Mikey had brought along to the JBL Everest demo CD-Rs burned with dubs of his favorite LPs played on his Continuum Caliburn turntable. We listened to Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, and John Lennon, but it was when Mikey asked Greg to play track one on the second CD-R that the listeners visibly relaxed and the room filled up with good vibes.

Even Everest designer Greg Timbers (left) and veteran classical recording engineer and JBL alum John Eargle (third from right) loosened up as we all lowered ourselves into the warm audio bath of the Dead's "Uncle John's Band," from Working Man's Dead. Now that's music! And on the Everests, we wanted for nothing more. Well, maybe some of those herbal smokes...

We finished the listening sessions with some of John Eargle's recent classical recordings for the Delos label, which the Everests handled with the same sonic aplomb with which they had recreated the 1970s Dead. John has just written an authorized history of JBL, which we will get hold of and review when it is published.