|
INTERVIEW | THE EDITORS series № 34 ROY GREGORY
GY8.eu ׀ THEAUDIOBEAT.com |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
INTERVIEW
Interviewer WOJCIECH PACUŁA |
 |
No 215 1 April 2022 |
⸜ ROY GREGORY during one of his presentations What's more, I was completing my doctoral thesis on contemporary Polish prose, from a theoretical-literary perspective. I read "STEREOPHILE" and "The Absolute Sound", and (online) "Soundstage!" and "ENJOY THE MUSIC"; "POSITIVE FEEDBACK ONLINE", which I liked, also appeared. I thought I knew what a good audio magazine should look like and what to expect from such publications. I was wrong. The cover of "Hi-Fi+" was a reproduction of a graphic design prepared specifically for this occasion. It had been done before by the aforementioned "Stereophile", "The Absolute Sound" and other magazines, so there was nothing innovative about it. And yet, when you opened the magazine, when you read a test or a feature, the whole thing made sense. It was a magazine written by ROY GREGORY, and although there were some co-writers, it was clear that it was an emanation of RG. It was there that I read for the first time that it was worth replacing power cables in the wall, that a subwoofer improves treble quality and that a supertweeter has a great effect on bass resolution. It was in "Hi-Fi+" that I first saw a reference phono preamp with variable gain curves. And even though I had known all these things before from one or another of my workplaces, it was presented in such a way that I could put many things together and check them out for myself. Today Roy Gregory is a journalist of the online magazine THEAUDIOBEAT.com, he also has his own blog under the title GY8.eu. When we look at the course of his career, published on LINKEDIN (accessed: 25.02.2022), we can see that he divided it into three periods: • 02.2011 – now: Freelance Audio Journalist. Marketing Effects, For two decades he worked as a journalist, first at "Hi-Fi+", which he founded, and later as a freelance journalist. In between, however, we have a two-year episode as deputy marketing director of a major manufacturer. It was then that Roy sold his magazine to the American NextScreen Publishing Group, which had previously published "The Absolute Sound". This step reverberated throughout the audio industry, and its echoes can still be found on the Internet today. 
⸜ A screenshot of the GY8.eu blog Transitions from the domain of journalism to business are quite a common thing, to mention, for example, STEPHEN MEJIAS, a journalist of the "Stereophile" magazine, who took a job at the cabling manufacturer AUDIOQUEST as Director of Communications. We also know similar cases from politics – and they set a certain standard. It is normal and generally accepted. It is much rarer, however, that a journalist who goes to the "other side of the mirror" returns to work in his previous role. Today Roy does not want to talk too much about the times of "Hi-Fi+", hiding behind the "silence clause" he had to sign when selling the magazine. However, he has a lot to say about modern times and for many these will not be pleasant words. ROY GREGORY, one of the most interesting contemporary audio writers, is interviewed by WOJCIECH PACUŁA (all the text effects have been added by the Editor – Editor’s note). ▌ THE INTERVIEW WOJCIECH PACUŁA For a start, tell us please a few words about yourself – I am especially interested in the path which led you to audio ROY GREGORY Like almost everybody in the audio business, I started out as a customer. After leaving college I moved to London and my system started improving by leaps and bounds. At the same time, I was getting bored with my first job (this was the 1980’s and there was mass unemployment in the UK, so career choices were kind of ‘what you can get’). I’d worked for an office furniture company during the college holidays and they hired me after graduation, but four years later, I was looking for a change. My dealer (KJ Leisure Sound) probably figured they’d sold me as much as they could, so they offered me a job! I stayed in retail or working for manufacturers for the next 15 years, at a number of different stores and companies, but at the same time I was also reviewing. 
