The Week I Became an Audiophile

THE WEEK I BECAME AN

AUDIOPHILE BROUGHT TO YOU BY GRAMOPHONE

DAY 1 INTRODUCTION It doesn't take special ears to become an audiophile... just perhaps some doctor's orders to listen to music. Join our marketing associate Jo for a week of product testing and reflection on what the word "audiophile" truly means.

TUESDAY, 3/3/15, ENTRY 1 At this current moment I sit in the Timonium

store, specifically in a black leather BDI recliner, listening to Led Zeppelin from Totem Metal Speakers. Instead of a 16” Mac screen I stare at a tiny black notebook covered in WTMD stickers as I write. The sales guys and coworkers of mine take care of me by changing playlists and dimming lights. Bruce introduced me earlier to a fabulous massage chair we have on the floor in aim of helping my neck… but that’s another story.

audiophile [aw-dee-uh-fahyl]

noun 1. a person who is especially interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction.

2. someone with chronic migraines who has no other choice for the sake of her career but to be interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction. No complaints.

Check out more fun terms at www.gramophone.com/glossary.

I’m doing all of this and getting such undeserved special treatment due to the fact that I’ve been suffering migraines (the first, and worst I’ve ever had) since Saturday morning… so, for four days straight now. I was badly rear-ended in a 4 car accident on York Road two Fridays ago, and my doctors guess my migraines are due to neck pain and muscle damage. Her advice?

“Stay away from LED screens.” (I’m our marketing associate and resident graphic designer -- so that’s impossible.) “If you can’t, I might have to pull you out of work.”

Uh-oh, I think to myself as a weird twisted grin plays upon my lips. I’ve been at Gramophone only three months now, exactly. I have work to do. No way I’m missing out.

Eventually she continues to suggest activities. “You could read. But still, your eyes are straining… just find something calming to do. Listen to the radio.”

What a novel idea.

I am an easily distracted person. If I watch a movie, and am not cuddling with my boyfriend and our dog, I am also texting, completing crosswords on my phone, and/or shopping on my laptop with old gift cards. If I’m listening to music, I am playing rummy, or chess, or painting (what else do young hip 25-year-old’s do?). I am a visual person - so even though I love music, and work a hallway down from hundreds of pieces of high-end listening equipment, “listen to the radio” is a challenging command.

I am one to hate doctor’s orders, usually, especially if they include a large amount of rest and inactivity. Luckily Gramophone is the most convenient place I could’ve ended up at to heal my poor concussed brain.

ON LISTENING TUESDAY, 3/3/15, ENTRY 2 The rock playlist keeps looping.

Luckily Bruce is able to help me change my listening selection with the convenient Meridian Sooloos by my side. Now Chopin plays as I relax and write. Luckily a bit of graphic design and copywriting can be done on paper, and my marketing supervisor is very sympathetic to my situation, but I find it difficult to just sit and listen. Perhaps the pain is a blessing this way.

I admire the audiophile. My genetics have granted me a good ear for music, but not for sound. I can’t discern a good speaker from a bad speaker… or a worse from a better, should I say. I can’t tell how vinyl sounds different from digital hifi streaming. Hopefully this week I can try to do so - to hear nuances instead of notes, timbre and depth of waves instead of flat pitches and rumbling volume. To do this, I’m sure, is either a genuine gift, or an amply studied and perfected art.

Listening is more than being immersed in sound - it changes noise into voices, lyrics into meaning, music into emotion. As someone so mentally scattered and anxious, my listening skills are not up to audiophile standard. So today, I practice listening, mindful awareness, closing my eyes and hearing which sounds bounce where, what is and is not pleasant to me, which speakers dictate which genres best. I’m excited for this deviation from my routine of graphics and web edits to further studying the art that keeps Gramophone in business.

Stay tuned.

TUESDAY, 3/3/15, ENTRY 3 My boyfriend has a TURNTABLE.

