Stephen Mejias

The September 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. The cover shows an extreme close-up of the Audio Research VSi60 integrated amplifier, highlighting its beautiful tubes. I was very impressed by this amplifier’s looks, as well as what I (perhaps fancifully) perceived to be its contributions to a very fine system at the 2009 SSI, so I was happy to learn we’d be featuring the VSi60 on our cover.

Our original idea was to use the feature shot (on page 53) for the cover, but we decided to go instead with the more dramatic close-up. I think it worked out. We’ve gotten lots of compliments around the office. Girls seem to especially like this one. Always a good thing.

I open the issue with a revision of some thoughts on the value of work (originally posted here on the blog in a popular entry titled, “Thinking About Quality”), and I refer to Matthew Crawford’s excellent book, Shop Class As Soulcraft. I see a direct relationship between craftsmanship—the skilled, thoughtful, and careful act of creating or restoring—and our society’s appreciation and desire for high-quality goods, services, and experiences. As we lose or forget our natural proclivity for taking ownership over a problem or ideal, it becomes easier to settle for items and experiences of lower quality. And because we no longer want or feel compelled to build and restore, we are content to simply buy replacements for those shiny, new devices which are continuously fed along the conveyor belt of consumerism. We buy and buy and buy, replacing our beautiful, timeworn things with always new devices, the lifespans of which rival for brevity that of the housefly: buzzing today, dust tomorrow. All the while missing the point that what we are attempting to buy is a connection with the material world, missing the point that our connection to the material world can be found through pride in work, ownership of ideals, love of family, friends, music, and life. Where is our respect, our love, for the classics? For the enduring fire? For craftsmanship? For quality?

All I’ve ever wanted is something that lasts.

(Ah, but lately, I’ve been grumpy: Television sucks; the government sucks; mainstream media sucks; alternative media sucks; the internet—and especially Facebook—sucks; because there are far better and more efficient ways of communicating, even better ways of building our “personal brands,” I feel that all “social networking” sites, in fact, suck; the Nets suck; the Mets suck; and on and on and on. And so we’re left with family, friends, music, work, and love. And so I say, “Give me more of those good, good things, please.”)

In “Sam’s Space,” Sam Tellig spends quality time with the Manley Labs Stingray II tubed integrated amplifier. (Is it as romantic as Sam?) In “Analog Corner,” Michael Fremer listens to a turntable made of granite, the Audiostone Pythagoras, while in “Listening,” Art Dudley listens to a plinth made of slate. (They’re such rockers.) In “Music in the Round,” Kal Rubinson discusses multichannel music system philosophy and plays with the Krell Evolution 707 Reference surround-sound preamp-processor. In addition to the review of the Audio Research VSi60 integrated amp, we also have reports on Electrocompaniet’s powerful AW400 monoblock, Acapella’s High Violoncello II horn loudspeaker, Cary’s Classic CD 303T SACD/CD player, and Benchmark’s DAC1 HDR D/A headphone amplifier/preamp.

Of course, hi-fi is nothing without music. September’s “Recording of the Month” is Jitterbug from the Norwegian power trio, Bushman’s Revenge. Richard Lehnert falls in love all over again with The Incredible String Band; Robert Baird listens to new releases from Los Lobos and Phosphorescent; and Thomas Conrad enjoys Curtis Fuller’s bold and gutsy I Will Tell Her and Herbie Hancock’s ambitious and beautiful The Imagine Project. And while RB gives us the inside scoop on a new mastering of Miles Davis’s fusion classic, Bitches Brew, John Marks looks back on a special day in the history of jazz with Backstory in Blue, John Fass Morton’s book on the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival gig that reinvigorated Duke Ellington’s career.