⸜ ROY GREGORY’s main listening room One of the great UK reviewers, Jimmy Hughes or JMH, also worked at KJ, and he introduced me to Keith Howard, then editor at “Hi-Fi Answers”. I started reviewing for them and also “Hi-Fi Choice” and “The Abso!ute Sound”, when Harry Pearson was still the editor. From there I guess it was only a matter of time before I branched out on my own, ultimately setting up and editing Hi-Fi+, which is of course still running today. But editing, writing and organising a magazine – especially a magazine that you build from scratch – is a bit like being on a hamster wheel. No sooner do you put one magazine to bed than the next one is looming on the horizon. Even a holiday just backs up the workload. After 10-years I really needed a break, so I stepped down as editor of Hi-Fi+ and went to work for Nordost for several years, involved in marketing and product development. But at heart I was still a writer, so I stepped away from Nordost and started working with Marc Mickelson at TheAudioBeat.com, by far the most respected and serious online, English language title – a position that it maintains today. I have also recently started Gy8.eu – my own site that operates separately to, but in many ways alongside my work for TheAudioBeat. What is Gy8? I guess that’s the point of the next question! WP So, tell us about your Gy8.eu site – how it started, what it looks like, etc. RG To understand the thinking and motivation behind the establishment of the Gy8 site, it’s necessary to look at the way in which the wider audio market (specially the high-end segment) and English language audio publishing are changing – especially given that English language writing is still read all over the audio world. Many readers take reviews as a given, without wondering where they come from or the pressures on their production. However, recently, those processes and pressures have bubbled into view and are increasingly being called into question. For almost 20-years, the high-end has been surprisingly stable, dominated by big (mainly) American brands and their well-established distributors. Those distributors have long held a dominant market position, both in terms of product supply and profile. With many of the most expensive/attractive products in their portfolios and substantial advertising budgets to back them up, any magazine that wanted to play in the high-end had to pay lip-service to those distributors (and their products – Editor’s note). But around 10-years ago, that situation started to change. The stagnation of many of the established high-end brands coincided with the emergence of new brands and technologies in other countries and other markets. With the increasing importance of China and the Asian markets, the centre of audio gravity started to shift inexorably East, putting US and European distributors and manufactures under increasing market and financial pressure. In turn, they used their established positions, relationships and advertising muscle to lean on the audio publications, publications that were suffering their own financial pressures. The cost of print and paper was rising and circulations were falling, online titles were starting to gain traction and almost inevitably as a result, the mainstream brands/distributors and reviewers/magazines started to pull together in an effort to defend market share and maintain influence. The effect of this was to create a glass ceiling that kept the existing, high-profile brands in the spotlight, in the pages and in the ads, marginalising and undermining new, emerging brands of considerably greater potential. 
⸜ The main listening room, but with the Avantgarde Acoustics Trio speakers Advances in performance stalled, customer confidence was undermined and the established three-tier (manufacturer/distributor/dealer) sales channel started to crumble. There were just too many manufactures in a shrinking market for all of them to sell through established distributors. Many dealers, looking to prop up their own businesses, saw the opportunity and started importing lower-profile brands to sell alongside the existing stock – taking the distributor (and their margin) out of the equation, allowing the dealer to either make more money per sale or discount heavily and still make a full margin. And then Covid arrived! Overnight, audiophiles stopped visiting dealers, stopped buying magazines from the newsstand – and had more opportunity to listen to and tinker with their systems. Looking for information, many of them turned to the Internet – and discovered that in amongst all the dross and BS, there were a few really good sources of information: that internet reviews, shorn of the cost of print and paper could afford to be longer, more in-depth and much more serious than the advertising driven publishing agenda and production costs that mandated the short, almost capsule reviews that dominated print titles. They saw there was a whole range of brands out there, some of them with really interesting technology and exciting performance benefits that were almost entirely absent from the pages of the mainstream press: that it wasn’t just the reviewers on the mainstream titles that were looking a bit old and tired – many of the products that were lauded with all the same old clichés were just as tired, their performance just as disappointing. Despite the (often extremely aggressive) attempts of the established manufactures and their distributers to defend their market dominance under the extreme financial pressures of the pandemic, bullying the magazines and discrediting their competitors, their desperation has become increasingly apparent, even obvious. The ceiling hasn’t so much cracked as shattered and suddenly, a whole new raft of companies is emerging, not just new faces, but delivering major performance benefits too, a step change in capability that was suppressed and stifled by the previous status quo. What has all that got to do with Gy8? Because I was one of the reviewers championing those emerging brands (even before Covid) some of those old, established brands and distributors have made clumsy attempts to “shut me down”, using the threat of withdrawing advertising or products from the titles that I work for. By setting up Gy8, which is entirely free of advertising, I can diffuse that pressure and write exactly what I want, or publish work from other writers, work that might not find a place in more traditional magazines. 
⸜ An audio system with the Wadax CD player, the CH Precision SACD player and a preamp from the same company Because the site is online, it also allows me to write in-depth reviews about the aspects of practice and performance that have very real results but are seldom covered by more traditional reviews. Thus, most reviews will consist of at least two stages, one discussing the practical aspects and considerations in handling and matching the product to achieve its best possible performance, the second dealing with the way the product sounds. Further, you’ll see coverage of product upgrades and accessories that struggle for space in mainstream titles. With more and more readers depending on their own skills and realising just how much more can be extracted from the system they already own through careful set up, these hard-learnt lessons are becoming increasingly pertinent. WP What is your policy regarding reviews? RG Ha! A better question might be, “What is your policy regarding reviewers?” I have long held that the single most important piece of information in any review is the author’s name. Not because the author is some kind of a star, but because his name is the reader’s only protection against the inevitable prejudice that informs his (or her) reviews! As a magazine editor, the biggest problem facing you is finding qualified reviewers. People who can write? Ten-a-penny. People who know about audio? Nearly as common. But people who know about audio and can write about it in an interesting and informative way? Rarer than hen’s teeth! Mind you, that doesn’t stop the steady flow of in-person applicants… When somebody wants to be a reviewer, I always ask them two questions: As a reviewer, what is your first responsibility? And, have you ever worked in audio retail? The answer I generally get to the first question is normally something fluffy like, “My first responsibility would be to the readers.” The answer to second is almost invariably, “No.” It’s a situation that underlines the problem of finding good reviewers, or even good candidates to develop, as well as showing just how misunderstood the actual practice of reviewing is. Where does a reviewer’s first responsibility lie? With the PRODUCT! If you do not understand the product or fail to get the best possible performance from it, what use is your review? Why the insistence on retail experience? Because it teaches you two things: how to get the best out of and combine to greatest affect a wide variety of different equipment and systems; the power of the printed word and just how much damage a poorly conducted review can do. As a retailer, you spend your life working with a whole host of different products, learning which combinations work, which don’t and how to figure out the best way to get optimum performance from a system. It is experience that is invaluable to any reviewer – yet it’s experience that very few reviewers possess. 
⸜ The other side of the room, with the Grand Prix Audio Monaco v2.0 turntable, the Connoisseur phono stage and the Wadax file transport You’ll also be on the receiving end of customers who would rather trust reviews than their own ears, or your advice – no matter how clear a demonstration you give. In one salutary example, I had a customer (mis-) quoting my own review to me. Even when I pointed out that I’d written the words and had a good idea what they actually meant, he still refused to accept the evidence of his own ears. As a reviewer, you really do need to be aware of the power of the published word (even if it was written by a numbskull). My rule of thumb has always been simple: if I’m going to write about it I’d darned well better be able to demonstrate it – which is why, throughout my time at Hi-Fi+ and ever since, I have always been happy to present demonstrations at Hi-Fi shows, of products or practices that I’ve reviewed or written about. It’s a process that allows readers to “calibrate” my views and it’s also a serious reality check for me! Just as a matter of interest, if you look at the publishers and editors of the six most prominent and influential US or UK printed hi-fi magazines, as far as I’m aware, only one of them has any audio retail experience at all, while in some cases they are no more experienced or qualified than the average reader. It’s a sobering thought! As to the reviews themselves, as I suggested above, the whole process is widely misunderstood, starting with the methodological problems associated with so called ‘Reference Systems’ and the ‘one in-one out’ review technique championed by early high-end publications and still prevalent today. Because you can’t listen to a product, only a system, swapping out one product for another in single set-up only tells you which product suits that system better. What’s more, if the system is optimised around one product (say, an amplifier) it is unlikely to work at its best with another unit, unless you totally re-set the speakers to accommodate changes in low-frequency balance and the amp/speaker interface. How often does that happen? Rarely if ever – because ‘the change only one thing’ mind-set rejects the obvious, which in turn pretty much undermines or limits the usefulness of most reviews! |
| HOW TO WRITE A GOOD REVIEW a) The review process is a collaborative one. You need to involve the manufacturer if you are going to really understand his goals and how to get the best from the product. After all, he knows more about his ‘baby’ than you ever will. Creating a false sense of ‘independence’ by separating reviewers from the manufacturer of the product they are reviewing is as pointless as it is damaging to the process as a whole. b) You need to work with the product in a variety of different system contexts. The most useful information you can impart is how the product works, what it works with, what it doesn’t work with and what it does when it’s working at its best. That means using it in more than one set up and with a wide variety of material. c) It’s easy to detect and describe sonic differences. It’s far harder to understand and communicate their musical significance. ‘Different’ is not necessarily better - and nor is ‘more’. Rather than fastening on individual instrumental details or presentation, you need to think of the performance (the recorded musical performance that is) as a whole. d) Any review is only an opinion. Hopefully, it’s an informed opinion – but far from always. The value of any review is defined by the methodology (the exacting process) that produces it. Even the best review can’t tell you, the reader, what to buy. It can only suggest what you should be listening for and help you form your own opinion. RG HOW ARE PRODUCTS selected for reviews? As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about performance. Readers often complain that they never see bad reviews in magazines and yes, in some cases that is the result of undue influence from a manufacturer/distributor/advertiser. Does advertising buy good reviews? It shouldn’t, but these days most print titles operate a ‘pay to play’ policy, meaning that if you don’t advertise, you won’t get a review. Of course, the flip-side of that is, ‘if the review isn’t good, I won’t continue to advertise’. Such is the financial pressure on print magazines that losing even one regular advertiser is a major problem. The online ad model is rather different, often involving far more and far more disparate advertisers, which inevitably reduces the pressures on editorial decisions. As to reviewers, most of them probably have no idea whether a manufacturer advertises or not. When I was running “Hi-Fi+”, the main decisions regarding review allocation revolved around sending worthwhile products to reviewers with the system and tastes to appreciate them. As to the lack of bad reviews, there were enough good products to make reviewing bad ones an unnecessary waste of time. If the product got a review it was because it was worth reviewing: If a product didn’t feature in the pages of the magazine, that told its own story. There was also a short blacklist of (in my opinion) questionable companies that it was irresponsible to encourage readers and customers to get involved with. Of course, those companies often enjoyed star billing in other titles and with other reviewers – but then a huge ad budget and generous personal gifts always did go a long way to overcoming or obscuring dodgy business practices, unserviceable products and appalling customer experiences. WP How has the pandemic period changed your work? RG The main impact has been the limitations on travel, which has in turn limited the number of visits that I’ve made to manufacturers and shows, as well as limiting the number of manufacturers able to visit me. However, in some ways that has actually been a blessing. The emergence of Asian markets and the increasing importance of online information has created a massive increase in the requirement for English-language copy to help populate the websites and marketing materials of many European manufacturers. Consequently, I’ve never been so busy. WP Streaming is the ‘king’ right now – do you think that it is already a high-end sound source? RG Even six months ago the answer to that question would definitely have been “NO!” But since then I’ve received the Wadax Atlantis Reference Server, a product that has transformed not just my use of streamed or locally-stored files, but which might just change the way we all listen to digital music. Like other Wadax units, the Server uses unique technology, in this case a user adjustable interface between the Server and its matching DAC. To say this transforms the performance of streamed music is a serious understatement and file replay is now an essential element in my listening (rather than a necessary evil). I’m still wary of using streamed music (as opposed to locally-stored files) during set up or really detailed listening, as it still lacks the consistency of optical or vinyl disc replay, but the Wadax has finally delivered on the musical promise of streaming. 
⸜ A look at the back of the listening room with a sofa where Roy sits WP Which do you prefer – analog or digital, tubes or transistors? RG I don’t care and I don’t discriminate. What I do care about is musical performance and whatever works and delivers the musical goods is good with me. Consequently I have big collections of both vinyl and CD/SACD, while my own replay equipment includes record players from Grand Prix Audio, Kuzma and VPI, digital pieces from Wadax, Wadia and CEC and amplifiers from CH Precision, VTL, Jadis, Berning, Tom Evans Audio Design, Levinson, Icon Audio and Connoisseur. Like I said, if it works, I’m happy to give it a home! WP How have you set up your own audio system? Have you rented the components or are they your own? RG Like most reviewers, my systems are a mix of products that I own and products that are on loan or passing through. However, the fact that very few of the products I’ve bought over the years have ever been sold means that I have more than enough equipment to ring the changes and maintain my set-ups. The listing above gives you an idea of the range of products that I actually own, and it’s far from complete. The one area where I do hold considerable loan stocks is when it comes to racks and cables, simply because of the sheer range of options it’s necessary to have on hand if you are going to really optimise the performance of products that come for review. But even here, I own full looms of Nordost cable and ancillaries, as well as GPA, HRS and Hutter racks. In addition, many of the products that I own are augmented by additional loan items from those manufacturers and it would be impossible to operate at the level required by high-end components without that generous support. As I said earlier, reviewing is a collaborative process and that involves more than just the manufacturer of the review product. It’s an arrangement that depends entirely on respect. Respect a manufacturer, respect their products and they will likely respect you. WP Is there any new technology you think is promising? RG I’ve already mentioned the adjustable digital interface on the Wadax Atlantis Reference Server and that’s a genuine game-changer. The other really exciting recent introduction I’ve experienced isn’t new per se, but still represents a new application of established technology. The recently launched AvantGarde Trio G3 active loudspeaker has finally cracked the application of current-drive amplification to a genuinely high-end system – and to spectacular effect. The result is astonishing performance at an almost approachable price – at least as far as state-of-the-art, full-range loudspeaker systems go. Around €200K for one of the best sounding, full-range speaker systems out there, together with the amps to drive it is definitely beer-budget in high-end terms. But the best news? The technology is scalable! How about an active Duo Mezzo all-horn system for well below €100K? The other really interesting development is the emergence of improved CD formats – most notably UHQCD – which combines many of the key materials and techniques used to create Glass CD with an automated production process, resulting in discs that sound significantly and consistently superior to standard CD at a price that’s around 50% higher than a standard, full-price disc. 
