Stereophile 2021-08.pdf

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OUR 500
TH
BRYCE DESSNER
ISSUE
OF THE NATIONAL
ONLINE AUTHORITY:
STEREOPHILE.COM
CONFIDENT
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AUGUST
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A PERFECTIONIST
DAC FROM VERITY
THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS AS THERE ARE EXPERTS
AS WE
SEE IT
500 Issues!
BY JOHN ATKINSON
THIS ISSUE
:
John Atkinson,
Stereophile’s
editor-in-nhief 1986–2019, nelebrates
a publishing milestone.
I
n October 1962, the first issue of what was then called
The Stereophile
was
published and edited by J. Gordon Holt out of Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
The issue you hold in your hands, published by AVTech Media out of New
York, New York, and edited by Jim Austin, is #500. Jim is the magazine’s
third editor, having occupied that seat since the July 2019 issue. Gordon Holt put
together the first 82 issues, through the June 1986 issue; I was the editor from
issue #83, cover-dated August 1986, through issue #473, June 2019.
1
Many,
many
audio magazines have
come and gone since 1962. The only
English-language example I can think
of that rivals
Stereophile’s
staying power
is its stablemate
Hi-Fi News & Record
Review,
which was founded in 1956,
and which I edited from October 1982
through the end of April 1986. What
lies behind
Stereophile’s
longevity?
Many years ago, I read something
that had been written by Henry Rob-
inson Luce, the founder of
Time
and
Life
magazines: “All great editors are
men able to see how stories, episodes,
and personalities flow and merge
one into the other to reproduce the
pattern of a world that only their own
inner eye perceives.” By that standard,
Gordon was indeed a great editor. His
inner eye led him to declare that his
new magazine’s editorial policy was to
judge audio components by listening
to them, a heretical idea in those days
of meters and measurements.
2
“The
Stereophile
isn’t a showcase for
advertisers,” Gordon wrote in Issue
#1, and its 20 pages were free from
advertising, as were those of the next
26 issues. However, the financial reality
of publishing a print magazine, then as
now, is that the revenue from subscrip-
tions and newsstand sales does not
cover the costs of paper, printing, and
distribution. The declared publishing
schedule in 1962 was bimonthly, but
the lack of revenue meant that Gordon
fell behind that schedule.
The Stereophile
had no choice but to start publishing
advertising, from audio dealers, in issue
#27, cover-dated “Winter (4) 71/72”
but not actually published until April
1973. The first issue to include advertis-
ing from manufacturers was #37, pub-
lished in December 1977, which was
also the first to drop
The
from its name.
Ah, advertising. Wouldn’t that affect
stereophile.nom
n
The firewall between
Stereophile’s
editorial
content and its adver-
tising has remained in-
violate since issue #27.
the magazine’s editorial integrity? Jour-
nalist Walter Lippmann addressed the
apparent conflict of interest 40 years
before
Stereophile’s
first issue, writing,
“A newspaper can flout an advertiser,
… but if it alienates the buying public,
it loses the one indispensable asset of
its existence.”
When I discussed this subject with
John Crabbe, my predecessor as edi-
tor of
Hi-Fi News & Record Review,
he
expanded on Lippmann’s point. “If you
tell the truth about components you
review, there will always be a small
percentage of companies at any one
time who are not advertising in your
pages. But if you publish the truth,
you will have a good magazine. And
if you have a good magazine, you will
have readers. And as long as you have
readers, disgruntled advertisers will
eventually return.”
Have there been “disgruntled
advertisers”? Yes indeed. Have those
disgruntled advertisers eventually re-
turned? Mostly. The firewall between
Stereophile’s
editorial content and
its advertising has remained invio-
late since issue #27, throughout its
changes of ownership and throughout
its changes of publisher and editor.
Stereophile
has given favorable reviews
to products whose manufacturers
advertise in the magazine and from
companies that have never advertised.
Stereophile
has given negative reviews
to companies that don’t advertise but
also to companies that do. Since issue
#1,
Stereophile’s
highest priority has
been to its readers, and for 500 issues,
all that has mattered to the magazine’s
reviewers is the sound of the compo-
nents they write about.
The Luce, Lippmann, and Crabbe
quotes guided my almost-four-decade
career as a successful magazine editor,
along with something C.P. Snow wrote
in his 1951 novel
The Masters:
“To be
an influence in any society, … one can
be a little different, but only a little; a
little above one’s neighbours, but not
too much.”
When I took over from Gordon,
he stayed on as
Stereophile’s
chief tester
and, despite the occasional disagree-
ment, we worked together successfully
for 13 years. It was my adherence to
Snow’s dictum that ended our relation-
ship. Gordon told me in 1999 that
Stereophile
must abandon its coverage
of two-channel components and stereo
recordings in favor of surround sound
and multichannel recordings.
3
My
rejection of Gordon’s proposal, among
other conflicts, led to his resigna-
tion.
4
Yes, it was possible that music
in surround sound might eventually
dominate audio. But it might not. For
Stereophile
to adopt Gordon’s strategy
would mean that it would be too much
more
than a little above its readers.
Twenty-two years after Gordon left
the magazine he founded, Jim Austin
continues to give the highest priority
to the needs of
Stereophile’s
readers,
staying just a
little
ahead of what those
readers believe they want.
n
1 A timeline covering what happened and when it
happened in
Stereophile’s
story, from 1962 to 2002,
can be found at stereophile.com/features/708/index.
html. Also see Jonathan Scull’s article on the history
of
Stereophile
elsewhere in this issue. (Jonathan joined
the magazine’s reviewing team in 1993 and was
deputy editor from 1999 through 2002.)
2 Starting in the late 1980s, the magazine’s reviews
have included an examination of a product’s mea-
sured performance. This is not in conflict with JGH’s
seminal policy, as
Stereophile
had published measure-
ments, albeit in an occasional and inconsistent man-
ner, since Issue #6.
3 “Surround sound is an integral part of all real, live
musical sound,” Gordon wrote me in an email, add-
ing “Now that it’s possible to reproduce it properly,
magazines devoted to music reproduction are going
to have to embrace it or die of irrelevance.”
4 See stereophile.com/news/10541.
August 2021
3
Excellence
In All
Things
AUGUST
2021
Vol.44 No.8
p.67
FEATURES
41
Stereophile
Turns 500
J-10 fi3ures out how we 3ot here and tells us, in words and
pictures.
103
Bryce 9essner
What’s it like to be a rock star and a classical composer?
By Julie Mullins
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stereophile.com
Au3ust 2021
Stereophile (USPS #734-970 ISSN: 0585-2544) Vol.44 No.8, Au3ust 2021, Issue
Number 499. Copyri3ht © 2021 by AVTech Media Americas Inc. All ri3hts
reserved. Published monthly by AVTech Media Americas Inc., 260 Madison Avenue,
8th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals Posta3e paid at New York, NY and
additional mailin3 offices. Subscription rates for one year (12 issues) U.S., APO, FPO,
and U.S. Possessions $19.94, Canada $31.94, Forei3n orders add $24 (includin3 surface
mail posta3e). Payment in advance, U.S. funds only. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to
CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY Facilities: send address
corrections to Stereophile, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Mailin3 Lists:
From time to time we make our subscriber list available to companies that sell 3oods
and services by mail that we believe would be of interest to our readers. If you would
rather not receive such mailin3s, please send your current mailin3 label, or an exact
copy, to: Stereophile, Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL
32142-0235. Subscription Service: Should you wish to chan3e your address, or order
new subscriptions, you can do so by writin3 to the same address. Printed in the USA.
n
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