Stephen Mejias

Comparisons to a young Bob Dylan are inevitable. There’s the same sort of defiance, the odd insouciance, the long lines of poetry squeezed out and hacked out and blown out like kisses, too. The guitar work is very good&#151scintillating at times and always passionately wrought&#151but it’s the voice that gets you. The voice&#151childlike but crotchety as hell, delicate but yearning, beautiful but completely wrong. The voice is what gets you. Kristian Matsson is The Tallest Man On Earth; he plays rock and roll, and plans to be forgotten when he’s gone.

Have you guys seen “Date Night,” the new comedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey? I’m thinking about going to check it out because: 1., Steve Carell is funnyhttp://www.moviemaker.com/images/uploads/steve_carell_40_year_old_virgi…;; 2., Tina Fey is hothttp://thezaz.nationallampoon.com/files/2009/12/tinafey_21313.jpg">hot<…;; 3., Parts of the film are set in my college town of Teaneck, NJ; and, 4., There are scenes featuring a hi-fi made up of Meridian’s DSP7200 Digital Active loudspeakers, Reference 800 DVD player, and G68 surround controller.

There is a pile of boxes in my office. Nothing unusual. Boxes are a fundamental aspect of our lives here at Stereophile, a fundamental aspect of the lives of most audiophiles, I imagine. Inside these boxes, however, there are no amplifiers, no loudspeakers, no turntables. These boxes hold the packaging materials for our Attention Screen release, Live">http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/907att/">Live at Merkin Hall.

A gift from Uncle JA: The DB Systems DBP-10 protractor. This thing has been around since the dawn of time. When Jesus needed a protractor to properly align the Denon DL-103 moving-coil cartridge on his heavily modified Technics SL-1200 turntable, he called up David Hadaway at DB Systems. “Thou shall never sell this kick-ass protractor for more than $49, David,” said Jesus. David, of course, allowed Jesus to keep his sample on “a long-term loan.”

A gift from Uncle Art: Introduced">http://www.stereophile.com/phonocartridges/1207zu/">Introduced in 1962, the Denon DL-103 moving-coil cartridge ($229)&#151a music-lover’s friend, an audiophile classic, a man’s cartridge.

Here we are in Art Dudley’s listening room, preparing to load the Wilson Audio Sasha into the back of John Atkinson’s Land Cruiser. After removing the Sasha’s WATT head unit from its large Puppy woofer cabinet, we carefully tipped the Puppy onto its side, removed the spikes from its bottom plate, installed the dedicated casters in place of those spikes, hoisted the Puppy back into an upright position, and dressed it up in protective Saran-Wrap.

JA struggles while I take a photo: In the back of JA’s Land Cruiser, the Wilson Sasha’s WATT head unit fits perfectly behind its partnering Puppy.