Stephen Mejias

Perhaps the greatest praise anyone can let loose upon any silly piece of audio gear is that it inspires the discovery of new music. Right? Alright then. The Rega P3, in all its ashen splendor, does this for me. So much so that I'm going broke. I feel as though I'm single-handedly (with one hand behind my weary back, that is) revitalizing the record industry. I've spent so much money on new (used) records that I could've purchased my own P3 by now. In fact, I've decided that that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to buy my own P3. I'm in the office now, wishing I was home with the P3. I'm proofreading Michael Fremer's review of the P3-24, which will appear in our July issue, and I'm thinking, I'm going to buy this thing.

I'm happy to say that this terribly grey day has turned suddenly bright and blue. And with sun in our eyes, so that we have to squint a bit, I invite you to join me on a short trip back to January 2003.

Dusting is boring and makes me sneeze, so I had been putting it off. I don't know how many months and months had passed. It had been awhile. In fact, to an outside observer, it might have appeared as though I was trying to determine just how much dust I could collect on my bookcases. It was even starting to bother me. My bookcases no longer boasted their cheap cherry shine, but had taken on a soft, sickly grey. This weekend, I figured it was time.

If you visit our">http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1646">our Gallery, you'll see that Christian bought an LP. Vinyl, that is. Funny thing about that: Christian doesn't own a record player.

Dear Readers,

I admit it. When Jerry commented to last">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/041408really/">last week's entry, saying that vinyl wears out with every single trip around the platter, it kind of shook me up. My heart raced and blood rushed to my head. I began to sweat. What had I done? What was I getting into? How would I afford this? Had I stepped into AlexO's bottomless pit?

A couple of nights ago, I got this big idea that I'd go shopping for some picture disc vinyl to go along with the component we'll be featuring on our July cover. (Hint: It's not a speaker.) You know, I was thinking it'd be no problem to find Jimi Hendrix all lit up in a purple haze or, better yet, some new indie band dressed in skinny jeans and moccasins being chased by a puma, or something. But I discovered that new picture disc vinyl isn't all that easy to come by. Surprisingly, I found that today's picture discs come from three main sources:

To cheer myself up after the picture disc disappointment, I went ahead and bought Attack & Release by The">http://www.theblackkeys.com/">The Black Keys and Trouble In Dreams by Destroyerhttp://www.myspace.com/destroyer">Destroyer;. Of course, I couldn't buy only two albums. Two is an even number, you see. So, I also picked up Light">http://www.lightintheattic.net/">Light in the Attic's beautiful Betty Davis reissue.