A Memory Talking

It's kind of crazy. I go to bed each night with a little bit of worry over the words I've let loose. Nouns and verbs and other linking bits, forming ideas and images meant to be pretty, meant to be funny, meant to be interesting. These words are linked to me, just as my name is linked to Stereophile, and it all comes with

So
Much
Weight:

The weight of almost forty-five years and hundreds of writers and thousands of reviews: The weight of loudspeakers and monoblocks: The weight of mountains, some sort of audiophile genetic memory. And so I worry. Did I say what I mean? Did I make myself clear? Have I insulted my family? How can we move with all this weight?

We move. I want you to know, when it comes right down to it (when listening to music for fun), I am more interested in how a component sounds than how it measures. While I love the fact that John Atkinson prays for "superb measured performance," I also love the fact that Art Dudley, Mikey Fremer, Sam Tellig, and others, might not give a crap. Most of all, I love the fact that there are two sides to any review. I love that balance.

I want to make clear that, in yesterday's blog entry, I intended to criticize a reader whose interest in a product was built upon a cover line: "The World's Most Expensive CD Player." From my conversation with the reader, it became obvious that all he'd actually read was that cover line — not Michael's praises, not JA's disapprovals.

There is a sort of person who will purchase a thing simply because it costs more than any other make, model, or type of that specific thing in existence. Now, I don't really care how a stranger chooses to spend his money — money was invented to be spent — but, man, some choices just seem less practical than others. That's all I meant to say. Sometimes, I know, other things get said along the way, and that's alright, too. Maybe it was a memory talking.

Also: I thought my joke about writing "The World's Most Expensive CD Player" on my forehead was pretty funny.

X