J.

Gordon Holt
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J. Gordon Holt in 2005

Justin Gordon Holt (19 April 1930 � 20 July 2009) was an audio engineer and the
founder of Stereophile magazine, and is widely considered to be the founder of the
high-end audio movement, which promoted the philosophy of judging sound quality by
subjective tests, generally with "cost no object" sound components, including
loudspeakers, turntables, amplifiers, vacuum tube components, cables, and other
devices. Known as "JGH" (from his byline in published reviews and articles), Holt
established a reputation for veracity, often-controversial opinions, passionate
critiques, and journalistic integrity. He also pioneered the concept of the yearly
"Recommended Components" list, providing a thumbnail summary of reviews for
audiophiles looking for the finest sound components available at any price. Holt
also came up with "Holt's Law," the theory that the better the recording, the worse
the musical performance�and vice versa.[1]

Contents
1 Early years
2 Family
3 Stereophile magazine
4 Death
5 External links
6 References
Early years
Justin Gordon Holt was born on April 19, 1930, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and
adopted when he was two years of age by Justin Gordon Holt (Sr.) and his wife
Katherine (n�e Hart). Through DNA testing and genealogy research, Holt's son was
able to confirm that Gordon was from the Beam and Houser families of North
Carolina. His family moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1937 for his father's work,
and stayed there through World War II. From 1936 to 1946 Gordon attended the
prestigious Melbourne private school Scotch College,[2] returning to the U.S. after
his father's sudden death from a stroke on 9 August 1946.[3] J. Gordon Holt's
father bore such a striking resemblance to famed gangster Al Capone that he was
stopped and questioned by a customs official. During his years in Australia his
mother worked as the head of the USO for the Australian Red Cross, and his father
worked for a textile company.

Gordon attended Nether Providence High School in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and

attended Lehigh University with the intent of becoming an engineer. After
discovering he "couldn't hack the math," Gordon switched his major to Journalism.
He graduated in 1953 with a BA. He spent a few years struggling as a cartoonist,
and writing the occasional article for High Fidelity magazine, which later offered
him a position.

Family
Gordon married Mary Elizabeth "Polly" Norton on May 25, 1968, in Swarthmore,
Pennsylvania. Their first child, Alicia Darroch Holt, was born on January 21, 1970.
Their second child, Justin Charles Holt, was born on April 18, 1972. The Holt
family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1979, after taking a trip and falling in
love with the area. Mary and Gordon underwent a separation in 1983, with Mary and
their children moving to Boulder, Colorado, and Gordon remaining in Santa Fe. Mary
was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 1988, and died on March 19, 1989. During
this time, Gordon moved to Boulder to care for her and their children, and spent
the rest of his life there.

Stereophile magazine
Holt worked as an editor and critic for Audiocraft and High Fidelity magazines in
the mid-1950s through the early 1960s, and wrote numerous articles and reviews on
amplifiers, receivers, turntables, tape recorders, and other high-fidelity sound
components. After departing the magazine over editorial differences�what he later
claimed were disputes between High Fidelity's editorial and advertising staff�Holt
founded Stereophile magazine in 1962 while living in Great Barrington,
Massachusetts. The magazine quickly established a market over the next decade,
expanding from a small pamphlet-sized, hand-typed booklet to issues approaching a
hundred pages. Holt was one of the first audio critics to provide in-depth details
on his listening environment, with details on room acoustics, microphones, and
other technical matters, departing from the mass-market slant to competitors such
as Stereo Review, Audio Magazine, and his alma mater High Fidelity.

Holt's engaging writing style and emphasis on audio engineering made his articles
authoritative while still remaining accessible to consumers and audiophiles. "JGH"
(as he referred to himself in print) was often skeptical of wildly successful audio
components such as Bose speakers, and often created controversy with passionate
reviews and articles on a variety of technical subjects. The high-end audio
movement exploded during the 1970s,[4] with manufacturers such as Audio Research,
Magnepan, Krell, Infinity, and many others finding great success among well-heeled
customers during the decade. After a move to Sante Fe, New Mexico, where Holt
constructed an elaborate listening and audio testing room in his home, he spent the
decade covering such cutting-edge developments as Dynagroove, Quadraphonic sound,
magnetic tape formats, and digital sound, and also reviewed hundreds of audio
components. Holt also developed a vocabulary to describe subtle differences between
audio components, using terms like "warm" or "harsh" to describe different
characters and tonalities. (Holt later wrote "The Audio Glossary",[5] which
clarified and defined many of these terms for the benefit of audiophiles and
enthusiasts.)

By the late 1970s, Stereophile's own success led to business difficulties, chiefly
in getting the magazine distributed on a regular schedule, which created a myriad
of financial problems. Holt sold the magazine to businessman Larry Archibald in
1982 for $5,000 (paid in fifty $100 bills), who expanded the magazine, hired a
large staff, and eventually increased Stereophile's circulation to 60,000 readers
by the late 1980s. The magazine was sold to Petersen Publishing in June 1998.

The success of Stereophile in the late 1960s and early 1970s inspired New York
writer & reviewer Harry Pearson to start a rival publication, The Absolute Sound,
which quickly became a very influential high-end magazine. Pearson, who was an avid
admirer of Holt's early work, has stated that he started The Absolute Sound because
he wanted to "prompt Gordon to more consistent production of his own
[magazine]."[6] TAS (as it was called) embraced the so-called "subjective audio"
philosophy, which placed an emphasis on the sound of components as a system,
eschewing the technical measurements used by Stereo Review and other mass-market
magazines. TAS and Stereophile were arguably the Time magazine and Newsweek of the
high-end audio industries throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and both thrived on
highly critical reviews, editorials, and articles which tended to polarize readers
and advertisers.[7]

Holt tried to start a new publication in the late 1980s, LaserNews, a newsletter
intended to cover the emerging home video industry of VCRs, laserdisc players, and
large-screen television technology. He was unable to interest the Stereophile
management in video-related topics, and kept the magazine going until about 1990,
where he folded it due to ongoing business and distribution problems. Stereophile
belatedly started a video-related magazine in 1994, Stereophile Guide to Home
Theater, which continues on-line as Ultimate A/V.'.

Holt occasionally wrote reviews for both Stereophile and Absolute Sound in the
1990s, and was a frequent visitor to the annual Consumer Electronic Shows
throughout the decade. Holt frequently expressed bitterness that the high-end audio
business refused to embrace double blind testing, which he was convinced would
legitimize the scientific process of evaluating sound quality.[8] Holt resigned
from Stereophile in 1999 to pursue freelance writing,[9] but remained an active
participant in the Audio Engineering Society and other industry organizations.

Death
J. Gordon Holt was as well known for his smoking as he was for his passionate
writing, and smoked two-and-a-half packs a day starting when he was seventeen. He
was diagnosed with tonsil cancer shortly after his wife's death in 1990, and had a
successful surgery shortly thereafter, although he continued to smoke believing
that the cancer was likely to kill him anyway. Ten years later, Holt was diagnosed
with emphysema. He quit smoking, but it took his life on July 20, 2009. He died at
home with his daughter and son present.