Don’t ask me what kind it is because I haven’t a clue. When I first listened to this record player I was put off when the music stopped after about 20 minutes. Dennis put down his hand of rummy. “It stopped,” I observantly say.

“I have to flip it,” Dennis replied.

“Really?” I asked. “Already?”

“Yup.” “Oh.” I sat silently, watching him flip the aforementioned record.

Riveting conversation, I know, but perhaps a decent illustration of how foreign this was to me. I was surprised. How did people live with these? Would classy 1940s New York denizens be in the middle of impressing their party guests / prospective clients / love interests / monopolistic tycoons when all of a sudden, scratch -- music goes silent.

I imagine everyone staring concernedly about the room, the host adjusting his collar, “Uh, lemme get that.”

ON VINYL AND LISTENING STYLES FUN FACTS ABOUT

VINYL

The first 12 inch recording was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

One of the most expensive records ever sold was by the Velvet Underground. it cost $25,000.

There is a difference in sound between colored and black vinyl.

I must be spoiled.

I like hitting buttons to skip tracks through a playlist of hours to resume my passive listening experience, and have that be the only interaction with my audio equipment. Today on the drive to work, I didn’t even realize my radio was on until halfway through my drive. Is this what musicians intended - to have their creations fade into the auditory background of our lives? Or to have whole, composed albums pulled apart and divvied based on popularity of single songs instead of how they contribute to a larger piece of art?

For sure that record player made me realize that there was a new, uninvited emptiness through Dennis’s tiny dining room; something no longer adorned the red walls and the dim lights and our dog’s snoring suddenly became very noticeable. Then the appeal of such old-fashioned audio hit me. It emulates the age-old adage, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” Sure, I can do a bunch of research (eventually!) on differences between the sound quality of vinyl and digital audio, but a big, non-technical aspect of the allure seems to be the interactivity and appreciation for the fleeting art that is music.

Bluetooth streaming is convenient, as are internet radio, etc, and I love having my own background music to follow me wherever I go. I love the songs that play, the moods they bring, the ease of pushing play and letting go for hours. But the experience is one, and I am still learning.

JO’S SONG RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

TOTEM SPEAKERS “O,” Coldplay

TOTEM

“Shiver,” Coldplay

TUESDAY, 3/3/15, ENTRY 4

“We Never Change,” Coldplay

Ever get that feeling that your speakers are too

“Boy With A Coin,” Iron & Wine “Walking Far From Home,” Iron & Wine Anything Chopin Soft, warm music

loud, but not quite loud enough? For example, you’re listening to your favorite song that is introduced with a fabulous buildup of chords and notes and instruments that you want to swim in, but you find yourself cringing in anticipation of the climax because it seems to reach out and claw your eardrums every time you play it?

Well,

Totem Element Metal Speakers don’t do that.

Let me explain, as I sit here in my cozy audio room on the Gramophone sales floor. I am a Coldplay fan - not new age hyper-digital fad-following duets with Rihanna Coldplay (the only “new” song of theirs I like is the minimalistically entitled “O”), but acoustic guitar and piano Coldplay. Therefore, Parachutes, their debut album, is my favorite.

The second song on this album, “Shiver,” includes one of these musical introductions I just alluded to. It’s a quiet build-up that lasts a little while before it crests into a fun smash of guitar and the song’s melody. I just turned the volume up, and instantly regret it once this song comes on. Lazily I wince and take a deep breath, expecting to have to leap top lower the volume again at the drop of a hat, as all speakers before these have caused me to do the same.

Then CRASH -- as I expected -- without the singe. What just happened? I’m not leaping. I’m still relaxed. This crescendo has led me to the pleasure of a breaking wave, not a screech of tires.

The song continues and I look ahead of me in awe. I knew I loved Totem Speakers already since the night I came to Gramophone’s fall vendor demo and was introduced. However, I knew not their potential to take such intimidating change in volume and sound and tame them into beautifully tamped submission. I swear, Totem could take the sound of heavy, shatter-

ON MUSICAL EMOTION

TUESDAY, 3/3/15, ENTRY 5 Marilyn Monroe stares down the wall

at Audrey Hepburn (Holly GoLightly, in this case), both with chins in palms, black and white.

I find myself on that lovely edge between complete relaxation and fatigue while listening to Iron & Wine’s hushed voice.

My neck hurts and my ears burn but it doesn’t matter much at the moment. Something about the music draws me in. I feel hugged in a giant blanket.

I think I’m falling into the nirvana via comparison to my environment 20 minutes ago. I went up to my office to type up what I’ve been writing. 15 minutes of looking at a screen and I found the right side of my head pounding again. I think I’ve claimed the Totem room as my sanctuary for now - all I need is my own Keurig and a sun lamp and I’m set.

There are long breaks between paragraphs as I soak in noises around me. I take moments to stare at the symmetrical, black castle of PSB, Totem and McIntosh product in front of me, as if Samuel Beam is hiding within it all, a miniature performer to serenade me.* It’s amazing, the different not in just what I hear, but how I feel. I’ve listened to these soft bluegrass tones before, but always from my iPhone and a bowl or dry bathroom sink as an amplifier. I would classify this primitive sound as a wall, or an orb of music, small, untouchable, a nice backdrop or outsider to my activities, looking at me.

However, in this room, I feel fuzzy, warm, hugged by sound. It is a piece of me, just as my hurting brain in my skull is a piece of me. "Boy With A Coin" turns on, and deep, undulating, war-drum-like beats vibrate the room so gently like the resistance of fingers against my pulse, as if someone from the outside approaches from the speakers. It is ethereal how all of a sudden the fatigue of my migraines and neck pain clears so much room in my head to invite evolved sound as if it’s an old friend forgotten. I missed feeling this way.

*On that note, as I recommended in my last post, I invite everyone to visit our showroom and listen to one of Iron & Wine’s crazier songs, Walking Far From Home, on our Totem Speakers, and tell me you don’t hear about 20 different instruments in the duration, clearly picked apart and yet symbiotic.

WEDNESDAY, 3/4/15, ENTRY 6 Back in the Totem Room. Sales guys are

DAY 2 ON MUSICAL TASTE

busy running around getting ready for a training session so I’m not going to bother them at the moment trying to set up elsewhere.

I woke up again last night with 2 migraines one at 3 AM, and the next at 6:30. I spent so much time away from screens yesterday… who can say it’s helping, given those results.

Fortunately the massage I had relieved a lot of tension in my neck for better flexibility and pain relief, at least.

Pretty sure Allison Krauss or someone similar is singing this version of “Down to the River to Pray,” a song I recognize only from O Brother Where Art Thou (a great movie if you haven’t seen it.) Now something ska and kind of jazzy plays… no clue what that is. Oboe, bongo-like drums, plucked bass guitar, a female voice I could best describe as generic. The beat’s kind of boring.

How can I judge music, even when it comes from the best sound systems ever. It’s like being handed the best car on the market, the one you’ve dreamed of owning since you were a kid, with a moonroof and heated leather seats and fast transmission and OnStar or whatever the kids are into these days… But it’s a gross, matte mustard color.

Eww. I guess that’s where taste comes into play.

No matter how one can delve into the structure of sound and its quality, one’s still gonna like violin over electric guitar. Opinions will still be formed.

Luckily we can easily change whatever comes from our speakers. Some days I’m tempted to come in here and play sleepy, meditative tracks of crickets and dark train whistles. Good thing I can play anything in this room!

And now Soolos takes the liberty of playing freeform jazz. Surprisingly, I don’t want to change it.

MCINTOSH WEDNESDAY, 3/4/15, ENTRY 7 Miles just helped me switch over to our

McIntosh XR50 Speakers. What powerful sound.

I currently listen to Lana del Rey’s “Young & Beautiful.” It’s a poignant song with heavy timpani and strings, and Lana’s pouty voice just floats through past it all with a mere push of her lips.

These speakers are revealing so many sounds I hadn’t heard in this song before, specifically the strings in the bridge I’m now hearing. This is the sound that pulls empathy from me, that reaps emotion from my heart.

I almost skipped playing this track because I’ve heard it so many times before (specifically on repeat in the summer of 2013 on my bedroom carpet and a sleeping pad when I first moved into my barren Towson condo) -- I’m so glad I didn’t.

I’m finding that high-end speakers strain the mud out of music. Sure, you can go get cheaper speakers that are super loud with great bass that are awesome just because they don’t crackle as they shake your tchotchkes and rattle your stainless steel kitchen appliances, but do they reveal as well as scream?

What I am really addressing with my cryptic ranting and questions is quality versus quantity. So far, these McIntosh speakers are blowing my mind because they are meticulously debuting sound where it’s meant to be, and its balance in reference to other pieces of the music. They hide nothing - and Lana del Rey sounds so different here than from my earbuds or car stereo. Turn the volume up and I lose nothing.

If you don’t believe me,

come in and visit us! If you’re looking for speakers there’s no better way to try them out than to chill in one of our listening rooms for ten minutes and listen to a few different tracks. There are obviously different speakers for everyone - and we’ve got a ton of them here for your listening pleasure.

JO’S SONG RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

MCINTOSH SPEAKERS “Young & Beautiful,” Lana del Rey “Video Games,” Lana del Rey “Elastic Heart,” Sia “Road to Perdition,” Thomas Newman

Anything powerful and orchestraL: think drama or action movie soundtracks

MCINTOSH VS. TOTEM So, now that I’ve raved about Totem Speakers in a few posts, let’s compare.

Note: I am not implying in this comparison that one is better than the other, and that my opinions are

not subjective and very, very anthropomorphic.

Totem speakers are literal in that they, well, “speak,” in the words of Vince Brucceze, Totem Founder.

They draw you in subtly, address you specifically, caress your ears as if you’re the only one who exists to them. They lead you to a world of soft introspection, nestle you comfortably in your brain because of how well they articulate and relax sound. I would say they’re ideal for softer sounds like jazz, guitar, grand piano, music that is crafted to soothe and make you think.

Meanwhile, McIntosh wants to envelope you in a way that makes you forget where you are. Your brain’s gone - they grab you by the shoulders and say “hey, listen, this sound is huge.” Music that plays from them becomes transcendental - it lifts you from the floor into a different place completely with its strength and definition of all its parts. Probably better for heavier music, orchestrated and multifaceted pieces, and for those who want to disappear into what the music makes them feel.

A recap, as I know I speak rather romantically:

MCINTOSH

TOTEM

INTROSPECTIVE MINDFUL FEMININE PERSONAL CLASSIC

STRONG TRANSCENDENTAL MASCULINE POWERFUL TRANSFORMATIVE

Let me state again that as a budding audiophile, these are my opinions. I am romantic, figurative,

and imaginative, so I understand these first impressions will vary from person to person. I also know that if I listen to every single genre out there and a multitude of songs on either of these systems, my opinions could very well evolve.

PSB

WEDNESDAY, 3/4/15, ENTRY 8 With my newfound amount of time

away from the computer, I took the opportunity to sojourn to our showroom in Columbia. I sit in a listening room decked out with an impressive variety of speakers, including those by Bowers & Wilkins, Totem, Meridian, and PSB. Right now I have Muse playing both from my

PSB Imagine T3 Speakers

front and my left: and Bowers & Wilkins CM10s, respectively.

