Ken Kessler Retired

When I was at the London hi-fi show I heard that Ken Kessler was retiring from hi-fi journalism. I just got the latest Hi-fi News in the post, and they have anounced that he has left, and will not write for them again.

The word I heard, was that he gets paid 5 times as much to write about Rolex's than he does about Wilson's, and he had had enough!

I wonder how much longer Hi-fi News will be with us?

 

see - https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=14092

 

Sorry,

didn't see the thread

Cheers

David

 

Hi David, long time no see.

Thanks for starting this thread. I had no idea who/what the guys were talking about in the other one.

 

HI DEV, the thread that i started "the other one" is to do with what k.k wrote in the latest H.F.N. titled as mentioned, grsi says hi, nando.

 

I know that NOW.

Anyway, should I care either way? Was he any good?

 

Hi Dev,

How are you?

I haven't been on the furums very much lately. Have been pretty busy.

 

I was under the impression he was just unhappy with Hifi News, and was thus only resigning, not retiring.

Dunc

 

afaik he's still writing for stereovile and another uk mag has options on his work.

 

Poor Markus.

 

I listened to his last session of the day at the show and he mentioned the going to write about watches (another interest of his).

Frankly, he just seemed despondant about the future of quality sound really. Suprised hes's still writing that stuff then.

I enjoyed reading what he had to say, although referring to him as the Hunter S Thompson of hi fi journalism ( as I recall in HFN) seemed a little over the top.

More like Gonzo on a strong cup of instant coffee really.

That's no criticism of him, more just that hi fi as an interest doesn't bear comparison really. IMHO

 

That's the bottom line as far as I'm concerned. I didn't always agree with him, far from it, but in recent years he's been the only journalist worth reading in HFN. I think that some of the criticism in Nando's thread is a little mean spirited.

 

Ditto narabdela. He as opinionated, and a bit of a prick, but only really in the name of entertainment... I can see why he rubs some people up the wrong way, but folk shouldn't take it that seriously. He's certainly the only one I can think of in all of the UK hifi journalist fraternity with anything resembling a personality.

Dunc

 

Don't blame him for being pissed off with HFN.... its a mess now, boxes all over the place, sections all mixed up etc. BUT the biggest most awful crme of all is that the music reviews have disappeared! The record review section of HFN was generally very good, especially the classical section. Shame.

 

no doubt he'll be spouting off how good analogue watches are compared to digital ones etc..?

 

It's a funny thing, watches...
I can understand why folks would spend large amounts of money to get the best sound they actually can, but with a watch it seems to be nowt to do with the watch that keeps time most accurately, just which is the biggest status symbol!
After all, a Rolex can't possiby compete for accuracy with, say a radio time signal watch at less than £100, or even a £5 garage special!
Am I wrong, is there something to this watch malarkey?

PS I've got a Casio watch which also has a barometer, thermometer, compass and altimeter...

 

Boys toys.

Cars Watches Hifi

 

wait for Dynamic Turtle to come along - he knows about them...

I've got a tissot myself and I've just ordered a cheap (real cheap!) watch from fleabay...and I'm looking at a cheap divers watch....I don't expect them to be upto much but as long as they look ok...

 

A £5000 Wadia CDP is no better in terms of accuracy than a £300 Sony, every turntable in the world is considerably worse, and you can spend $350,000 on an amplifier which gives sub-mini-system fidelity (2 watts at 1% distortion). Hifi doesn't have anything more to do with "accuracy" or objective performance than watchmaking does - even though people like to pretend that it does!

 

Possibly not in terms of reading the info off the disc, but a Wadia tends to do a better job of actually converting the digits to a format we can actually make use of!
I'm not even getting into the accuracy of cd vs. vinyl - suffice it to say there are many who prefer the sound a TT makes over that of a cdp; so ultimately hifi is about producing a sound that is enjoyed most by the listener.
But surely, with expensive watches not even this argument holds water, as all that's better about, say, a Rolex, is build quality - timekeeping is irrelevant!
And as for 2w solid silver Japanese super amplifiers, they're just plain silly (IMHO, of course, but then I'm into power and grunt...)