stereo system consistent with one's sonic preferences ?

Sure....but isn't this akin to throwing in the towel and giving up on the pursuit of an ideal ? Mediocrity...isn't that what Gordon Holt fights against?

...systems voiced to sound nice rather than accurate
...ecstatic reviews for every flavor of sound because surely it will suit someone's tastes, pocket book or aesthetic requirements!

" No more so than some reviewers and their reviews. "

Exactly!!!

"Dcstep, a audio club recently did and discovered they could not hear any difference between items under test. Interesting comment by them-but what does it say?"

Well Psacanli, maybe there was no difference; however, some will say the test was flawed. I say that doing the test correctly is, indeed, difficult. I'll start another thread where I propose a methodology for repeatable DB testing, using 1-bit 5.6MHz sampling.

Dave