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.....here that has NEVER read The Absolute Sound or Stereophile in their original digest-sized format? Reading the latest thread about TAS, especially comments from a few fellas especially 'in the know', got me to wondering; are there audiophiles (presumably younger ones) hanging out here that never experienced the mags in their original format?
I'm just curious.
The thought occured to me; if nobody answers does it say something about our average age?
Follow Ups:
Started subscribing to Stereophile in 93, last year of the digest size, never had much use for TAS and there waist deep B.S.
Although I am nearing 60 years of age and have loved stereo gear and music all my life I have only read Stereophile and TAS the past five or six years.
I have been a "practising audiophile" since '72. I have never even SEEN a copy of Stereophile or TAS, much less read one of them. Weird.
A good friend owns a mag store and I don't think he even sells them among the hundreds of mags he carries; I've never seen it or thought to ask. I think like lots of mags in Canada, the cover price for one issue here is about half (often more than...) the price of a year's subscription in the U.S.
Here's the thing, I honestly feel the mags from yesteryear were FAR superior to what's currently being published (on or offline). I have a number of the magazine-sized versions of TAS and Stereophile. I NEVER revisit these mags, and yet I can regularly go back to the digest mags and find things of interest, even today. I can only assume it has something to do with nostalgia, but I don't think that's the only reason.
Like so many other things that either don't happen or don't exist anymore, I can't help but think the latter generation has missed out on something special, a moment in time that will never happen again. Let's face it, this hobby's peak only lasted a relatively short time (hell, this hobby's truly only existed for a short time!), probably from the mid '60's thru the mid '90's.
I'd love to see an artbook from TAS featuring covers, cartoons, adorned with all the little artistic thingamajiggers that used to appear within the copy!;)
Also the number of small manufacturers and different available speakers, amps, etc. greatly increased. Holt and HP only had a handful of products to review. Isolation devices, interconnect and all cable varieties, European and Asian products other than basic receivers, and ac filters did not exist. Buy a receiver or amp and preamp, take it home, plunk it on a shelf, plugs it built in power cord into the wall, hook up your lamp cord to the speakers and enjoy.
...we are old.
I was shown issue #6 of TAS by Richard Hardesty (the Audio Perfectionist) in his high end store in Huntington Beach, CA in 1977.
I subscribed with issue #7 then ordered the back issues.
I was also a charter subscriber to The Audio Critic, which I'm a little ashamed of now.
I read a little of Stereophile at the time, but it didn't seem quite as engaging and was on even a worse publishing schedule, or lack of one, than TAS.
The irony is that back in those days we couldn't get enough to read about audio.
Today with the ezines and regular schedules of the print mags, it's too much.
I was a charter subscriber of The Audio Critic. But I dont feel ashamed of it. The first 3 issues are still my all time favorites. Later on there were problems, especially with Fourier but that doesnt take the intensity off the writing or the reviews of Aczel. A lot of audiophiles still venerate the equipments reviewed then, especially Rogers, Advent Receiver, Dahlquist, DCM Time Window, Beveridge, Quad, Electrcompaniet, Bryston, Cizek and the mysterious Rappaport. I liked Art's 'Listener' very much too. I wish there would be a similar magazine in future, ideally with no ads.
Regards
Bill
...the intensity of Aczel - he was an ad copywriter - Ohm was one of his clients in the 1970s - and his magazine shows it.My first published audio writing was in the letters to issue #1.
His first issue with 23 or so preamps compared is a classic and there's been nothing like it since.
He reviewed interesting stuff - but do you really think a Rappaport Pre-1 was better than Levinson JC-2?
As far as Listener goes - I've always said it was the best written audio magazine about equipment I had absolutely no interest in.
And I'd say the same about Art's writing in Stereophile today - interesting and well written but...
Edits: 03/09/12
ultimately good but not great. and after a short while, uninteresting. if there was a jico SAS version of art, i would be interested.
...regards...tr
I subscribed to TAS with issue #2 and also received issue #1 since subscriptions were then on an annual basis. Had already subscribed to Stereophile for a couple of years. I think I discovered both in the classified ads in the back of Audio.
The thing is, I'd gladly trade the slick thick glossy regularly published magazines of today for those undergrounds. Is that merely the enthusiasm of youth, or does it have something to do with their uncompromising quality, passionate philosophy, and strong editorial voice? I can still dive into old J. Gordon Holt articles on Stereophile's site, and read them raptly. JA is running a different kind of magazine, more professional, with, as he points out, a variety of viewpoints. But I think it was precisely because I shared J. Gordon Holt's viewpoint that I loved the early magazine.
