I recently emailed John Atkinson of Stereophile

I was 12 years old when I first heard a "hi-fi" system. It was in the home of my uncle Jack. Jack had a profound love of opera and he was rather a good researcher, dedicated, systematic and disciplined...just like we more recent audiophiles are.

I feel in love with the sound and power that music had over me while listening to his system...all I remember, as far as his equipment is concerned, is Wharfdale speakers in a sand filled cabinet and a tube reciever. What bliss and magic I experienced I can never fully express.

All I could think of was the world that listening to music opened up for me...a new dimension really.

I began to haunt audio stores...at that time...we are speaking about 1955...the speakers were "naked" in cut out holes on the wall. I would take home brochures, and pour over the images of tubed gear, comparing this one with another...I tried to listen critically, but to my 12 year old ears everything sounded incredible.

When I turned 13 years old, my father surprised me with an audio system of my own...I would have preferred if he had let me "pick it out" myself, but instead he turned to my uncle Jack for advice and I wound up with a system almost identical to his...

Less than 10 years ago, I once again became interested in purchasing an audio system and I became curious about what was available "out there." You know, what we often call "state of the art." I naturally turned to the magizines that were available, including Stereophile.

I still read Stereophile and TAS, preferring TAS because the reviewers seem to allow a more human sense of their presence to flow along the linear portraits of the audio gear under their scrutiny. But every once and a while, Stereophile allows an article into print that is interesting and informative.

But it is here, in this forum ,and to some degree in AA (I wish AA was not so poorly designed, we have it good here at Audiogon, with a very easy to read organization of material...Bravo! to the designers) that I have found friends that have helped shape my critical direction for audio gear...for the most part, I am now into rather inexpensive solutions, made by individuals that hand build there gear one at a time.

Who would have dreamed, that we would someday have the internet, as an active daily forum and conduit, that we could speak to one another "through"!!!!

The magazines have taught us a great deal, however. At their best they show us a disciplined, rigorous, careful, sensitive and human approach to accessing the "value" of a piece of audio gear and help to wet our appetite for it...we do like to be stimulated in that direction, after all. At their worst, they are boring, repetitive, predictable, and act out of self-interest.

What is interesting here, I believe, is that many of us, because of this forum, have raised our own level of critical thinking to at least the level of the best magazines...and that, I think, is partly a direct consequence of writing in this very forum over time, and sharing ideas and realizing where we get "stuck" and where we get "rigid" and getting past it...in other words...all of us are "practicing" reviewers.

No wonder we are so critical of the so-called "professional" reviewers.

Still, I am continually amazed at the passion and interest we seem to generate as a "community."

Keep up the good work...give the magazines hell, if that is what you think they deserve...in this way we act as a "corrective," a balance, if you will, to the magazines commercial interests.

Richard

Hi Everyone,

Yes...there is a certain momentum in these threads that gives rise sometimes to an ever increasing bite to our observations.

May I suggest that there are a great number of now successful audio manufacturers, that started in their garage or basement. I think of that as being rather wonderful, and a very healthy thing for science, and the art of audio.We, of course, are the ultimate beneficiaries.

Sometimes, these lone innovators and inventors do not find the backing they need to bring their product to a large market. Sometimes the products they make fill a rather narrow nitch in the hi-end world. May I give you a case in point.

I just purchased a tiny "passive" pre-amplifier from a cable manufacturer, that has one input and one output and a simple attenuator...it is called the Axiom and it works splendidly...I could not be happier with its performance...it only costs $150. and it's performance could easily rival "passive" pre-amps that costs more than a thousand dollars. The company that makes it is Luminous Audio.

I found the little Axiom by reading reviews and threads on Audio Asylum and here at Audiogon. I feel inclined to support companies that are making inexpensive products that rival the audio jewelry that sells for very high prices. Frankly, it is fun to find these products and put together a "system" that sounds fabulous...on a shoe string.

I am not knocking the expenditure of a great deal of money to achieve musical nirvana. I am an artist and adjunct college teacher so my income is much lower, by choice, then many audiophiles who can make decisions on purchases based on deeper pockets.

One can, for fun, research and check out who is offering products that can qualify as state of the art, that do no advertise in magazines, but do sometimes advertize here at audiogon and are otherwise known through word of mouth.

Yes, this is America, and we are all exposed to a great deal of inculturation that suggests that there is no success as great as great success...and a thorough knowledge of marketing and advertising techniques is essential for an "upright" business to succeed.

But in my world, there is plenty of room for innovators that make wonderful inexpensive (relatively...of course) products that may not have the savy, or inclination, or energy, or know how, or contacts, or personality, or drive, to go past the word of mouth or simply advertising here...in audiogone.

Many of these innovators make these poducts as a "second" career. They may not make enough through sales of their audio poducts to survive, if it was not for their "day" job.

Another case in point is David Berning...whose wonderful amps are "hand made" and yes, he actually has a different "day job."

It requires a bit more work on our part to investigate these "alternatives" to the large (corporate) manufacturers. But it is well worth it...believe me.

Richard