Anthony (Tony) Cordesman has passed away

I enjoyed his reviews for the long gone Audio magazine. R.I.P!

R.I.P. 

I will miss AHC. His ears seemed very similar to mine, though his budget was larger.

I found his email decades ago and we exchanged brief messages every 10 years or so. His advice was always sterling.

A favorite comment by AHC, from one of his reviews:

When it comes to actual recordings, I have not yet heard any reason to even go as high as 192kHz. Some of my colleagues disagree, but I have so far found rates above 96kHz/24 bits to be a waste of money. I do buy the 96kHz/24-bit version of the music I download or stream for safety’s sake, but most of the time, a good 16-bit/44.1kHz version of the same mastering of a recordings will sound exactly the same. One has to be very careful in paying what usually is nearly twice as much for the 96kHz/24-bit when there is no way to hear whether there is any difference, particularly with a modern DAC with really good filtering. Oddly enough, the better your DAC, the less likely you are to hear any difference.

Loved his audio reviewing work.  Not nearly as big a fan of his other work as a national and global security analyst.  I wrote to him once because I took issue with something he had written regarding geopolitics, mentioning that I was a big fan of his audio reviews.  He never replied.  Still, he will be missed.  RIP, Anthony.

I read, and trusted, Anthony's reviews for the past 40 years. He had a very good ear and a true talent for putting into words what he heard. His insights will be missed, and the audiophile world is a little murkier with his passing.