APRIL
2021 ONLINE MEETING NOTICE
Date: Sunday, April
18, 2021, 7:00 pm
Place: ZOOM ONLINE
Featured Guests: John
Atkinson, Past Editor of Stereophile &
Current Technical Editor
Topic: Audio After
55 Years as an Audiophile & Measuring
Audio Equipment
John Atkinson was born
in England in 1948. At the age of 15, he was
faced with a difficult decision. Academically,
his grades in science subjects were excellent
but his passion was for music. He played violin
in school and county youth orchestras and
bass guitar with a local pop group. But for
his final 3 years at grammar school, he had
to choose between the sciences and the arts.
The sciences it had to be, and he ended up
getting his B.Sc in physics and chemistry
from the University of London, followed by
a post-graduate qualification as a high-school
science teacher.
He is probably the only
audio journalist who has made his own transistors,
using a vapor-epitaxy oven and gallium-phosphide
substrates.
His passion for music
was kept alive by playing bass guitar in rock
bands and getting involved in making recordings.
John, a bassist, joined a band led by a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
who had just signed a record contract with
Warner Bros. After joining, not a surprise,
he abandoned his scientific career without
hesitation.
JA had been what we
now call an audiophile since the
end of the 1960s and was an avid reader of
the British magazine Hi-Fi News & Record
Review. In September 1976 he joined that magazine
as an editorial assistant. Six years later,
at the age of 34, he became Hi-Fi Newss
editor in chief. By the end of 1985, he'd
almost doubled its circulation when then-Stereophile
owner and publisher Larry Archibald invited
him to take over from the magazines
founder, J. Gordon Holt, as the American magazines
editor.
JA joined Stereophile
in May 1986 and increased its circulation
from around 20,000 to a peak of 92,000 15
years later. He remained editor until April
2019, when approaching his 71st birthday and
having published 390 issues, he handed over
Stereophiles editorial reins to Jim
Austin. John took up the new position of Technical
Editor and continues to provide the measurements
to accompany the magazines reviews.
To date, he has measured 900 loudspeakers,
600 amplification components, and 400 digital
products, all with a standardized test regime
for each category.
John Atkinson is a member
of the Audio Engineering Society and until
recently was an associate member of the IEEE
and a member of NARAS, Producers & Engineers
Wing. In 2011 he was invited by the Technical
Council of the AES to present the Richard
C. Heyser Memorial lecture at its 131st Convention
in New York
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