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  3. 183880-83215

Does anyone know where this J. Gordon Holt comes from?

Interviewer: “Do you see any signs of future vitality in high-end audio?”

JGH: “Vitality? Don't make me laugh. Audio as a hobby is dying, largely by its own hand. As far as the real world is concerned, high-end audio lost its credibility during the 1980s, when it flatly refused to submit to the kind of basic honesty controls (double-blind testing, for example) that had legitimized every other serious scientific endeavor since Pascal. [This refusal] is a source of endless derisive amusement among rational people and of perpetual embarrassment for me, because I am associated by so many people with the mess my disciples made of spreading my gospel. For the record: I never, ever claimed that measurements don't matter. What I said (and very often, at that) was, they don't always tell the whole story. Not quite the same thing.

Remember those loudspeaker shoot-outs we used to have during our annual writer gatherings in Santa Fe? The frequent occasions when various reviewers would repeatedly choose the same loudspeaker as their favorite (or least-favorite) model? That was all the proof needed that [blind] testing does work, aside from the fact that it's (still) the only honest kind. It also suggested that simple ear training, with DBT confirmation, could have built the kind of listening confidence among talented reviewers that might have made a world of difference in the outcome of high-end audio.“

fusian

Showing 1 response by richopp

richopp
760 posts
 

I liked JGH when he wrote for Stereophile.  His objective and mine were the same.  When I had my shop, we always brought in our instruments to compare to the recordings we were listening to on our systems.

It was how we determined, back then, that the MOST ACCURATE reproduction gear playing HIGHLY PROCESSED recordings, belonged to ARC and Magnepan.  When Mayorga came out with his Direct-to-Disc recordings, we realized we were still correct.  Now, everything had to be set up properly, and yes, this was before the "interesting" cable thing descended upon us, but no matter what speaker we played, and I had about 45 different kinds in the shop, the only ones that sounded most like the recordings were the Maggies driven by ARC gear.

I don't remember if JGH liked that gear or not--he probably did--but in MY shop, playing musical instruments--trumpet, sax, guitar (both kinds) electric piano, and snare drum--this was the most accurate system.  SOME customers did not have the room for that type of system, and of course, some disagreed, which is why we carried so many brands and models--we were running a business, not a charity--but we DID play live instruments to compare.  Obviously, this is NOT the same as a live performance, and I know for a fact that my former band sounded like garbage when the various players decided to "turn it up," but many bands are like this.  I haven't heard a live show that was any good for years, with the possible exception of Joan Jet outdoors a few years ago.  Most rock concerts today are walls of noise that I refuse to attend.  Evidently, with all the advances in sound gear, if the person running the board is deaf, you get garbage for $1500.00 a ticket.

Cheers!

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