Somebody “MichaelV8” posted in Audio Sewers a question: “Did Stereophile essentially abandon classical music in the 1990’s?”

“Posted by MichaelV8 on December 22, 2010 at 07:47:14

Yes, is my take. They still employ Richard Lehnert, my favorite reviewer for the mag, but his articles are rarely published. Kal Rubinson I read for his multi-channel reviews, but they are basically skeletons. Not enough from either of these guys for me to renew my sub. Too bad.

This was just brought to mind on reading an article by Mortimer Frank in Fanfare, Vol. 32, No. 3.

“The death of High Fidelity and of its major competitor, Stereo Review, created a void that many have felt was impossible to fill. Stereophile, to which I contributed for several years, did so in part, but essentially turned its back on classical recording when it changed hands in the 1990s.”

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/music/messages/18/180998.html”

I do not know and frankly speaking do not care what happend with Stereophile on 90s. As far as I concern  if of all printed Stereophile magazines, along with their writers and staffers were burn in hell then nothing would change in my universe. However, the MichaelV8’s question has a side-effect. The side-effect is in the fact that audio publications and classical music has slightly different effect. I would like to revise MichaelV8’s position.

I would like to revise MichaelV8’s position as I feel he confused the cause and consequence. I do not feel that high-end audio industry abandon classical music but I feel that the as time goes by the audio that high-end audio industry embraces and cultivate is less and less suitable for classical music reproduction. As the result, it was a normal evolutionary process – the classical music faded out from industry aim. It is similar to parrots who learn to “speak” human words do not delegate the skills to their heirs as it is absolutely needless for this species.

In 60 Hi-Fi industry killed tone in audio. In 70s they killed dynamic range and bass.  In 80 they saturated audio with indifference. In 90s they fill audio with overtones and fake harmonics. In 2000s they separated the body of Sound into sonic particles and today an average industry-sponsored playback is enable to reproduce as continuing transition of a note from one instrument or voice to another. It is not wonder that classical music lost its appeal and interest being plays by the industry-sponsored audio.

In fact in today world there is a very interesting phenomena - very low-end audio,  literally mass-produced table radio that on can buy for $50 sound hugely more musical for classical repertoire then the mega-dollars playback ideas that the industry present as some kind of “advance audio”.  From the place where I stand, only for this fact all that pompous  and pretentious industry dirt that runs the audio industry need to be clustered on the roof of a very toll building   and then throw from the roof with their stupid heads down. Their screaming while they fly will sound more musical then the audio they promote.

Romy the Cat wrote:

In fact in today world there is a very interesting phenomena - very low-end audio,  literally mass-produced table radio that on can buy for $50 sound hugely more musical for classical repertoire then the mega-dollars playback ideas that the industry present as some kind of “advance audio”.

Romy the Cat wrote:

all that pompous  and pretentious industry dirt that runs the audio industry need to be clustered on the roof of a very toll building   and then throw from the roof with their stupid heads down. Their screaming while they fly will sound more musical then the audio they promote.

Romy the Cat wrote:

In fact in today world there is a very interesting phenomena - very low-end audio,  literally mass-produced table radio that on can buy for $50 sound hugely more musical for classical repertoire then the mega-dollars playback ideas that the industry present as some kind of “advance audio”.  From the place where I stand, only for this fact all that pompous  and pretentious industry dirt that runs the audio industry need to be clustered on the roof of a very toll building   and then throw from the roof with their stupid heads down. Their screaming while they fly will sound more musical then the audio they promote. Rgs, Romy the Cat

Perhaps some people thought I was kidding when I suggested using a mid-fi system to audition for SOTA phono cartridges...  It took me almost 10 years to find a replacement for my old Sony CD player because, despite the fact that several I heard were obviously "better", they were also worse in some important ways.

The underlying Idea is that the Value is in the Music.  Yes, the Sound is ultimately critical.  But until there is Music in the Listener, hi-fi will ever and only be a grab-bag of sounds.  When friends ask my "advice" on hi-fi I tend most often to steer them to gear I sincerely hope will do the least harm.  Ironically, this can actually be a tough sell to someone with money to burn and a penchant for "doing his homework" at or even beyond the usual Consumer Reports level.

Paul S