RIP Peter Aczel

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A voice of sanity has fallen silent.

In the world of audiophiles, where there is so much insanity and the line between fantasy and reality keeps blurring with such frequency, this man was a constant voice of sanity. Which of course means many thought him an old fool. People like me drew strength from him.

His detailed review of SL's OB speakers are one of the most valuable 3rd party reviews of those designs which I have ever come across. His reviews were not just comments about the equipment, but education about how to look at the art and science of audio.

My world just grew a little lonelier with his passing. I never interacted with him, but just reading his writings gave me strength and direction.
 
He was a character and accurate when he gave sonic impressions of evaluated gear in the early 80's.
When he brought on the matched level comparisons the fun stopped and He talked himself into one dimensional bliss and sedation
Speaker reviews we spot on...

Still enjoyed every (late) issue

R.I.P. Mr. Aczel
 
Sad news...

In an email exchange on the topic of subjectivity vs objectivity, Peter replied:

"As for the longtime war between the objectivists and subjectivists, it was not inevitable, as I have frequently stated. It could have been nipped in the bud in the ’70s if the scientifically qualified technologists had bothered to attack the unqualified extremists instead of dismissing them as unimportant. I remember begging the great Stanley Lipshitz and some of his colleagues to do something, but they just shrugged. A whole multibillion-dollar industry of voodoo audio has been the eventual result. The gullibility of audiophiles has no limits."

RIP Peter
 
I think the young people who were starting to develop a taste for high end gear back then were put off by the dealers who were starting to push the expensive cable routine

You buy this preamp and you will need this expensive cable to hear its benefits. Dealers bought into it , and eventually put themselves out of business slowly but surely over time without possibly making the connection.
Hi end stores were long gone before the Ipod took over IMO

I think Peter was doing way better when he reported sonic differences AND to avoid expensive junk along the way, then when he started the DB matched level belief system.
He actually saved me alot of money back then.
A brilliant writer non the less.

Regards
David
 
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I know several dealers, and the shameless promotion of and belief in obscenely expensive cables drives me nuts, sometimes considerably exacerbated by the mediocre to execrable sound quality of the associated systems which were represented to have benefited tremendously from the presence of these products. It's the modern equivalent of the alchemical quest in some ways.

His advocacy for rational engineering sometimes felt as extreme as the writings of the purveyors of puffery. I sometimes found his style of writing difficult to deal with even if the message was valid.

He had both the technical chops and the journalistic integrity to state his position and findings on such things whether or not it was entertaining or pleasant reading. He has always had my respect for his consistency and honesty.
 
No doubt my respect for Peter's efforts and may he RIP, but audiophoolery is as much tied to the human condition as so many other nonsensical things (e.g. alt-medicine, supplements industry to name a couple), that it's hard to not assume it was inevitable. Not to say audiophoolery's scope couldn't have been much reduced.
 
Wow, I just read about this. Peter Aczel was a huge influence on me:

My interest in audio was largely inspired by car audio. In the early 90s there was a huge car audio scene in SoCal, and I was deeply invested in it. The late Peter Mitchell wrote for both Stereophile and Car Audio and Electronics, and his articles in the latter got me interested in the former.

By 1992 or so I was a full on audiophile, reading articles about which loudspeaker cables were better, comparing different capacitors, and painting my CDs with green pens.

There were a couple of events that got me out of that scene:

1) I read an interview with Richard Clark in Car Audio and Electronics where he basically praised the virtues of waveguides and TEF

2) I stumbled across "The Audio Critic" at a newsstand in Los Angeles after going to some rave

Those two events basically steered me into the world of horns, waveguides, high efficiency, good solid engineering and the merits of James B Lansing.

What a complete bummer, I wish I had a chance to meet these guys. Years ago I heard that Richard Clark had read some of my posts online and wanted to talk to me, but I never bothered to follow up. I wonder if he's still around?
 
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