As We See It

Four years ago last August, I went to Port Washington, New York, on Long Island, to visit the North Shore Animal League America's (NSALA's) adoption shelter. It was a memorable day: We brought home our beautiful and beloved Ella, aka Ella Wren. But this column is not about puppies. It's about tequila and blind testing.

Earlier this year, I wrote two articles on record cleaning, in particular the ultrasonic kind. Some of the ideas I expressed were good and correct, like the choice of surfactant (Tergitol 15-S-9). Others, like the amount of Tergitol to use, were less well-considered.

In this space in the September 2025 Stereophile—exactly a year ago—I wrote about bicycles. I was researching a bicycle purchase, and the more I read about bikes, the more parallels I saw between bikes and hi-fi, especially economic parallels between that industry and this one.

The July issue is a milestone in Stereophile's history: It's the last issue in which John Atkinson will be performing the measurements for our equipment reviews. As a start toward digesting this momentous event, I asked JA1 some questions.

I wrote in the April 2026 issue of Stereophile that when you clean records in an ultrasonic bath, you need to make some decisions. The first is whether it's necessary to use distilled water or whether tap water is good enough . . . The next decision is, should I use a surfactant?

Two recent Stereophile columns have offered thoughts on record cleaning machines (RCMs). Writing about the Klaudio RCM (above left), Michael Trei noted that the manufacturer says to use just water. No surfactant.

Recently, my good friend Bryan invited himself over for a "critical listening session" at my place. This was out of character. Typically our listening sessions are not of the "critical" variety. They take place late at night after several cocktails, neat bourbon in hand. Volume knobs are torqued. The choice of recorded material tends toward early Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), that one Hank Williams Jr. album that doesn't suck (The Almeria Club Recordings), and one of two Def Leppard albums (Pyromania or (Hysteria).