Hiss-Sterical Moments in Audio
- Thread starter MylesBAstor
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Hi Myles, you missed a few. By Peter Aczel:
Larry Archibald (Stereophile)
The arch- in his name signifies archenemy--the principal, most powerful enemy of scientific discipline in equipment evaluation and of accountability in audio journalism. No, there’s nothing fiendish about him as a person; he is a nice, intelligent guy to have a drink with; but he is a total opportunist as a publisher. His magazines tell you what he believes you want to hear, because that’s where the money is, not what you ought to know, namely the unvarnished realities of the subject matter. I am con-vinced he knows what those realities are; he just doesn’t think they are moneymakers.
Ray Kimber (Kimber Kable)
A pair of 4-foot speaker cables for $15,000? Yes, that's the man. He is totally shameless. What would go better with those spiffy cables than a nice black Stetson? (I must add that there’s nothing wrong with the more or less reasonably priced cables he also makes.)
Noel Lee (Monster Cable Products, Inc.)
Father of the tweako cable industry. He was the first to realize that you can make lots of money in highend audio without a factory, without engineers, without a technological innovation, without any talent other than salesmanship—in other words, without significant overhead. All you need is a marketplace of gullible audiophiles, a steady stream of B.S. promising amazing sonic improvements, and an account with an established maker of wires and cables (Alpha, Belden, Canare, Mogami, or whatever). You specify various tweako configurations, your supplier delivers the cable with your brand name on the insulation, you set an astronomical price, you give the dealer 50-plus points, and—voilà!—you are a legend of the audio salons. Noel Lee adds a sophisticated credibility device to the formula: he also sells perfectly normal, conventional, high-quality wire, cable, and connecting hardware to the trade, at a fair price. His black hat is covered by a white hat on the outside. Smart boy, that Noel.
David Manley (Vacuum Tube Logic)
One of the chief technical apologists of the tweako vacuum-tube cult. He wrote a book on the subject and he does, or at least used to do, some heavy proselytizing at the trade shows. Nice shtick; too bad he is dead wrong.
Arnie Nudell (Genesis Technologies, Inc., Eosone)
Ask him about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. He has perfected the technique. The 'heart' of the Genesis I, his $90,000 flagship speaker system—i.e., the driver that determines its basic sound—is the five-foot ribbon from the old Carver “Amazing Loudspeaker.” It’s an excellent transducer; it sounds great; but it’s ingeniously fabricated out of cheap parts and was originally developed for a speaker system which, in its most expensive form, sold at about 3% of the Genesis I’s price. I estimate that Arnie gets the ribbon from Carver Corporation at an OEM price of maybe $100 each, certainly well under $200. Yes, there are many other drivers in a Genesis I (that’s one of its problems, actually) and very handsome cabinetry, but $90,000? Designed around the Carver ribbon? If at least they admitted it—but when I first pointed it out more than two years ago, they freaked. And that’s not the only skeleton in Arnie’s engineering closet...
Harry Pearson (The Absolute Sound)
After my full-length portrayal of the man in the last issue (No. 23, p. 72), I don’t want to belabor the point here. He is the most grotesque embodiment of half-assed, tweako cultism in audio. At this point in his dismal decline I’m not even sure he is playing with a full deck. Next!
George Tice (Tice Audio Products, Inc.
The original power-conditioner flimflam man. Not to mention the clock you plug into your wall for a miraculous improvement in sound. One must admire the unmitigated gall of the man while dismissing his B.S.
David Wilson (Wilson Audio Specialties, Inc.)
An unlikely Black Hat because he is a nice, intelligent, highly civilized gentleman and a super recordist. But he also happens to be the godfather of the megapriced speaker racket. The Wilson WAMM system costs $147,000 and has nothing in it that justifies even a fraction of that price. The 40-odd rich audiophiles who bought it over the years ended up with truly superior sound, such as you can get with a (say) $15,000 speaker system, and thus remained perfectly happy because the $132,000 overcharge (all right, a few thousand less at earlier prices) didn’t mean a thing to them financially but boosted their audiophile egos tremendously. That doesn’t make David Wilson a White Hat, however, nor does it put clothes on the emperor.
I must add that nearly all of the very high-end dealers from coast to coast are Black Hats because they are stuck with the tweako party line. They have to tell you that the upper midrange is more liquid with single-ended triodes or that the silver cable has better rhythm and pace, otherwise they can’t sell the stuff. I hesitate to single out the stores that have personally nauseated me, as there may be others unknown to me that are just as bad or worse.
Larry Archibald (Stereophile)
The arch- in his name signifies archenemy--the principal, most powerful enemy of scientific discipline in equipment evaluation and of accountability in audio journalism. No, there’s nothing fiendish about him as a person; he is a nice, intelligent guy to have a drink with; but he is a total opportunist as a publisher. His magazines tell you what he believes you want to hear, because that’s where the money is, not what you ought to know, namely the unvarnished realities of the subject matter. I am con-vinced he knows what those realities are; he just doesn’t think they are moneymakers.
Ray Kimber (Kimber Kable)
A pair of 4-foot speaker cables for $15,000? Yes, that's the man. He is totally shameless. What would go better with those spiffy cables than a nice black Stetson? (I must add that there’s nothing wrong with the more or less reasonably priced cables he also makes.)
Noel Lee (Monster Cable Products, Inc.)
Father of the tweako cable industry. He was the first to realize that you can make lots of money in highend audio without a factory, without engineers, without a technological innovation, without any talent other than salesmanship—in other words, without significant overhead. All you need is a marketplace of gullible audiophiles, a steady stream of B.S. promising amazing sonic improvements, and an account with an established maker of wires and cables (Alpha, Belden, Canare, Mogami, or whatever). You specify various tweako configurations, your supplier delivers the cable with your brand name on the insulation, you set an astronomical price, you give the dealer 50-plus points, and—voilà!—you are a legend of the audio salons. Noel Lee adds a sophisticated credibility device to the formula: he also sells perfectly normal, conventional, high-quality wire, cable, and connecting hardware to the trade, at a fair price. His black hat is covered by a white hat on the outside. Smart boy, that Noel.
David Manley (Vacuum Tube Logic)
One of the chief technical apologists of the tweako vacuum-tube cult. He wrote a book on the subject and he does, or at least used to do, some heavy proselytizing at the trade shows. Nice shtick; too bad he is dead wrong.
Arnie Nudell (Genesis Technologies, Inc., Eosone)
Ask him about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. He has perfected the technique. The 'heart' of the Genesis I, his $90,000 flagship speaker system—i.e., the driver that determines its basic sound—is the five-foot ribbon from the old Carver “Amazing Loudspeaker.” It’s an excellent transducer; it sounds great; but it’s ingeniously fabricated out of cheap parts and was originally developed for a speaker system which, in its most expensive form, sold at about 3% of the Genesis I’s price. I estimate that Arnie gets the ribbon from Carver Corporation at an OEM price of maybe $100 each, certainly well under $200. Yes, there are many other drivers in a Genesis I (that’s one of its problems, actually) and very handsome cabinetry, but $90,000? Designed around the Carver ribbon? If at least they admitted it—but when I first pointed it out more than two years ago, they freaked. And that’s not the only skeleton in Arnie’s engineering closet...
Harry Pearson (The Absolute Sound)
After my full-length portrayal of the man in the last issue (No. 23, p. 72), I don’t want to belabor the point here. He is the most grotesque embodiment of half-assed, tweako cultism in audio. At this point in his dismal decline I’m not even sure he is playing with a full deck. Next!
George Tice (Tice Audio Products, Inc.
The original power-conditioner flimflam man. Not to mention the clock you plug into your wall for a miraculous improvement in sound. One must admire the unmitigated gall of the man while dismissing his B.S.
David Wilson (Wilson Audio Specialties, Inc.)
An unlikely Black Hat because he is a nice, intelligent, highly civilized gentleman and a super recordist. But he also happens to be the godfather of the megapriced speaker racket. The Wilson WAMM system costs $147,000 and has nothing in it that justifies even a fraction of that price. The 40-odd rich audiophiles who bought it over the years ended up with truly superior sound, such as you can get with a (say) $15,000 speaker system, and thus remained perfectly happy because the $132,000 overcharge (all right, a few thousand less at earlier prices) didn’t mean a thing to them financially but boosted their audiophile egos tremendously. That doesn’t make David Wilson a White Hat, however, nor does it put clothes on the emperor.
I must add that nearly all of the very high-end dealers from coast to coast are Black Hats because they are stuck with the tweako party line. They have to tell you that the upper midrange is more liquid with single-ended triodes or that the silver cable has better rhythm and pace, otherwise they can’t sell the stuff. I hesitate to single out the stores that have personally nauseated me, as there may be others unknown to me that are just as bad or worse.
Well, you know the saying. Opinions are like ********. Everyone has one. This one is just associated with a much more potent smell of BS.
Tom
Tom
The OP is from Issue No.24 (1997) of The Audio Critic written by its editor and publisher Peter Aczel. The article is titled "The Good Guys in the White Hats and Bad Guys in the Black Hats: a Guide for the Perplexed." PDF attached.
Safe to say Aczel was an objectivist audio writer. He had his followers.
Safe to say Aczel was an objectivist audio writer. He had his followers.
RIP -The Audio Critic , Peter Aczel
http://www.crstrunk.com/notices/Peter-ACZEL
www.whatsbestforum.com
Satire? hardly. If you ever met Peter he meant everything he wrote. Nowadays with social media and such he'd be sued for defamation and slander. Most of the people in his '97 roast are now deceased, including Peter. Back in the day, it seemed like every dealer, reviewer and distributor had a Peter Aczel story.
The only person I can recall that I considered qualified to write about audio was Peter Borwick.
the-ear.net
This obit was written by Trevor Butler, a very nice chap who did sales and marketing at Harbeth before, for reasons I cannot understand, went over to the Dark Side.
I thought things could not get more ridiculous when one person in this list, with no relevant credentials, was selected to review a new brand of expensive speakers, having already passed 80 years of age. Never mind lacking engineering skills and commercial bias, most reviewers likely suffer moderate to significant age-impaired hearing. It's unavoidable. This guy was probably half deaf.
John Borwick 1924 - 2016 | The Ear
The death was reported last week of long-time audio doyenne John Borwick who devoted his life to all things audio After 11 years at the BBC, where he
the-ear.net
I thought things could not get more ridiculous when one person in this list, with no relevant credentials, was selected to review a new brand of expensive speakers, having already passed 80 years of age. Never mind lacking engineering skills and commercial bias, most reviewers likely suffer moderate to significant age-impaired hearing. It's unavoidable. This guy was probably half deaf.
Funny enough, Aczel was a subjectivist for many years. But like a reformed cigarette smoker, he saw the light and became a diehard objectivist along with his chief writer David Ranada. Kind of after the Fourier speaker review debacle.
But early on, Aczel recommended some good equipment in The Audio Critic. I bought the old JVC 7045 arm when I was a newcomer to high end end back in 1981 and really enjoyed it. Mounted a Stanton 681EEE and later a Grace F9E in it. The 7045 was ahead of its time in many ways.
Aczel also published some extremely interesting and thought provoking audio designer round table discussions. I tried to emulate that when I published my magazine.
Like Rob said, everyone has a story about Aczel and I have mine too.
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It would have been interesting to read Peter Aczel's rant after the MQA debacle in which many reviewers got egg on their face by embracing MQA.
Well I guess I get a kick out of going back and reading about and knowing audio history. There are a lot of characters in this industry.1997? Ancient history kind of moot isn't it. Who cares one look at it, even back then and I would have dismissed it out of hand as someone's ranting.
Rob
It is pretty interesting when you look at his vicious attack on tube equipment and speaker manufacturers. Conspicuously absent were turntable manufacturers. Especially since by this time he proclaimed that digital measured perfectly and was therefore perfect.
Funny thing about reviews. I have been looking at a solid state amp i'm interested in. Everything I am reading gave me the sense it will voice extremely similar to the Dartzeel NHB 108 model one I had in the past. That led me to read a few reviews on the dartzeel to see how it was presented. What's funny is how glowing the reviews are of that amp. Sure it was a nice amp. But the over the top published hype was a bit sensationalized. And it did not sound like a tube amp. It sounded very SS.
I recall Peter Aczel and The Audio Critic well. Aczel's criticisms of the industry had some merit, and I have no objection to anyone airing a POV that I disagree with, but he was far more interested in provoking a fight than debating, educating or informing. Anytime he showed up in an audio forum it was bound to get ugly, due to his cynical, mean-spirited, arrogant demeanor. His legacy lives on at Audio "Science" Review.
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MQA - Audiophile Music Scandal EXPOSED! The UNTOLD Story...
MQA, an attempt to dominate and supplant Dolby in all manner everywhere was the hidden agenda.
Narrative that MQA approved recordings were approved by musician/composers (yet omitted who really approved the recordings and for what purpose). Also, attempt to have end to end total control of mastering, hardware (compression/decompression tech in audio equipment), chips and software. Promotion as studios decided what artist intended (only by MQA studio or all new music receive the MQA authorization).
This was a huge propaganda campaign. Licensing program rather than any audio benefits. The company owning MQA as a subsidiary was a luxury brand merchandiser (Cartier, Mt. Blanc, etc)
FLAC is Free Lossless Audio Codec supplanted MQA, for free
MQA, an attempt to dominate and supplant Dolby in all manner everywhere was the hidden agenda.
Narrative that MQA approved recordings were approved by musician/composers (yet omitted who really approved the recordings and for what purpose). Also, attempt to have end to end total control of mastering, hardware (compression/decompression tech in audio equipment), chips and software. Promotion as studios decided what artist intended (only by MQA studio or all new music receive the MQA authorization).
This was a huge propaganda campaign. Licensing program rather than any audio benefits. The company owning MQA as a subsidiary was a luxury brand merchandiser (Cartier, Mt. Blanc, etc)
FLAC is Free Lossless Audio Codec supplanted MQA, for free
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