Stephen Mejias

There is a pile of boxes in my office. Nothing unusual. Boxes are a fundamental aspect of our lives here at <i>Stereophile</i>, a fundamental aspect of the lives of most audiophiles, I imagine. Inside these boxes, however, there are no amplifiers, no loudspeakers, no turntables. These boxes hold the packaging materials for our Attention Screen release, <i><a href="http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/907att/">Live at Merkin Hall</a></i>.

<i>Photo: Karyn Haag</i>

A gift from Uncle JA: The DB Systems DBP-10 protractor. This thing has been around since the dawn of time. When Jesus needed a protractor to properly align the Denon DL-103 moving-coil cartridge on his heavily modified Technics SL-1200 turntable, he called up David Hadaway at DB Systems. “Thou shall never sell this kick-ass protractor for more than $49, David,” said Jesus. David, of course, allowed Jesus to keep his sample on “a long-term loan.”

<i> Two Wilson Sasha Puppies and two Wilson Sasha WATTs, wrapped up and nestled into a Land Cruiser, ready for the long drive from Art Dudley’s Cherry Valley farm to John Atkinson’s Bay Ridge castle.</i>

Here we are in Art Dudley’s listening room, preparing to load the Wilson Audio Sasha into the back of John Atkinson’s Land Cruiser. After removing the Sasha’s WATT head unit from its large Puppy woofer cabinet, we carefully tipped the Puppy onto its side, removed the spikes from its bottom plate, installed the dedicated casters in place of those spikes, hoisted the Puppy back into an upright position, and dressed it up in protective Saran-Wrap.

One of my favorite moments of SSI 2010 came during Saturday afternoon's outstanding "<a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2010/roast_the_editors/">Ask the Editors</a>" session, when a member of the audience asked the panel about <I>audio nirvana</I>. What components or systems, if any, had helped us achieve that elusive, mythical state when everything is perfect and right? I sat up straight in my seat and buried my fingernails into the palms of my hands, anxious to offer a response. When my turn to answer came, I stuttered, overwhelmed by the moment, but I think I said enough to communicate the idea that audio nirvana is a fleeting target, one that depends more on the listener's mood and ability to be <I>moved</I> and less on the system or individual components within any particular system.

montreal is:<br>
two spiral staircases