Frank, you’ve been a subscriber to TAS since the J. Gordon Holt days? Just kidding---me too. I discovered Gordon in ’72, I believe it was. Just in time for the high-end explosion that was spreading across the country; Audio Research had just made it out to the West Coast, and small, single employee/owner shops were opening to sell perfectionist systems to we baby-boomers. We all wanted better than the electronics stores and chain stores (for myself in N. California, it was Pacific Stereo in Palo Alto, with their Japanese receivers, Dual record changers, and Bose 901 speakers) were selling.
Gordon Holt had a clearly-defined set of criteria by which he judged music reproducing equipment, and had technical knowledge which informed his opinions. Harry Pearson and his Absolute Sound had opinions all right, but technically informed they were not (Bill Johnson told a great story about Pearson’s ignorance at one of his in-store seminars I attended). Audio magazine was different than either, but at it’s best a sort of a mix of the two. I miss Gordon, and I miss Audio Magazine.
There is sooo much equipment available these days, it must be quite perplexing for young audiophiles (if that’s not an oxymoron) to choose from amongst it all. The old advice of finding a good dealer is still good advice; I found mine in Walter Davies, now of Last Record Care products renown, in ’72 the owner/operator of the just-opened Audio Arts in Livermore, CA. Still the best dealer I ever dealt with---Eric.