WIth a quick swivel of my chair I can completely switch which sound I’m listening to. It’s cool how two different brands of speakers can work in tandem like this-- I guess, due to the fact that they are competitors, I would think of them as mutually exclusive experiences. On that note, the way the speakers are currently set up, Bowers & Wilkins C10’s seem to control second-tier sounds, while PSB seems to be the star of the show controlling melodies and stronger riffs, so this entry will focus on them.

PSB has a quick, clear sharpness to it. Muse’s funky beats have no delay, nor do their oddly juxtaposed strings and staccato piano lose any momentum. The deeper sound of vocals hovers slightly above everything else I hear, the leader of the pack until it’s strategically drowned in ample chorus, screaming sopranos. The definition is impeccable - but realizing I’m short on time, I get up to switch artists for comparison.

I really want to find Thomas Newman to play next, but to no avail.

I settle for Explosions in the Sky after lazily browsing Soolos, and so far I’m not disappointed.

Unfortunately I have the speakers too loud and am not sure how to turn them down, as an array of knobs and lights overwhelms my view. Therefore sounds like distorted guitar seem a bit too much and not handled properly - but I feel like this would be solved if I knew how to control the volume (and if I were a bigger fan of distorted guitar). Otherwise, the PSB speakers have awesome left to right dispersion, and there is great dimension between single, plucked notes of guitar and other instruments. Even the rattle of tambourines is clearly distinguished.

JO’S SONG RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

PSB SPEAKERS “Survival,” Muse

“The Birth and Death of the Day,” Explosions in the Sky Rock Instrumentals or songs that exhibit clearly defined notes & melodies

TOTEM, MCINTOSH, & PSB Now I’ve written that Totem speakers seem to softly approach you, while McIntosh lifts you off the ground. PSB on the other hand makes you feel like you’re at an awesome live concert that plays separately from you, but isn’t muddled behind ear plugs or too much amplification. The control and movement of volume is impeccable, and you can hear the music moving toward and away from you as if it is, in fact, live.

And then, surprisingly, a song with light piano begins to play, and PSB handles that just as well. Before I can fully gather this performance it’s 3:40 and I should head back to Timonium in awesome rainy traffic.

“I don’t know, I just...I love records. I mean, they’re not for everyone… you really have to take care of vinyl. It’s very delicate. It can get wrecked so easily.

You really have to love it. Do you hear how full it sounds?

Now, what you want to buy is a thicker record. They’re more stable. The grooves in them are sort of deeper and wider.

You get more detail.”

- Penny, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

DAY 2

ON VINYL, ParT 2 THURSDAY, 3/5/15, ENTRY 9 Crosley is the brand of record player

that Dennis has. Still know nothing else about it, but I currently listen to Broken Social Scene while Matilda the dog loudly chews her elk antler next to me.

Today is a snow day, therefore a stay-at-home-and-work-as-you-are-able day, that so far has begun with two migraines and a subsequent nap. Unfortunately said nap led to fun neck soreness and potentially another migraine. Is this what life has become?

As I monitor my fun situation while eating blackberries, I take the chance to review the sound of a record player instead of our in-store speakers. Unfortunately my headache is a bit too bad to really focus, and if I could, I’m not sure how eloquently I could describe what I’m hearing.

“Oh… there’s a box, in that corner, playing music.” Oh, okay, that makes sense.

What fascinates me most, actually, is just how in the world a record player works. How does a little needle on a cartridge translate grooves into music?

I would normally ask one of our resourceful salesmen such a question, but seeing as how I am nowhere near the store (and perhaps neither are they), a google search will have to do.

Perhaps I will sympathize with Penny one day.

ON TURNTABLES

THURSDAY, 3/5/15, ENTRY 10 As Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” plays now, I research the

origins of the record player. Something I didn’t know is that Thomas Edison started it all with the invention of something called the phonograph (which is not the similarly named gramophone). Edison basically realized that sound, physically, was waves of movement across a medium, in most cases air. By enabling these same waves to move across a more tangible medium, he discovered that sound could in fact be recorded.

