Stephen Mejias

I've worked at Stereophile for eight years, and, in a time when people change jobs as often as they change cars or television sets, eight years is a pretty good stretch. In that time, I've taken part in some exciting and memorable things, from Home">http://www.stereophile.com/news/050205Day4/index.html">Home Entertainment Shows and Consumer">http://www.stereophile.com/news/010905ces3/index.html">Consumer Electronics Shows to the live recording of Attention">http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/907att/index.html">Attention Screen at Merkin Hall. But Stereophile is fifteen years older than me, and I missed so much.

Right about now, I suppose John Atkinson and Wes Phillips are pulling into a rest stop, somewhere off the New York State Thruway. The sky is Sinatra blue and the air whispers secrets of spring. The doors to the Land Cruiser shut with a gentle thud, and the guys stroll into a 7-11 for some black peppered beef jerky, Nacho Cheesier Doritos, and a couple of tall Mountain Dews.

The Stereophile forumhttp://forum.stereophile.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?Cat=0&C=1">forum; has been hot. I don't even know what's happening&#151I'm only the Administrator&#151but two members are really going at it. It's been going on for days. One dude sees things one way, and the other dude sees things in a very different way, and neither wants to meet anywhere near the middle.

Jason Victor Serinus reported">http://stereophile.com/news/031308amex/">reported on it a couple of weeks ago, but in case you still haven't seen that American Express ad featuring hi-fi retailer MusicDirecthttp://www.musicdirect.com/">MusicDirect;, here it is.

Have you guys seen those Vincent">http://www.wsdistributing.com/">Vincent Audio ads? (See page 128 of the April issue, or page 130 of the March issue or, even better, page 183 of the January issue.) I love them all.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/092005knowing/">I knew nothing about high end hi-fi. Hard to believe, I know. But true. I didn't even know that the high end existed. My Magnavox boombox worked just fine. As a person grew older and gained the responsibilities and markings of an adult, I knew that his or her speakers and amplifiers grew larger and flashier and more expensive&#151like their houses and cars and debt&#151but I didn't equate those changes with better sound. I didn't even think about better sound.

Art Dudley reviewed the original Arcam">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/705arcam/index.html">Ar… Solo CD receiver in our July 2005 issue. Art was impressed. He wrote: