Stephen Mejias

"Hi Stephen," ad manager Chris Yuin greets me. "So, I think I'll be moving into Patti's old office today."

Elizabeth and I started a trend. Everyone is moving into an office. With the sudden space created by recent departures and reorganizations, there's room enough for us all to enjoy a little privacy and sunlight. And all the good that comes with a little privacy and sunlight.

Despite fewer occupants, the office has become more alive, cheerier. There's a greater presence than ever before, with more evidence of the fine art we create. You walk into these doors and you know that magazines are being made. There's music everywhere.

Things were looking a bit dreary, the space between occupied cubicles growing larger and larger, until we feared we'd forget what it was like to work as a team. This place was becoming a ghost town. We've changed that, though. We're now moving in the opposite direction, opening up the clouds to an even brighter sky. And, if it seems that we're each acting selfishly, the overall result will certainly show otherwise. Happiness makes happiness like weddings make weddings.

This weekend, two of my best friends made the promise. I know it will last forever. We drank and ate and laughed and danced.

And danced.

People say that I am a good dancer. Actually, I know very few steps. But I guess that has nothing to do with it.

I haven't met him, but I consider him a friend. So, it is not through time spent together, but through words shared. He knows me well enough to know that I have difficulty, at times, enjoying the processes of things. Even of the best things. He encourages me:

You're going to be a very good equipment reviewer. Try to have fun learning how to be a very good equipment reviewer.

This, to me, is profound. I might just throw the test CDs out the window, knock the wood blocks from beneath the Ayre gear, and write my own book on hi-fi. Why not?

You know what's really exciting — and I am happy to admit to being a dork for enjoying this — is that the Photo Gallery crowded up to 30 users at approximately 12:01pm EST today. The heavy traffic certainly has a lot to do with the Head-Fi meet which took place on Saturday.

And, over in the Forum, John Atkinson has offered to put a reader's system to the test. Forum member, DUP — for those of you who don't know and for those of you who have set your preferences to "Ignore" — likes to push our buttons with comments that challenge the integrity and substance of hi-end hi-fi and of Stereophile.

Over and over again, with posts like:

So now i have to sell my $70,000 rockford turntable and get this month's BEST And now buy teh Kangaroo special for about $103,000. and all i wanted to upgrade is a CHEAP pair of Legacy WHISPERS for ONLY about $15,000. And add 2 more AVA DH500 amps for a total of around 4,000 watts using teh AVA phase inverter (2) so I can drive teh Whispers with 4 amps. I only bi-amp my FOCUs now. But if the TURNTABLE is what matters, I will scrub this and get a TT. It costs so much it has to be worth it. My SACD plaer or DAC for Cd's only cost a few thousand, they must be JUNK. Stereophile has reached teh pinacle of absurdity. Every month i look forward to a bigger laugh. To regain my composure, i read Pro Audio Review and Pro Sound News. Where they use wires that make sense, with no magic twists and frozen ends. No wonder high end has no customers, nobody in thier full thogut capacity would buy a $103,000 TT, when it can easily be done in with SACD done right. this thing should come with with every LP ever made!!

DUP really makes his point known.

Well, it turns out that we've got a review of DUP's beloved Whisper loudspeakers in the works, and I think we're all just really tired of duking it out with DUP in the forum. So: enough with the words — we're going to get together and listen to some music. JA set the table:

I would like to take a listen to your AVA-driven Legacy Whispers. What do you say? I'll bring the beer.

And DUP arrived right on time:

Surely, I'll even let ya play some classical if ya want at what ever levels ya like. Let's do it.

I wonder how this'll go down in audiophile history. I'm getting all excited. Like when John Marks sends an e-mail to let me know that

M/S is the mic technique where you aim a mono directional mic at the sound source and aim a coincident bi-directional (Figure 8) mic 90 degrees left. Which does you no good in and of itself, except that you can then blend the positive F8 Side signal with the Mid facing mic, and get the left stereo channel, and then invert the F8 signal and blend with the M to get the right stereo channel, and by varying the amplitude of the F8 signal, get more or less stereo spread.

I have absolutely no idea what he's saying, but it induces that weird tingling sensation in the back of my head that tells me I'm sharing in someone's true passion and, therefore, learning something very important.

The other night, when he was getting tangled up in magic cables and wood blocks, Steve Silberman asked, "So, what's your favorite part about being in this industry?"