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Hifi is its own beautiful thing
Music does not speak to memories alone. Music, even when unfamiliar, touches us and can overtake our consciousness because we are among other things musical beings. We live and breathe in rhythm in time. As such, the idea that hifi’s greatest achievement is conjuring an aural aspect of the memory of a live performance strikes me as coming up well short of the full picture. As a point of fact, I’ve never seen or heard John Coltrane or Jimi Hendrix live yet I have no problem experiencing them on my hifi as real musicians making real music. And I can do this whenever the feeling moves me by playing their records or any of a few thousand or so other musical selections I have at my fingertips. Try reproducing that with a live performance.

Further, the attempt to apply that which we can measure (sound) to how we experience (music) is a faith-based application of science at best and flies in the face of the unrestrained listening experience. Yet by abandoning this quest for objectively better hifi performance, we have not abandoned the quest for higher fidelity as our passions drive some of us to a more and more musically engaging experience. With hifi we strive to create, not recreate, a musical event - inside ourselves. In this sense, 'fidelity' refers to our hifi’s ability to trigger a musically engaging experiencing. Or if you prefer, we should recognize the fact that the value of music played through a hifi only becomes measurable once it hits our imagination.


For some, stereo is the cat’s meow. For others, mono played through a single speaker floats their boat. Still others crave the full-fledged surround-sound experience. High resolution digital download, MP3, SACD, DVD-A, Blu-Ray, CD, LP, 45, 78, reel-to-reel, cassette, FM, streaming internet radio…pick your poison(s). I’d say the more the merrier since more simply means more music. Is one format measurably better than another? I have no doubt that we can prove one superior to another as long as we agree that what we’re measuring has nothing to do with the enjoyment contained in the personal listening experience. If we want to understand that, we’ll have to start measuring inside each of us.

Still some people want to make a direct correlation between what measures best and what each of us should prefer. Their mistake lies in thinking that this forced choice is the application of scientific method when in fact it’s nothing more than an attempt to dictate taste.

On the Importance of Record Collecting
Once upon a time in a motel room just outside Springfield, I opened the nightstand drawer to find an original Gutenberg Bible printed in 1454 by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany. "What’s that?" my wife asked from across the room. "A book" I replied as I closed the drawer.

A Word about Talking and Listening
There’s a balance between talking and listening (not to mention eating and drinking) at every Monkeyhaus event. With some groups there can be more listening and with others more talking. One observation I’ve made from my cumulative Monkeyhaus experiences is that when people are discussing music, they tend to allow their guard to drop more so than with some other topics. We allow our passions to peak out, our preferences to shine through and our predilections and pleasures are given freer rein.

Generally, once people start talking about and focusing on gear, they begin to tighten up. Facts, numbers and performance measures are by their nature hard but when we try to mix them with the mushy middle ground of the personal listening experience, things can get divisive and tense. I think it has something to do with facts comingling with taste that creates this potentially noxious pond. It’s the rare individual who is able to share their expertise and preferences joyfully while allowing others theirs.

You may be surprised -- but you shouldn’t be -- that some of the people who deal with gear for a living (e.g. speaker manufactures, importers, audio magazine editors) are among the most generous and joyful music-loving experts on the planet.


Magic carpet ride
Averaging somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 hours to make my arrival home typically after 3am, each morning after a Monkeyhaus event I wake up a bit tired and sandy yet content. The funny thing is, I also can’t wait to listen to more music on my hifi. And it’s never exactly what I heard the night before but some other music that seems to have crept into my subconscious play list while asleep. Something sparked by a mood or moment from the previous night’s festivities which rubbed me the right way. Whether it’s a genre, a band or a song, it’s always something and  always a musically inspired selection. A dream come true.


And here’s where we find another nugget of Monkeyhaus’ lasting charm. A Monkeyhaus event reminds us that hifi exists to unleash music within us; turning a piece of vinyl into a song, pulling the rug out from under our feet and replacing it with a magic carpet; the act of listening to music on a hifi literally exploding that steady flow of hourglass time into a million pieces in a million directions at once.

We’re also reminded that music is communal and personal. It’s part of our beating heart and being human. And we don’t need to be fooled or special-effected to be affected by the sheer magic of it all. We just need to listen and let our imaginations take care of the rest.