Stephen Mejias

The 2008 Vacuum State of the Art Conference & Show will take place on May 24-26 at the Hilton in lovely Vancouver, Washington. VSAC was started in 1997 by Dan and Eileen Schmalle of the Bottlehead Corporation, designers of <a href="http://www.bottlehead.com/et/et.html">some sexy vacuum tube kit amps and preamps</a>. While the Schmalles are no longer involved in managing the conference, they will be on hand as exhibitors, along with many others offering some similarly sexy, tubey goodness (like <a href="http://www.experiencemusic.net/">Experience Music</a>'s The Chase amplifier in the pic above).

Perhaps the greatest praise anyone can let loose upon any silly piece of audio gear is that it inspires the discovery of new music. Right? Alright then. The Rega P3, in all its ashen splendor, does this for me. So much so that I'm going broke. I feel as though I'm single-handedly (with one hand behind my weary back, that is) revitalizing the record industry. I've spent so much money on new (used) records that I could've purchased my own P3 by now. In fact, I've decided that that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to buy my own P3. I'm in the office now, wishing I was home with the P3. I'm proofreading Michael Fremer's review of the P3-24, which will appear in our July issue, and I'm thinking, <i>I'm going to buy this thing.</i>

I'm happy to say that this terribly grey day has turned suddenly bright and blue. And with sun in our eyes, so that we have to squint a bit, I invite you to join me on a short trip back to January 2003.

Buddha said:

If you visit <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1646">our Gallery</a>, you'll see that Christian bought an LP. Vinyl, that is. Funny thing about that: Christian doesn't own a record player.

Besides the reading I do here at <i>Stereophile</i>, I read a lot on the morning train. When Murakami is pissing me off with his cats and dead friends, I turn to the free dailies handed out by the dudes in the bright orange jackets standing outside the station. I pick one up and I say to myself, "I think I'll get a little stupid this morning." I go for <i>Metro</i>&#151"the world's largest global newspaper." Dressed in a cheery green and with a friendly font, it is clearly designed for those in jeans and sneakers, whereas <i>AM New York</i> is meant for the more serious suits.

A couple of nights ago, I got this big idea that I'd go shopping for some picture disc vinyl to go along with the component we'll be featuring on our July cover. (Hint: It's not a speaker.) You know, I was thinking it'd be no problem to find Jimi Hendrix all lit up in a purple haze or, better yet, some new indie band dressed in skinny jeans and moccasins being chased by a puma, or something. But I discovered that new picture disc vinyl isn't all that easy to come by. Surprisingly, I found that today's picture discs come from three main sources: