JA's Podcast Appearance

Audiophiles often get a bad rap for being unreasonable and unrealistic. Stereophile's editor John Atkinson does a wonderful job showing that many of us are reasonable, intelligent, and well adjusted individuals in his podcast appearance here. The portion about the difference in the audibility of cables near the end was of particular interest. Especially his illustration of how an amplifier has not one, but three inputs.

http://twit.cachefly.net/htg0017.mp3

Round table

Below is video of Stereophile's round table discussion at the Salon Son et Image Audio show, broken into eleven parts. The participants included John Atkinson, Art Dudley, Stephen Mejias, and Robert Deutsch. It looks like it was an enjoyable time, and now the world knows how pronounce Stephen Mejias' last name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyCJ4qtPZkQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p4a6Emc01U


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1eS2-R2BY0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5VKvkd7WRc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2CVjdRa1t4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWBU2pY9lyk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ooRPAUKX8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBshmJ1CvA8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-3DnK_3BG4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRp8rtZLj8Y


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmh27IPBlAk

Sad news for NHT

CEPro published the following statement regarding NHT

"February 23, 2009

Dear Friends of NHT,

It's time to turn down the lights: NHT is going quiet.

Over the next 60 days we're going to sell the remaining professional and consumer inventory through our existing dealers and distributors, pay our bills, and then spend time rethinking the future of NHT. However, you should know that we are not bankrupt. Everybody here is fine and no, the car didn't get hit by a train. In a way this difficult economy provided the right opportunity for the change in strategy we felt has been necessary for some time.

One thing that is for sure is that this is not about our love for or commitment to the brand. It isn't about the audio business, either. It's all about the realities of the world and how consumer attitudes are changing, and how we as a brand and an industry can best respond to the need for real invention. We're anxious to get moving. When we do, it will be in the right direction.

NHT has always stood for something more than a great speaker. Our philosophy has to do with a way of thinking – about value, about fair play, about paying attention to what matters, about integrity. For us, it's a way of life.

We have a colorful history that included our share of distractions, but we hope we have made the speaker industry a little more interesting and helped in raising the bar.

We believe March 31, 2009 is to be the last day of "regular" business, at least for now. We intend to offer customer service and repair services for both in and out of warranty, available ongoing. Keep an eye on our website (nhthifi.com) for more details and the occasional update.

Remember, this isn't good-bye, it's just "see you on the other side"

Thanks for everything!

Chris, John and the entire NHT gang"




Stereophile's Jason Victor Serinus was able to get Mr. Byrne to elaborate a bit more in this news item. It's like being "on a break" in a relationship or "seeing other people" it isn't officially the end but in reality it usually is. Think of how the dealers feel. They have supported this brand for years, put in the hard work to build the brand name in their markets, made it a priority ,and then when they need NHT the most it isn't there for them. They will have to sell all of their demos at a huge discount (because many customers will read the statement as NHT is out of business) and pick up a new line to fill the void. How big of a check are their dealers going to have to write to start doing business with a new manufacturer? Can the average Mom and Pop audio store afford it right now? They just torched a lot of bridges. If they do come back everyone in the industry will be wary of doing business with them again for quite some time. Very strange. It's being discussed on Stereophile's Forum right now.

Deep Listening

Stereophile's analog guru Michael Fremer recently participated in a round table discussion on the importance of quality sound. The other members on the panel included an audio engineer, a producer, a mastering engineer, an audio critic, and a music lover.

Perhaps the most insightful quote of the 2 1/2 hour discussion was from Mr. Fremer, "For Whatever the defects of a record are there's soething about what's in there that makes it emotionally nourishing."

One of the panel members related an interest antidote about how although humans can only hear from 20Hz in the bass frequencies to 20,000 Hz in the high frequencies that we can perceive frequencies much further up than the accepted 20kHz. Click on the picture of Mr. Fremer after you have grabbed the potato chips and the beverage of your choice.

