From left to right: Selfdivider, AlexO, Jules Coleman, JackCrank, and Jeff Wong. Friday, February 29, 2008, at In Living Stereo.
It was a simple suggestion, innocent and kind and simple. Forum member Selfdivider had expressed an interest in vinyl, so Jeff Wong proposed a night out. A few of us would get together to visit some of the city's hi-fi dealers, listen to a couple of turntables, who knows, maybe even have a few beers. Not only would it be informative and useful for a beginner audiophile like Selfdivider, it would be a great opportunity for some of the forum members to finally meet one another. Everyone agreed: It would have to be done.
Jeff Wong set the stage:
We should put together a list of places to check out gear and some watering holes. Depending on how many places have analog gear you want to hear and a guess as to how long each demo might take will help us construct the day. Too many products shouldn't be auditioned—this could lead to fatigue and confusion. While it would be informative to listen to top end turntables, the best use of time would be to check out ones within your actual budget. It might even be best to pick one salon and listen to three pieces of gear extensively (provided they stock different turntables), then let the imbibing begin.... The shops that pop into mind in order of uptown to downtown are Lyric, Innovative, Park Avenue Audio, Sound By Singer, and that place across from where Tower used to be (I'm partial to checking this place out in particular—I've heard nice things about it, plus, I once saw John DeVore hanging outside it making a phone call, how bad can it be?) I'm also partial to the cask conditioned ales at DBA on 1st Avenue....
Like most red-blooded American audiophiles, John DeVore, loves vinyl and he especially loves beer. You can't whisper the words
vinyl and
beer without John DeVore getting involved. Put them in the same sentence, and you're probably sitting in
his listening room. He rushed aboard with a helping hand:
I think a good surgical strike operation is best, notifying the store in advance and getting in a good few quality minutes on one or two prearranged 'tables per stop. Good cheer all around, and no retail stress.... A pit-stop for a fresh brew between each target will keep the gears well lubed, too. The area down there is rich with good watering holes, including DBA.
The plan was in motion. Selfdivider emphasized that his interest was in lower-to-mid-priced 'tables. He'd want to listen to Rega, VPI, and Pro-Ject. He'd bring a few of his favorite LPs. Originally, we decided on February 22 as our date, but a snow storm forced us to postpone. A week later, the forecast would be better, but not much. As luck would have it, we wound up meeting at Steven Mishoe's In Living Stereo—that place across from where Tower used to be. However, Selfdivider's wish to audition a few affordable 'tables would not pan out. It wasn't until we were leaving the shop that someone stopped to ask, "So, did that help?"
With a huge smile and gleaming eyes, Selfdivider looked up and laughed. He motioned down to the ground and said, "Yeah! I realized I'm
way down here," and raising his arm high into the air, he continued, "And I need to get
waaaaaay up here before I achieve what I'm looking for. I'm ruined!"
At In Living Stereo, you see, we didn't listen to any of the turntables on Selfdivider's shortlist. Instead, we listened to a system that most people can only dream about, an exit-level system rather than an entry-level system. When I arrived, I was greeted by
Tone Imports' Jonathan Halpern who gave me the run-down:
Shindo Laboratory's drop-dead gorgeous Garrard 301 Player System with Shindo tonearm and cartridge
Shindo Masseto preamp with built-in phono stage
Shindo Corton-Charlemagne 80 monoblock power amplifiers
Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer
Sentec EQ10 mono phono preamp with several hundred EQ curves
EMT OFD25i mono cartridge
EMT OFD65i 78 cartridge
Shindo and Auditorium 23 cables
And, finally, a pair of big, beautiful
DeVore Fidelity Silverback loudspeakers
It sounded stunning. I don't even want to get into it. It's kind of stupid to talk about how good it sounded, but it didn't sound good enough to convince forum member AlexO that he should consider adding vinyl to his interests.
"Do you have a turntable?" I asked Alex.
"No," he replied plainly. "A turntable's a bottomless pit."
He was referring, I think, to the time and effort and money necessary in set-up and potential upgrades. I can see his point. A turntable and its associated parts can be "a bottomless pit." Unless, of course, you enjoy those things. Then, as someone else said, it's "a bottomless pit of happiness!"
Truth is we didn't do much serious listening at all. We were too busy enjoying our many conversations. Later that night, we were sitting around a couple of tables at DBA, enjoying some hand-pulled ale. Have you ever had Victory's Hop Wallop? It's delicious—robust and exciting, slightly sweet, and as hoppy as the name suggests. Mingus was seeping out of some bad Bose speakers and getting lost in the air and chatter. Michael Lavorgna was sitting in front of me, with his hands around his pint glass. Awhile earlier, I had told him about
an idea. It's just an idea. I want to know where audiophiles come from. John DeVore was at one corner of the table, sitting between Selfdivider and AlexO. Steve Mishoe and
Alex Halberstadt were at the other corner. Steve mentioned that he wanted to get away from the city, the noise, the smells. He'd be moving to Pennsylvania. Someone asked, "What's in Pennsylvania?" "
What's in Pennsylvania?! Fucking love and shit, man." Jeff Wong was at my left. He put his arm around me and squeezed my right shoulder. It made me feel good. Andrew Klein was across from Jeff, just sitting there enjoying his good cognac, with that smile on his face. Jonathan Halpern was to my right. We had been talking about music and gear, listening and forgetting.
"People worry too much about what's 'right,'" he said. "You put a step-up transformer in front of a cartridge, it always sounds better. People say that's the wrong thing to do, you're corrupting the signal path, whatever. So what?
It sounds better. It may be colored. I don't care. Does it sound like music? If it does, then it's right."
I nodded.
"We spend so much time thinking about gear," Jonathan continued. "It's only right," he smiled, "when you forget about the gear."
"
It's only right when you forget about the gear," I repeated. "I'll have to remember that."
Behind us, at the bar, several young women had their heels propped up against the brass foot rests of the old bar stools. Outside, it was just beginning to snow.
