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RIP, HP

No, he wasn't perfect -- none of us are -- but HP's ability to listen analytically, communicate what he heard has never been surpassed, and his passionate love of the absolute sound joined that of J. Gordon Holt to build an industry.

I subscribed to TAS with the second issue, which, in those days, also bought you the first, and many were the times when I read an HP review of a piece of gear that I owned and knew well and was both gratified and reassured to find that he had heard the same sonic quirk that I had. Not only that, his tastes in reproduction were very much like my own, so much that so that he was one of the few reviewers I trusted to the extent that I would buy equipment he had recommended without having heard it myself, typically with excellent results.

If Gordon Holt taught me that there was a world of sonic differences beyond the usual measurements, HP taught me what to listen for, and both, I think, brought an inspiring integrity to the reviewing process and a delightful willingness to be frank about which components they preferred. Some have criticized the horse race aspect of that, and HP's unfortunate tendency to tout each new component as a revelation likely contributed to a sometimes unjustified increase in the price of high end components. But for this young audiophile, it was manna from heaven.

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  Kimber Kable  

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