John Atkinson: A Life in Audio | Stereophile

At AXPONA last month, Stereophile's Editor-in-chief John Atkinson gave a keynote speech on his audiophile origins and how his systems have evolved over the years - aptly titled, "A Life in Audio". He also discusses the current state of the high-end audio market, women in audio, live music, and more. The first part of this video is John's keynote, and the second half is an open Q&A with the audience. Filmed April 2018 in Schaumburg, IL.
Read the written blog post: link coming soon
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[@AlexKnightVancouver]

You guys couldn't get the mic audio directly off the board? It sounds like someone used the audio from the mic built into the camera, and it's very poor.

[@ahmed.alnaqbi]

You are one of the rare audio icons in Audiophile history. Thanks Stereophile for this.

[@out4lox262]

agreed. he's great.

[@davidlong1786]

Yeah one of the biggest liars in the audio review industry.

[@TheRacingSlick]

I would be interested to see the evidence your comment is based on, honestly, not stirring up anything.

[@thegazstation3011]

Wow! The memories that brought back. I read all your reviews in Hi-Fi News avidly, back in the day. Thank you for many pleasurable hours!

[@drc97086]

It is nice having the physical format, at least for me.

[@golfhead54]

I always enjoy JA story about his blind listing tests with Martin Colloms and his subsequent epiphany about the necessity of having to see what you hear. It’s been the financial basis of Stereophile Magazine and certainly validates their point of view.

[@davidlong1786]

Yes, sadly they always have had poor excuses to not do blind testing mainly because that would prove that most of their biased sight and sound hearing reviews would show just how much BS they spew each month.

[@MattRichardsonX]

Interesting talk. Thanks for the upload.

[@advarkmerrygoround1425]

I would recommend Sennheiser HD 25-1 ll. absolutly zero listening fatigue with a bass end pretty much flat to 18Hz

[@pitdog75]

The audio is poor in this vid...

[@Stereoeditor]

We decided to video the presentation at the last minute and there wasn't time to fit me with a lav mike.

[@pitdog75]

I understand, it's just funny that you know, one of the main audiophile gurus is speaking and his audio is messed up. :)

[@JamesJones-jy8vs]

@@pitdog75 I agree, I really wanted to listen but, the audio quality was so poor I turned it off at 5 mins :(

[@LumocolorARTnr1319]

It's too frustrating to listen to. I don't understand why so many audio related videos on youtube have such bad sound. It seems to be more common among audio folks than any other content creator. Why don't they use their knowledge in audio to at least make a decent recording?

[@hx3r1]

Not audiophile audio quality in this video thats for sure,cant watch sorry alot.

[@stefanosdouroudakis8274]

I don't want to reduce the icon or the value of the speech. Doesn't the acoustics of the room bother you though? Sounds like cheap audio systems ;)

[@out4lox262]

big fan of mr. atkinson. he and jonny lieberman, from motor trend.

[@InXLsisDeo]

So the diminutive KEF LS50 are his speakers of choice. 21:28 "... because they do everything the B&W speakers do, and better." Wow ! The LS50 wireless might be the only thing you need.

[@advarkmerrygoround1425]

The future of the LP is as archive. First Pressings of Vinyl are a copy of the new master. As the Masters are played and copy masters made, the original tape nolonger has the definition of the first pressing. I have done a direct comparison of "Night clubbing" Grace, Sly and Robbie remaster on 180g vinyl to a mint copy first press and the first pressing is alive and vibrant, while the expensive re-master sounds flat, washed out and weedy. The vinyl copies will outlast any tape storage, especialy given the travesty of 456, 226 etc long chain polomer water retension (sticky tape syndrome). Agfa 468 is the only tape stock correctly engineered for archiving stability

[@realgun666]

One of my music teachers used to bring the latest albums in for the class to listen to

[@emiliolangston9724]

pro trick : watch series on Flixzone. I've been using them for watching a lot of movies recently.

[@abdullahandy9493]

@Emilio Langston yup, been using Flixzone} for since december myself :)

[@owenduncan760]

@Emilio Langston Yea, I have been watching on flixzone} for years myself :)

[@KosmicHRTRacingTeam]

Wow. So the $1500 kefs sound better than the BW 800 signatures? (Or are those 805 sigs, I can't remember).

[@cillyede]

Great!

[@donunus]

I Love JA

[@out4lox262]

yeah me too.

[@ALEXTESKI]

All these audio experts and not one good recording on a video.

[@gurnnardley7120]

he left out the parts where he had acting roles as johnny english and mr. bean.

[@davidlong1786]

His biggest role so far has been pretending to be a non lying editor of a BS magazine.

[@NawMan357]

I would love to know his thoughts on the Rega Elicit R...🤔

[@Curi0u50ne]

M Slaw ask Thomas

[@Acoustic_Theory]

"Herbal cigarette" lol.

[@iotrix]

High fidelity? I found it funny that most of Sterephile gang seem not to understand what if the definition of the word is. In the audio world it should be only the one aspect how close is the reproduced sound to the original. For the most part Stereophile is not in this business. I think that in a grand scheme Stereophile in last 20 years (not before during the G. Holt leadership) brought more harm then good to audio reproduction science and art while making a living out of it. If they would talk only about their hobby I would be fine with it. It wold be like stamp collectors. Stamp collectors, though do not claim that by collecting stamps they contribute to advancement and improvident of postal services.

[@Are_Pee_Gee]

I cannot listen to this and the closed captioning isn't very helpful. Stereophile, this is disgraceful. Please do a better job next time.

[@junjun44]

Of course SET sound like crap if you use cheap inefficient speaker

[@robertpearson]

sorry sound sucks. How sad.