An open letter to John Atkinson

In his May 2008 review of Paradigm Reference Studio/20 Robert Reina states the following, “Even on “The Best of Both Worlds,” from Hannah Montana’s Dance Along DVD (Disney IFPI 7792), the Studio/20 had me following an interesting melody on distorted guitar buried under Miley Ray Cyrus’s processed, in-your-face vocal.” (May 2008 p.101) What is Mr. Reina doing with this DVD in his collection and what makes him think that this is an appropriate demo disc for a Stereophile review? This largely, if not completely undercuts his credibility and seriously threatens the credibility of Stereophile Magazine itself. John Atkinson should call for Mr. Reina’s immediate resignation, or Robert’s severed head on an mpingo disc. The disc’s harmonic tuning could turn his screams of “I Leave my 24” Celestion Si speaker stands to Sam Tellig.” into Frank Sinatra singing “I get a kick outta you.” Who at Stereophile knew that “Robert J Reina” was the nom de plume of a 15 year old girl, and when did they know it? I call for a series of Congressional hearings into the matter. The hearings are to last at least 20 months, cost $20 million dollars, produce a report of no less than 409 pages and answer no questions, find no fault, and offer no solutions. Use the Mitchell report as a blueprint and you can‘t go wrong. In addition a copy of the report must be mailed to each subscriber so we can not read it at our leisure, but discuss it as if we had. In the future Mr. Atkinson I strongly suggest that you screen applicants for reviewing jobs much more vigorously. Please cancel 1/10 of my Stereophile subscription. Not by issue count, but by removing Rob Reina reviews from issues mailed to me. Please issue my refund check for the difference in Canadian dollars.

Signed,

A reader with too much time on his hands

P.S. In all seriousness I know that everyone is trying to lose weight but the latest issue of Stereophile is positively anorexic at 150 pages. The postman slipped it under my door.

Origami Speakers

This afternoon I was watching Current TV which featured a profile of Muji. Think Japanese IKEA, minus the cute names. Muji's central ideas are quality, simplicity, and modesty. The product that caught my attention was a pair of single-driver speakers that use a collapsable card board box as their enclosure, retail is a cool $42. Never mind the kinds of frequency response problems that such an enclosure would introduce, I want to hear these speakers and I don't even know why. Muji just opened their first US store in New York. These would be right up the alley of Stereophile's Art Dudley. Single-driver? Check. Japanese? Check. Original in a wacky way? Check. Esoteric? CHECK!

According to Muji's website:

THE PHILOSOPHY
What is MUJI? MUJI is not a brand whose value rests in the frills and "extras" it adds to its products. MUJI is simplicity - but a simplicity achieved through a complexity of thought and design. MUJI's streamlining is the result of the careful elmination and subtraction of gratuitous features and design unrelated to function. MUJI, the brand, is rational, and free of agenda, doctrine, and "isms." The MUJI concept derives from us continuously asking, "What is best from an individual's point of view?" MUJI aspires to modesty and plainness, the better to adapt and shape itself to the styles, preferences, and practices of as wide a group of people as possible. This is the single most important reason people embrace MUJI. MUJI - in its deliberate pursuit of the pure and the ordinary - achieves the extraordinary.

I beg to differ

Originally Written: Thursday, April 20, 2006 and Wednesday, June 14, 2006

In the article "Okay, we're Rollin'" from the May 2006 issue of Stereophile magazine it is stated Led Zeppelin recorded "Stairway to Heaven" at Sunset Studios. From all available evidence this is incorrect. A number of sources state that the backing tracks for "Stairway" were recorded at Headley Grange (an English country house) with the Rolling Stones mobile studio, overdubs being done at Island Studios. The possibility also exists that the entirety of the recording was done at Island Studios, but even this seems to contradict the available evidence. Jimmy Page did mix the album at Sunset, at the behest of Andy Johns (the engineer) but after listening to that mix elsewhere rejected nearly all of that work, with the exception of "When The Levee Breaks." The results of the album mix done at Sunset were considered to be murky and lacking in detail. Everything other than "When the Levee Breaks" was remixed.

Add nationally published author to my list of accomplishments. In July's issue of Stereophile magazine (one of highend audio's most respected magazines) they published my letter to the
editor. It concerns an issue on which I consider myself an authority. The issue hasn't hit news stands yet, but subscribers have started to receive them in the mail. I also had a nice personal correspondence with the editor as well. I wonder if any of the regular customers at the store will notice.

One of my as yet unrealized aspirations is to be a professional audio reviewer and writing for Stereophile would be a dream come true. Another periodical for which I would love to write is The Absolute Sound. Also there are a couple of on line publications that would be fun too. Do these publications consider working for a highend dealer and reviewing products a conflict of interest? I'm not sure. I don't think that I have quite enough experience to start reviewing yet any way. Perhaps by the time I'd feel ready it would be a non-issue anyway. I'm still toying around with the idea of starting a blog entirely about audio. My major question is where I'd get the content. I'd like to write one article a week. I think that at that pace I'd run out of topics and things to review fairly quickly.