My wife and I recently took a trip through the heartland of American music, starting in Memphis, traveling down Highway 61 through the Mississippi Delta into New Orleans. Along the way we listened to music on Beale Street, stopped at Sun studio and Stax Records in Memphis, visited the legendary Crossroads of Robert Johnson, stopped at the B.B. King museum in Indianola, Mississippi (B.B's birthplace) and traveled on to the home of jazz - New Orleans. At every stop on the trip we bought music and have been listening to it at home since our return. It's been great and a reminder of how important music has been throughout our lives.
Don't get me wrong - I love our home theater and we're lucky enough to have all of the latest technology in our house including automated lighting, touch screen controls everywhere and a media server loaded with thousands of CD's and DVD's that are available at the touch of a button. But nothing, absolutely nothing can replace the enjoyment and relaxation that we get from a simple, high performance, stereo music system.
For over 30 years Gramophone has had a heritage in designing great sounding music systems, but with all of the exciting new technology including flat panel HDTV's, surround sound home theaters, iPods, media servers and home automation systems we sometimes got distracted from the simple joy of great music played on a great stereo.
The recent release of remastered versions of the Beatles recordings is one of thousands of great reasons to fire up your stereo. While I love my iPod, these discs sound they're best played on a pair of great speakers through a high performance CD player rather than through a pair of earbuds. Try it and you'll see what I mean. If your stereo is collecting dust in the attic, stop by and we'll play some great music for you. Either way - good listening!
Dear Brian:
I read your account of you and your wife's "musical roadtrip" account with great interest.
Your continuing interest in music, to the extent of driving through the iconic points of American music, is both rare and a testament to the integrity which Gramophone has always brought to audio.
As an observer and participant in audio/video retailing for many decades, I find the shrinking ranks of informed and quality-oriented specialty retailers very troubling.
From far away New Hampshire, I congratulate you and your team on your continued commitment to quality home music reproduction, and look forward to my next visit for a "musical fix."
Roger
Posted by: Roger C. Parker | December 03, 2009 at 08:42 PM