Home Entertainment 2001

Show Report

All the Vermeers in New York:
A Fractured View of
The Home Entertainment 2001 Show

by Clark Johnsen

 

Also in the system are a Quantum line conditioner and Gold
Line speaker wires. My jury is still out as to which be the
weirder. The Quantum employs technology beyond the pale for
any but the most dedicated tweaker, so I'll say no more, although
when switched in and out I must admit, no question, I prefer
it in. The Gold Line cables are -- ready? -- straight solid
tubes, and tubes within tubes, held in position by standoffs
at each end and provided there with short floppy wires to make
connection. As for gold, they only look that way, but with
previous experience still in mind, I don't ask what they cost.

Out in the hallway afterwards I am advised by towering
mensch Arnie Balgavis to visit Nordost and hear their killer
demo of differences among cables. I inquire as to the time
and realize this will be my last call before taxiing to Penn
Station to catch the Acela. So be it. I enter and seat myself,
only to encounter the most awful pop crap in the whole friggin'
show! What the HELL can Lars be thinking? This is the epitome
of lousy recording! Too late to leave, he espies me and advances
with a warm handshake. I'm stuck.

Not only are there no melodies and no harmonies and no
intelligible words, as per usual these days ("There you go again,
Daddy!"), it barely even has a beat. Beat that! I mean, for
kids these days. Then the music halts and Lars Kristensen
explains he will now substitute the Valhalla interconnects.

Something... What?... What's needling me here? Their $3,200
(G-d!) cost?...

First thing I realize for sure after the swap, here is
some interesting music. Dense... but I can do dense. Subtle
rhythms... no problem there either... Did Lars switch CDs?
This makes no sense... Then I get it. But I just can't believe
what I'm hearing: The most telling demonstration ever, of a
cable change. Major major! Nor does the audience fail to take
enthusiastic notice. And on music most of us would never have
listened to otherwise, and in blase New York. Imagine that.

But something still bothers me... This flow of events ...
Got it! The Danish connection! Ole Christiansen, Lars Kristensen.
"...the telltale breath of sen-sen's"... That line of Professor
Hill's from The Music Man,! What a weird coincidence...

Departing the New York Hilton, I'm the most happy fella
(more Broadway lingo). And then, outside, the full enormity
hits me; how could I have been so stupid? The AES 91st
Convention took place in this very hotel! G-ddam! And the
most controversial session, the one dismissing cable differences,
which earned John Atkinson's and Michael Gindi's and my own
disgust, had occurred, yes, in the very Madison Room where
yesterday Arturo Delmoni, with pots-and-pans accompaniment,
had given his recital. Now, ten years after, just this very
weekend, literally minutes ago for me, the case for cable
differences had been proved incontrovertibly.

0 thou ancient Circle Game of ages; or, as the poet writes,
and this would be T.S. Eliot, In my beginning is my end.

Finis

 

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Home Entertainment 2001 Show reports.

 

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complete listing of show exhibitors.

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Copyright^© 2001 Clark Johnsen