LATEST ADDITIONS

But first a confession: I'm not the hip young man you might like me to be (or the one I might like me to be). I'm actually sort of old-fashioned. While my taste in music is nearly as uninhibited and adventurous as that of anyone I know, I prefer to enjoy that music in ways far more restrained and much less modern. I think I would have been right at home in the 1950s, wearing Ray-Bans and Levi's, listening to (and loving, equally and deeply) the music of both Jack Scott and John Cage, and playing my records on a record player.

I heard from Kelli recently. She said something about moving all of her music into the clouds.

"Huh?"

"Cloud music," she said.

Just a year and a half ago I walked into the CanJam area of RMAF, and right smack-dab in the middle was Fang Bian, head of Head Direct and the HiFiMAN brand of headphone gadgetry. Fang always has something new going on; I wondered what it would be this time. He smiled, stood, and cheerfully greeted me, then pointed towards center-stage on one of his tables.

"Would you like to hear my new planar magnetic headphones?"

You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought.

“I can still play the speakers,” he said with a straight face.

I thought for a moment that he would employ some powerful new wireless technology; Joseph was an early proponent for computer-based audio.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. What would you like to hear?”

He covered his face with the press release for his lovely Pulsar ($7000/pair) and began to sing.

I can’t remember what song we listened to, but it really was like hearing live music. There was almost nothing separating us from the song.