Michael Fremer leaves Analog Planet

I will say the same thing here that I just posted on AP. 

Let's take a simple look at history.

Tyll Hertsens WAS InnerFidelity and once he was gone the website by that name died. Gone.
Michael Lavorgna left Audio Stream (or was let go, can't recall, don't care) and Audio Stream became useless and to my knowledge is no-more.
If you scroll to the bottom of this page you will see that AP is the last of the many spin-off websites and it too will go the way of the Dodo.
It is interesting to me that S'phile published Mike Fremer's review of the top Grado cartridge just two days ago. And there is no mention of his leaving on the Stereophile website. Yet. I respect Jim Austin. I suspect and hope he will say something appropriate, true, and with class.

I encountered him at one of the exhibit rooms at Axpona 2019. I watched as he took video of what to me was an unexciting turntable set-up and narrating his thoughts for his video which most of have seen him do-he found something of interest anyway. I had just purchased my most expensive-at that time-cartridge from someone associated with the VdH room, a Crimson XGW Strad. So with it in hand, as soon as he began to walk away I could not resist asking him what he thought of my new cartridge. He said in a very friendly hyper-manner (he is definitely a Type A personality), "my only problem with VdH cartridges is that every model sounds different from the rest, you never know what you are going to get with a new design". He then moved on hurriedly to another room.

I tell this story because I think after following him for many years and having had email exchanges with him that it pretty much captures who he is-quirky, energetic, frank, and polarizing. Watch this salute to him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZUd07Sfg4U Go to the 18 minute mark. where the second thing he said was, "I have news for you folks, all these years I have really hated vinyl". Almost nobody laughed and it only got more painful from there. Very awkward which again describes him.

The aspect of MF that turns me off the most is two-fold; a) he has a tendency to repeat as gospel engineering principles that someone else told him without really understanding it, and b) whether accurate or not, rumor has it that he takes more advantage of being comped gear from manufacturers than is accepted at Stereophile.