The phonograph was to do just this. Edison developed a device that included a cylinder wrapped in tin foil, which would revolve upon use of a hand crank. On one end of this cylinder was a needle attached to a diaphragm that would vibrate against the foil upon the force of sound waves into the opposite end of the cylinder, therefore etching the sound waves and recording them. The phonograph would work in reverse after the original etching was done, and would reproduce the sound upon an opposite turn of the crank through an amplifier, in this case a large horn. Voila: the record player was (eventually) born, but not from Edison, who abandoned the phonograph after it was deemed difficult to use and impractical by the general public.

Noting the faults of the phonograph, as well as the inconvenient fragility of tin foil, German inventor Emile Berliner modified the phonograph to, instead of revolving a cylinder, rotate a flat horizontal plate topped with hard rubber. Seeing that this newly invented device could not record music but could only play it, Berliner umpedon the opportunity to start The Gramophone Company, which would for awhile become the sole distributor of the machines, as well as records.

Records were created by The Gramophone Company after an original recording of music was perfected to be duplicated en masse. Electric signals from this “master recording” would be etched onto a single round of vinyl, before it was then casted. The resulting cast would be hydraulically pressed onto records, which were first softened by steam before being stamped, then solidified again with cold water.

I’ll wrap up so I don’t bore you, but there is the basic gist: The grooves of a record vibrate against a needle when played, vibrations which flow through the cartridge and arm to an amplifier, where they are magnified into sound, and therefore our favorite music.

A TIMELINE OF THE TURNTABLE 1877: The phonograph, an instrument designed to record and play music by turn of a hand crank, is introduced by Thomas Edison 1887: Emile Berliner invents the record after introducing the gramophone, a user-friendly alternative to the phonograph 1893: The United States Gramophone Company of Washington D.C. is founded by Berliner 1896: The National Gramophone Company is founded in New York 1939: A new compound, vinyl, is born to give greater flexibility to records and reduce the likelihood of breakages of records shipped to overseas POW camps to keep up prisoner morale during World War II

DAY 4

BOWERS & WILKINS MONDAY, 3/9/15, ENTRY 11 I had a good weekend I suppose. My migraines are ebbing, fortunately… yesterday I woke up com-

pletely migraine-free, no pain whatsoever. It’s amazing how good it feels to all of a sudden wake up without pain for the first time in three weeks. I guess I take my health for granted.

So you can imagine my dismay when I woke up with a pretty bad migraine this morning. Ugh. I took it easy this weekend too like the doctor said - stayed away from screens, rested a lot, etc. Dennis and I had fun listening to records and taking turns choosing albums by artists from Rodrigo & Gabriela, to the Beatles, to Interpol. Yesterday was finally warm enough to walk around after brunch in Hampden… so obviously I’m a tad bummed today.

However, I’m okay enough to be at work. The headache has diminished into a minor nuisance, as if I overslept or am dehydrated or just sneezed really hard. Up until this moment I’ve been on the computer, but as a precaution am taking time to wrap up this blog series with a Bowers & Wilkins listening session.

One thing about Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Series Speakers that I have to comment on is

their beauty. They look very organic with sloping lines and shining spheres, and I love the combination of classic, turn-of-the-century cherrywood grain and futuristic, smooth shapes of the tweeters.

I was in the mood for something soft today, and wasn’t feeling ridiculously creative, so opted to listen to a band I hear often: Bon Iver. They have a lot of acoustic, wintry songs with dramatic build-ups and roughened voices (or, at the least, those songs of theirs are my favorites.)

But I’m already halfway through their album For Emma, Forever Ago and their sounds haven’t varied enough to really give me a good idea of Bowers & Wilkins’ qualities, beyond the discovery that they handle Bon Iver’s softer sounds with the utmost grace and fragility, as if the sound is a baby bird held carefully in their hands. They don’t miss a detail; nothing fades no matter how small these sounds are. For instance, I would characterize this album as “staticky,” in that there are many little bits of sound that kind of hover in the background of the music, almost like pieces of dust floating throughout. But this static, from guitar plucks, to coughs and breaths, to randomly hit drums, is articulated perfectly.

I get up to try a different type of music altogether by one of my favorite classical artists, Sergei Rachmaninov, a composer who, in my opinion, treats every one of his compositions as a work of art meant not just for entertainment, but for the sake of creativity itself. Currently I listen to his Adagio for Strings Op. II, a work that may seem familiar if you listen to it. Again, every characteristic of sound is accounted for, and as the song eventually switches to Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin (who was a big influence for Rachmaninov, I found out), I feel like I am at a concert piano performance back in the early 1900s. Even the most staccato, forceful hits of piano keys don’t shout at me; instead my brain invites them to paint a picture in my head.

So when it comes to summarizing my experience with Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Speakers, I am slightly vexed. They produce great, classic sound. My only critique would be that I felt the depth of their sound seemed restricted (again, that feeling that I was listening to a “wall” of music), but who knows what repositioning of speakers and higher volume would fix. Overall this would be a great investment for multiple music lovers.

JO’S SONG RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

B&W SPEAKERS “The Wolves Part II,” Bon Iver “Creature Fear,” Bon Iver

“Adagio for Strings Op. II,” Rachmaninov “Rhapsody in Blue,” George Gershwin

REFLECTIONS MONDAY, 3/9/15, ENTRY 12 "There is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave;

It’s difficult to wrap up this chain of posts I’ve been writing, mainly because I’m not sure how to. I’m healthy enough now to look at computer screens again, but I have a feeling I’ll be nostalgic for the focus and relaxation that purely listening to music brought me.

Every listening experience is different. I know if I were to go home and listen to Pandora on my phone, it won’t grant me the same satisfaction as our listening rooms have. It was amazing to be introduced to the sonic intricacies of music through either hi-fi speakers or the maintenance of a turntable. I feel that before this week I was stuck in the Allegory of the Cave by Plato, in that I was once okay with my ignorance of sound quality and now would hate to experience audio without it. (Give it a read here… wonderful philosophical reading if you’re into it.)

Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.” ― William Cowper,

The Winter Walk at Noon

On the flip side I’m glad to have discovered audiophilia… the love of, well, audio. Obviously I’m not going to learn everything there is to know about sound and music in one week - too difficult and I’m too much of a dabbler. But I feel I’ve better cultivated an appreciation of music due to raw exposure. I never realized how many layers upon layers of sound hid within my computer and iPhone speakers - the curse of growing up in the digital age, I guess.

So begs the question:

Have I become a true audiophile?

In the literally translated latin meaning of the word, yes. By our industry’s standards? I sincerely doubt it.

But you don’t have to be an expert or think about music 24/7 to enjoy it enough to want awesome new speakers or headphones. You can form your own opinions, and that’s the beauty of being a critic. A speaker can be the best of the best according to everyone you know, but it may not be your favorite, and no one can prove that you're wrong.

But I digress. I enjoyed this week, headaches and all… at least when I was listening to music. I invite everyone to listen to a song with as much focus as one would staring at a piece of art in a museum. And then, once you listen to it, observe it the same way: Is the painting framed? Dusty? Is there depth and clarity to your music, and is your preferred vocalist enunciating or is he/she marred by poor speaker quality?

THANKS FOR READING! MEET THE AUTHOR Jo Bayne is Gramophone’s Marketing Associate. Jo has formally trained in the arts since 2004, a passion that led to opportunities in freelance and skill development in graphic design and marketing. She’s excited to streamline her career with Gramophone, and to eventually have her own Gramophone-designed listening room so she can listen to Appalachian folk, Thomas Newman soundtracks, and Louis Armstrong’s scatting to her heart’s content.

And since this series of entries’ completion, she’s made a full recovery from her concussion and subsequent migraines, and continues to learn about music and her work every day.

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