Stephen Mejias

I spent a part of this morning sitting in the warm lobby of 10 Exchange Place in downtown Jersey City, waiting for FedEx to open. I had some gear to return. While I waited, I decided to listen to music. I undid the two front latches on my black canvas bag. From one pocket, I pulled out the Red Wine Audio iMod, from the other I removed the Shure SE310 earphones.

And that was it.

With in-ear headphones, so much depends on getting a good fit. A bad fit can leave you with external sounds&#151conversations, sirens, ringtones, whatever&#151creeping in and marring your music, can leave you with sloppy bass or truncated highs, can leave you sad and confused. It's not nice.

I pinched the earphones' gray soft flex sleeves and inserted them into my ears. As the foam expanded, all outside sounds slowly faded away&#151I had created a good and tight seal. When you get it right, you just know it. I had gotten it right. The world was nearly gone. People came in and out of view, silently and strangely, as if they weren't even real. Now, on the iMod, I selected "Shuffle." Fifth generation iMods require sending the output signal through the iPod's dock connector pins via an ALO Audio Dock Cable in conjunction with a headphone amp. I didn't have a headphone amp or the ALO cable with me, so I wasn't actually utilizing Vinnie Rossi's modifications, but all of my music files use Apple Lossless encoding and sound excellent. The music came and I was gone, too.

Here's what I heard:

Sufjan Stevens: "Casimir Pulaski Day"
Ray Charles: "Let's Go Get Stoned"
Trans Am: "Bad Cat"
Modest Mouse: "Dark Center of the Universe"
Henry Fiol: "No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga"
Al Green: "Oh Me Oh My"
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: "Deus Ibi Est"
Bob Dylan: "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"
Richard Buckner: "Numbered"

The music was beautiful and lifelike and moving. Even with this small, modest system, I was enjoying a quality hi-fi experience. I've been thinking about this thread in the forum, asking myself, "What do I expect from my stereo?"

Whatever the answer may be, I really wouldn't ask for much more than what the Red Wine Audio iMod and Shure earphones offered: I was taken to another place, I forgot myself, the issue of time dissolved into a meaningless nothing, I was happy and calm and free.