⸜ Another listening room with a smaller surface area WP Tell us about your audio system. RG With multiple listening rooms, I also have multiple systems, but in the main music room I currently use the following components: ⸤ TURNTABLE ⸜ Grand Prix Audio Monaco v2.0 with Kuzma 14” 4POINT tonearm and Fuuga cartridge (or Thales Statement or Kuzma 11” 4POINT tonearms with the Lyra Etna Lambda lub Lambda SL cartridges). WP Tell us about10 albums you could recommend to our readers. RG Only ten? Surely that’s a case of cruel and unusual punishment – so I’m going to cheat! Firstly, there are albums that sound good and albums that will help your system sound good. In the first category, the key set up discs I absolutely rely on and which get used with EVERY system. 1) THE NORDOST SYSTEM SOLUTION An invaluable guide to system/speaker set up. Worth it for the LEDR tests alone, this pair of discs includes pretty much everything you need in terms of a set-up aid. The discrete LF tones on the second disc, used in conjunction with the timed LF sweep are incredibly effective when it comes to mapping a room’s low-frequency characteristics and balancing a speaker’s position against them. 2) DUKE ELLINGTON AND RAY BROWN A far from brilliant recording, this disc is an unparalleled indicator of LF linearity, rhythm and timing. When it’s right it’s glorious, but when it’s wrong… 3) BEETHOVEN, 1st Piano Concerto One of the great live concert performances/recordings, this is an acid test of a system’s coherence and musicality. 
⸜ And a third listening room, or rather living room 4) SHOSTAKOVICH, 1st Violin Concerto Two of the leading contemporary violinists play one of the most demanding pieces ever written for heir instrument. Batiashvili plays with consummate authority and stunning precision, but Ibragimova, better known for her chamber performances, achieves a astonishing emotional intensity. A system’s ability to capture the character of each soloist, whilst also clearly separating their very different performances and techniques, is telling. Secondly, there are great discs of great performances of great music… Here, the emphasis is very much on the music, rather than the recording, but any good system will reward you playing these discs… 5) DEBUSSY/RAMEAU Beautifully played and beautifully captured solo piano… 6) VASKS, Viola Concerto and String Symphony ‘Voices’ Contemporary classical composition at its best. 7) PURCELL, Music For A While Original instruments/French jazz mash up – wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful! 
8) JANIS IAN , Between The Lines Superb song-smith superbly captured at her very best: Musically far superior to the audiophile darling Breaking Silence. 9) JOE JACKSON, I’m The Man Intelligent new-wave, great playing and a brilliant late ‘70s analogue recording add up to perfect grown up pop. The Intervention Records 180g re-issue, cut by Kevin Gray and pressed by RTI is superb, the beautiful gatefold sleeve matching the quality of the production and performance. 10) BIZET, Carmen Price’s debut performance in a concert recording that demonstrates that the HvK ‘sound’ was more to do with DGG than the conductor himself. Superb singing and a great Living Stereo recording, it’s worth getting the original album for the Soria libretto alone. 11) ART PEPPER QUINTET, Smack Up! One of the great jazz quintets performing one of their great albums, this deserves a much wider audience. 12/13) Soundtracks Two modern sci-fi soundtracks that between them demonstrate that the art of film music is alive and (definitely) kicking: Gravity is a full on adrenalin rush, while Arrival owes more to the classical minimalism of Glass and Reich. 14) BEETHOVEN, Piano Concertos 1-5 Breathtaking delicacy and emotional range from Uchida at her very, very best. 15) BEETHOVEN, Revolution – Symphonies 1 à 5 Savall? Playing Beethoven? You’d better believe it. Jordi Savall and LCDN play the first five symphonies with an energy, sheer joie de vivre and humour that will surprise and delight! 16) And the disc that isn’t available but really, really should be! 
I wouldn’t presume to tell you or your readers about this fabulous music. What I will say is that this live concert recording, conducted by the composer, is stunning in its scale, power and emotional intensity. Almost impossible to find these days, if ever a disc demanded a re-issue then this is it (and who is better placed to agitate for that outcome than you, Wojtek? WP Thank you for the incredibly interesting conversation and see you! |
T WAS, I THINK, 2002, WHEN FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME I saw the cover of "Hi-Fi+". It dazzled me. I bought the magazine and it dazzled me a second time. At that time I was working for the "Sound and Vision" magazine. I had worked as an acoustician and sound engineer, as well as a year and a half as a salesman in the showroom of a distributor of high-end equipment, mainly from the USA.
 |
main page | archive | contact | kts
© 2009 HighFidelity, design by PikselStudio,
projektowanie stron www: Indecity