Stephen Mejias

In 1962, J. Gordon Holt started a magazine based on the simple, beautiful idea that the quality of an audio component should be measured, first and foremost, by how it sounds. That magazine, of course, was Stereophile.

The August 2009 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. See that spiffy-looking integrated amplifier/USB DAC thingamajig on the cover? That's the Peachtree Nova. When I was at Stereo">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/david_solomon_and_the_peachtr… Exchange a couple of months ago, Novas were just flying off the shelves. Old guys were digging them, young guys were digging them, and girls were digging them, too. Everyone wanted one. Can't blame 'em, really. The Nova offers a lot in a tidy, attractive package. Look at that styling, all retro-modern Eames with its high profile and its real-wood veneer wrapping round those perfect curves!

I like to stop by The">http://theneedledrop.blogspot.com/">The Needle Drop, where usual dude, Anthony Fantano, offers his interesting, thoughtful, and often very funny takes on new music and music technology. Check it out.

I've realized why the opening few moments of Tom Abbs & Frequency Response's "Lost" make me want to just stop and cry. I find those moments so painfully beautiful because they remind me of my grandmother (my mother's mother) singing to me when I was a child. At first, I thought it was "You Are My Sunshine," but now I realize that it's "All the Pretty Horses." Listening again, I wish now I had someone to sing it to, someone to play it for.

The success of any party depends on just a few things: the venue, the guests, the food and drink, and (of course) the music. Evenings at John DeVore's factory at the Brooklyn">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/111806wander/">Brooklyn Navy Yard are invariably successful. More than that, they are fun. You love the place. You enjoy the company. The food is delicious and the drinks do the trick. And (of course) the music is intoxicating. You want to be there.

Special surprise guest at a recent Monkeyhaus: Blackman. Photo by Michael Lavorgna. (The camera had been drinking.)

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