Audio Gangsters: I’m With The Mob

It seems like such a long time ago since I last dropped in and shared my audio adventures with you guys. Well, I got a good one for ya in this episode of Wayne's World. I don't quite remember how it all got started, but more than likely I was bragging to David Robinson about some of my latest purchases for my slowly maturing stereo system, which, by now, has grown up to include certain components from the Rega family, which I really happen to like a lot (I'm a huge fan, and my personal rig is, by now, almost completely Rega-tailored, but more on that in another issue).

One day David told me about an idea he had geared towards helping me get baptized in a much more intense level of audio interaction—a world in which I was not only naïve to, but also more than skeptical about whether I even wanted to visit such a playground. I mean, this is the kinda stuff that I don't necessarily shy away from in the online pages of Positive Feedback and my hard-copy Stereophile magazine or The Absolute Sound, but I also don't dwell and drool over the latest models of all the high-end products or raving reviews about how the bells-and-whistles on whatever item is "the best thing yet." My passive attitude is based upon the fact that my world has never actually collided with "that" world, and why would it? Besides, I'm doin' allright with my upgraded equipment—in fact, I'm feeling pretty damn good about myself and the things I have learned and collected over the last several issues since I joined the PF family. I've shared every step with you and, up until now, have been moving at a comfortable pace, a leisurely stroll. But Ye Olde Man had other plans for me—bigger ones. He was determined to shove me down the rabbit hole and into the world of saturated sound, snake-thick cables, gorilla-heavy speakers, tube-laden black boxes, and galactic turntables. He threatened me with these things; said to wait patiently, and that he'd eventually send me all these foreign items to fool around with so that I might hop on the ship, take a few trips, and report back to earth on what I'd discovered. Up to that point it was all just talk. Then one day things got real. Boxes—big ones—started showing up at my door.

I suddenly felt a bit like a being an unsuspecting participant in an underground audio smuggling ring. David Robinson obviously had made deals with people I didn't know, and told them to send "packages." Obviously, he had "friends" in high places who pushed a button and made things appear at other people's doors. Mat "Wiseguy" Weisfeld from VPI. David "Bruiser" Berning of LTA. Dan "The Manhandler" Wright of ModWright. Lou "Hitman" Hinckley from Daedulus. Alex "The Savage" Sventitsky from WyWires. When I opened up these boxes, expensive parts of hardware popped out.

It hadn't quite hit me at the time, but Robinson had carefully selected a specific blend of items that he knew would be compatible for my first foray into what I might describe as an "elite-class eargasm experience." His formula involved the following items, none of which I'd had any previous encounter or experience: a VPI Prime Scout Turntable; a ModWright PH 150 Reference Phonostage…