THIS LETTER WAS SENT TO TOM MILLER, PUBLISHER OF AUDIO ADVENTURE IN RESPONSE TO HIS EDITORIAL, VINYL IS KILLING THE HIGH END

Dear Tom, RE: CONFUSION BETWEEN HARLEY DAVIDSON AND VOLVO

My integrity demands that I must come clean and reveal what I know about the story behind Audio Adventure’s November editorial, "Vinyl is killing the high end". If it weren’t for freaky coincidence I would have never learned.....

Even though Rush Limbaugh and I take the same high impact aerobic class, we only spoke on one occasion when we were in the sauna. When I mentioned to The Large Sweating One my passion for high end audio he told me that he recently gave some advice to someone named Tom Miller, to wit: "Tom, if you want to be successful media pundit, like me, you’ve got to find a scapegoat...find your Bill Clinton..and then blame everything on him...Americans don’t care about the truth, but they love to blame their problems on someone else...try it Tom".

No one can question your motives Tom. You want the industry you love, the one that puts vinyl on your platter to be prosperous, and perhaps blaming the high end audio industry’s three decade old problems on vinyl may help.

Let this old marketing maven help you with an attitude adjustment by describing the relationship between the success of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Volvo station wagons.

Why is there a two year waiting list for Harley-Davidson motorcycles when motorcycles are the world’s worst form of transportation? And every time we get on our Hawgs we risk our lives. For what? The answer: Motorcycles are the most profound form of transformation to another dimension of being. Those who must experience the ultimate beauty of the American road gladly pay the price, gladly risk their lives to be in that beauty. And Tom, motorcycles require an enormous amount of care and attention, which we love to give, because of the bountiful gifts they give in return.

A Volvo station wagon is low maintenance, convenient safe car that is perfect for the family, commuting and taking lawn mowers to the shop for repair during a snow storm, but I never heard of anyone getting punched out because they touched another man’s Volvo? Get my drift?

Now Tom, what Harley-Davidson management knows for sure is that because so many men drive Volvo station wagons, in their souls, they long for more...more mystery..more magic...more beauty. This longing is so powerful......they risk their lives to find it...who cares about the heat, the bugs, the wind and noise..it is all part of the joy.

It is this non-reasonable passion and commitment of the motorcyclist that has captured the imagination of the public. When was the last time you saw of lead story in the news about Volvo?

And therein lies the three decade old problem of the high end audio business, unlike Harley-Davidson et. al, this is an industry that has never defined and articulated its core passion to the public. Why can’t the high end audio industry communicate with the same emotional authenticity as the motorcycle industry? What is it ashamed of, afraid or confused about? My fellow audiomaniacs are filled with exactly the same passion as motorcyclists, yet this industry appears to the public to be a bunch of nerds quibbling over bits of digital. Get me the barf bag.

Digital audio systems are just like my Volvo station wagon. My vinyl systems is my Hawg. Both are essential aspects of my life. But motorcycles and vinyl are the protein of dreams. It is the concrescent experiences that make my life profound.

The high end audio industry will never reach its maturity until it learns to communicate more effectively this simple truth: it exists for only one reason...creating the most profound emotional and mystical experiences in our home. Let me go further. The difference between mid-fi and high-end fi is that we do more than just provide musical enjoyment. We create technology that stimulates musical boundary dissolution...musical ecstasy..which according to my studies is an artification process that started 40,000 years ago...we are the current custodians of this ancient process, and I am proud of that artistic heritage.

The reason that vinyl is the answer not the problem Tom, is that every industry needs its passionate, totally maniac center, which I call in this case, VINYLMANIA©. This is where we find the white hot passion, the paradox within the enigma within the conundrum, the engine of mystery, the custodians of the Ark of Musical Truth. Those who aggravate mediocrity are to be honored, they are the keepers of the artistic high ground, they are the brotherhood, they are the righteous. In the same way the Hell’s Angels, the lunatic outlaw fringe, stimulated the rebirth of Harley-Davidson, VINYLMANIACS will stimulate a new interest in our art form.

In fact Tom, because VINYLMANIA© is such hot story I am writing a book about it.

Thanks for the opportunity to respond. You’ve got the right instincts bro’.

HARVEY"GIZMO" ROSENBERG

aka

THE TRIODE GUILDMEISTER

EXALTED PUNJAB OF VINYLMANIACS

THERMIONIC TECHNO-SHAMAN

GRAND WAZIR OF SPEAKERMANIACS

THE BRUCE, SEVENTH EARL OF CLAN MC TANNOY

©VINYLMANIA, HARVEY ROSENBERG 1996

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