Critic's Corner

"[A] critical amount of critical distance" was intentionally postmodernly ironical in a James-Joycean way

96.253.33.26

This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: And I think you are off base (and perhaps uninformed) posted by FSonicSmith on December 04, 2017 at 07:05:21

Really!

As I wrote that, I chuckled to myself. this will really annoy some AA pissypants!

And it did!

Thanks.

Twitting aside, I wanted to underscore the point that the day some equipment manufacturer or record producer can think of me as a "friend" in the sense of, "someone would want make some non-trivial sacrifice on behalf of me or my family" is the day I have to be extra-careful about assessing that person's product or projects.

Having "industry friends" is OK for a (underscore) "critic" (end underscore). But having a real friend send you a product to review raises issues that I know from personal experience John Atkinson is very sensitive to.

I have long said, mostly in private conversations, that ill-intentioned audiophile who complain about the compromised nature of the review process are usually barking up the wrong tree. Equipment loans, lavish dinners, and factor tours are less important that unconsciously putting on rose-colored glasses because you like or admire the company or love their story (or find them a convenient cudgel to wield against a competitor you don't like.

It's a tough wicket and I think JA can usually be found on the right side of it. So, statements such as "Bury the Hatchet" do tend to offend me, because I read most of the MQA thread content and I did read all of JA's posting, and he was as objective and dispassionate and impersonal as he could have been. I saw no "Hatcheting" by JA and so if you did, please point it out to me (I of course realize that you were not the author of the "Hatchet" post, but you did say I had no need to defend JA).

Have a nice day.

jm

Follow Ups: