Stereophile Article - Holt telling it like it is.

His home was a mess, cigarette butts and ashtrays everywhere, equipment laying literally everywhere and piles of magazines and newspapers. The sort of thing where you didn't want to sit down anywhere and you kept your hands in your pockets so you don't getanyonyou. Steven Stone was attempting the Sisyphean task of cleaning the place up...
Atmasphere (Threads | Answers)

11-30-07: Ghanson
Atmashpere, what has his living conditions to do with his point of view? I don't like cigarette smoke either but I wouldn't anull some guy's opinion on how clean he keeps his place.

The irony is that Holt envisioned perfection in audio reproduction of a live event, and yet his personal habits and living space were anything but perfection.

I love it!

Einstein was a slob. Many a genius is so fixated on his pursuits that he neglects the details that govern the more anal amongst us. I saw his place on many ocassions and it was as Ralph describes it. He had Soundlab A-3s sitting out in the hall and a SOTA table with Well-Tempered arm out of use against the wall. At the time he was utterly ga-ga over an array of Tannoy speakers in a surround setup. He had hundreds of those large video discs (can't remember what they were called). He used Boulder amplification at that time.
All in all it looked like he was fairly preoccupied with his work. He's a total geek. And he was a gracious host. Certainly you could say he is old-fashioned. And you might well consider him a genius. I really liked the guy.

I don't see much irony in that, nor do I take it as much of a humorous point. The guy does not care for a clean living space, it doesn't mean he does not have other areas of his life he cares about or is frustrated with.

Atmasphere, I usually agree with you, but I have know to many brilliant, interesting, and stimulating people who were disorganized messes in their physical space to say JGH may be as you describe, but it has little to do with his judgement of things audio.

the sound of stereo systems is far removed and inferior to the sound of live music. it is that way now and was the same 30 years ago.

audio is a subjective, aesthetic medium. while there may be standards of sound quality, they too are subjectively imposed.

since it is all subjective, what one likes = quality.

don't confuse facts with value. quality is not objective. quality is assigned by human beings to a set of conditions. it is arbitrary and there is more than one concept of quality.

live and live and don't worry about what other people think. it is irrelevant. just enjoy the music, regardless of the judgment of others.

gordon holt's view is just one of many. he sounds very dogmatic to me.