-The irony is that back in those days we couldn't get enough to read about audio.-
It absolutely was that way for me. I read all these mags on a monthly basis (or whenever they came out!):
TAS
Stereophile
Listener
The Audiophile Voice
The Inner Ear
3-4 of the english mags
prior to the 'audiophile' mags; Stereo Review, Audio, + plus a 3rd that I should remember but...
Not to mention the music mags: Downbeat, Jazztimes, Jazziz, Circus, Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, Latin Beat, Latin NY....
I don't buy ANY magazines anymore!
One of the things I enjoyed a lot from Listener were the cartoons by Mad artist (and my namesake!) Charles Rodriguez!
Good thing you put it in quotes.
JGH emanated from. he butted heads with management when he wouldnt review everything positively. hence-Stereophile.
...regards...tr
I have several of these from the early 60's with a series of full system, comparative reviews set up by JGH.
yes i DO realize the name went through a few changes.
but then so did AHC who also wrote for tas and AUDIO. i am sure numerous writers have written for multiple publications in audio.
...regards...tr
JGH organized 4-5 complete and comparable systems, had the other reviewers listen to them and compiled/edited their responses. No rankings but interesting commentary. None were trashed.
Linked below is our obituary, from the August 1989 issue of Stereophile.
Michael Riggs went on to succeed Gene Pitts in 1995 as the editor of Audio,
which itself ceased publishing just over 10 years after High Fidelity's closing,
in February 2000.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
yes, and probably only missed for its music reviews. audio is SORELY missed (but not leonard feldman), stereo review was a good starting point but julian had major flaws.
stereophile and tas were the welcome authoritative mags and remain so.
thank you.
...regards...tr
I once met a man named David Black at a 70s Chicago CES who told me that though the 1st issue of TAS hadn't come out yet(Iwas looking at a copy yesterday)they had about 500 subscribers. And I had subscribed over 6 months before.
And I recall the early issues of Stereophile before they became digest size. They were full size but with only a few pages. JGH republished them as a full volume of 12 issues bound together. It would be cool if that were repeated. And perhaps TAS should consider that also.
nt
As I slowly slip into the dark cesspool of audiophalia neurosis. . . .
My speaker building site
Sort of. I had never seen it (I'm 36), but I eBay'd an old TAS from the 80's.
I'm not nostalgic for that.
If someone is too young to have caught HP's, "Well, he's a Libra, so of course he'd hear it that way " era, that's a good thing.
Yes, there was a personal editorial slan, but even that aspect was protean.
...photos on the back cover.Particularly of Christina Yuen who ran subscriptions, I think - she was a cutey.
Not to mention the creative artwork on the covers.
Each issue was a collector's item.
And back in 1970s we almost waited by the mailbox for them to arrive and they never seemed to, they were published so infrequently.
Edits: 03/08/12
I dearly loved the look and feel.
gary viskupic artwork.
...regards...tr
Me too. Hell, I actually remember those covers. How many other magazine covers can I say that for? Certainly not some very angular, very lit color photo of a speaker that I'll never buy.
I used to think that he was entirely nuts and would embarrass himself with it. I'm older and wiser and still recognize that he's a technical lightweight, but feel there could be something to astrology (not the silly newspaper forecast, but somethng specifically performed by an expert) in terms of an emotional weather forecast. He's still the most interesting reviewer out there and has usually had what I consider excellent values.I still have a collection of little TAS books dating back to 1980 or so.
A couple issues a few months back were quite excellent, I felt. Different and lesser than old TAS, but pretty good for what it is now. I don't see all of them anymore, as I've let my subscription go (along with HIFI+).
Edits: 03/08/12
Astrology says they are, and haven't been for thousands of years?
I'm not interested in astrology myself and have spent minimal time on it, but I'm not against it.
In other words, if HP were writing today, I'd now LIKE to see the astrology comments.
Yeah I used to do astrology stuff. Even did it for others.
It is an interesting psychological tool. Like a cosmic Rorschach..
The fools who try to live thier life according to some prediction though, are really idiots.
but then again if it's as good as some of the comments suggest I would suggest Art get himself checked out for early (mid?) signs of Alzheimer's.
(Drat! - where's the emoticon for tongue-in-cheek when you need it?)
the savor of everything - Bob Neill
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