The Audio Critic

Back in the 80's, TAC was a very highly respected magazine and Aczel's word could make or break a company. It seems to me his earlier work was very different, as he gushed over certain high-end brands like Rappaport and Cotter. (Who?) Later on, he got into this "all stuff sounds the same" mode, which no hard-core audiophiles want to hear, so he sort of faded out. Whatever anyone thinks of him, he was definitely one of the forefathers of high-end reviewing.

I don't think Aczel or anyone else ever said that "all wire sounds the same". I believe the statement was that any differences in wires can be attributed to their electrical characteristics of resistance, capacitance and inductance. In other words, wires with the same electrical properties will sound the same. In fact, TAC has a lengthy article on the huge changes in frequency response resulting from cables with different electrical characteristics.

While we're here, Aczel also never said all amplifiers sound the same. He said that amplifiers of similar design, ie, modern solid state, will sound the same when operated below clipping and level-matched to within some percentage of 1 DB.
So a 100-watt SS Bryston and an 8-watt 300B SET will not sound the same, even by Aczel's rationale.

At least that's how I remember it.

Rodman - "no one has ever (yes, ever!) heard a difference between two amplifiers with high input impedance, low output impedance..low distortion..."

Aczel is saying is that amplifiers of similar design will sound similar. I believe, although I'm not sure, that modern SS amps have high input impedance and low output impedance. I believe that SET amplifiers do not have these characteristics. He considers SETs to be an idiotic design, but that's another issue.

As to the Fourier issue, as I recall, and I am willing to be corrected on this, Aczel believed that most speakers were riddled with fundamental errors that a "C+ student in engineering" would never make. He was of the opinion that a speaker designed without these flaws would sound better than anything out there and he became involved with Fourier to help design such a speaker.

Again, to the best of my recollection, I knew that Aczel was involved with Fourier when he reviewed that speaker and that he was just saying "I told you so". But many others seem to remember it differently.