Follow-Up

- Art Dudley

The poet Richard Hugo (1923–1982) was known by his students for suggesting that every poem has two subjects: the thing that triggered the writing of the poem in the first place—the writer’s Grecian Urn, if you will—and, beyond that, whatever eventually becomes the finished poem’s actual subject. Hugo observed that the latter often isn’t known to the writer when he or she begins work, but reveals itself over time.

I think the same can be said of a good review (by good I mean an interesting and useful review, not necessarily a positive one): A critic can set out to evaluate something as small as a piece of wire, only to end up discovering—and ultimately communicating—a larger truth.

When I set out to review Peachtree Audio’s 300Wpc, class-D nova300 for the June 2017 Stereophile, 1 I thought I was just reviewing the latest iteration of an affordable DAC–integrated amplifier from the company that popularized if not invented the genre. Only after I’d written the piece was it apparent that I’d also critiqued my review regimen itself. Although I’d enjoyed the nova 300’s musical strengths, in particular praising its onboard phono preamp, I considered its sound inferior to that of an earlier Peachtree, the iDecco integrated amp, which I’d reviewed for the December 2010 issue. 2 My evaluation wasn’t entirely positive, and Peachtree and readers alike were concerned that my testing conditions were unfair, inasmuch as my very high-sensitivity Altec Flamencos are so unlike the loudspeakers owned by normal people.