You should see Elizabeth right now, in blue sweater and black jeans, hair obscuring her sharp eyes as she preys over hundreds of black & white photocopied pages of equipment reports, columns, and, of course, "Recommended Components."
A contributor to our <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?Cat=">forum</a> has made a fine argument for the case that "the future of high-end audio, if it has one at all, is inexorably linked to video." And he cites my recent discussion of the <a href="http://www.burwenaudio.com/BURWEN_BOBCAT.html">Burwen Bobcat</a> as proof.
You know, because, at first, all I had was the Arcam Solo, and the Arcam Solo does everything. It's a good-looking, easy-to-use, single-box multi-purpose solution; a CD playing, AM/FM receiving, integrated amplifying dreamboat of a component. It does everything I want it to do, does it all very well, and takes up almost no space and draws very little attention to itself while doing it. I love it. If you're interested in a fun and easy, one-stop ride into the high-end, then I think you should definitely get to know the Solo. But, like <a href="http://gpn.unl.edu/rainbow/">Reading Rainbow</a>, you don't have to take my word for it. I can't go assuming authority around here. I may not know audio all that well yet, but I know cool. And the Arcam Solo is cool. Art Dudley, who is way smarter than me about this, and most other stuff, also liked it. <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/705arcam/index.html">He said</a>:
<b>Me:</b> We're gonna go see <a href="http://www.brokebackmountainmovie.com/getflash.html">Brokeback Mountain</a> tonight.<br>
<b>Elizabeth:</b> [Gasp of horror!]<br>
<b>Me:</b> What? What's with the gasp of horror?<br>
<b>Elizabeth:</b> Steel yourself.<br>
<b>Me:</b> Why? Am I gonna cry? I'm not afraid of crying. I cry all the time, anyway.<br>
<b>Elizabeth:</b> No, I don't think you're going to cry. But you might wince. A lot.<br>
<b>Me:</b> Oh.<br>
<img alt="Chatting" src="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsart/RR12.jpg" width="450" height="338" border="0" />
I'm not sure what makes it so special; I'm not sure if it <i>really is</i> as special as Mark Levinson says it is. "This is about life. This is going to bring digital music <i>life</i>."
Mark Levinson has thick, black eyebrows and big, beautiful hands which flutter with energy and something more.
I forgot to mention something else that the Musical Fidelity pieces seem to add to my system's performance: <i>depth</i>.
I guess I lied when I said "More tomorrow." That should teach me something about making promises during "Recommended Components" time. I'm sorry.
I thought I'd really begin where I always begin: with my band's first album. As I've said before, I know this thing better than I know most anything else. From the creation of a song like "50 Bullets" — sitting on my bed and turning a simple four-note riff into a complicated and violent four-minute explosion — to the recording process, marred by uncomfortable, late-night drives from Clifton to New Brunswick where <a href="http://www.versioncity.com/">Jeff Baker</a> fooled around with tape reels and watched lazily as we somehow came up with fourteen tracks that we could only almost perform — drunk on Budweiser and stuffed on fried chicken and tired, so damn tired — I know this thing. I know this amazing and ambitious and awful album better than I know most anything.
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