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It doesn't take special ears to become an audiophile... just perhaps some doctor's orders to listen to music. Join our marketing associate Jo for a week of product testing and reflection on what the word "audiophile" truly means. 

Read her previous entry, on Totem Speakers, here.

Tuesday, 3/3/15: On Musical Emotion

Marilyn Monroe stares down the wall at Audrey Hepburn (Holly GoLightly, in this case), both with chins in palms, black and white. I find myself on that lovely edge between complete relaxation and fatigue while listening to Iron & Wine’s hushed voice.

My neck hurts and my ears burn but it doesn’t matter much at the moment. Something about the music draws me in. I feel hugged in a giant blanket.

I think I’m falling into the nirvana via comparison to my environment 20 minutes ago. I went up to my office to type up what I’ve been writing. 15 minutes of looking at a screen and I found the right side of my head pounding again. I think I’ve claimed the Totem room as my sanctuary for now - all I need is my own Keurig and a sun lamp and I’m set.

There are long breaks between paragraphs as I soak in noises around me. I take moments to stare at the symmetrical, black castle of PSB, Totem and McIntosh product in front of me, as if Samuel Beam is hiding within it all, a miniature performer to serenade me.*

It’s amazing, the different not in just what I hear, but how I feel. I’ve listened to these soft bluegrass tones before, but always from my iPhone and a bowl or dry bathroom sink as an amplifier. I would classify this primitive sound as a wall, or an orb of music, small, untouchable, a nice backdrop or outsider to my activities, looking at me.

However, in this room, I feel fuzzy, warm, hugged by sound. It is a piece of me, just as my hurting brain in my skull is a piece of me. "Boy With A Coin" turns on, and deep, undulating, war-drum-like beats vibrate the room so gently like the resistance of fingers against my pulse, as if someone from the outside approaches from the speakers. It is ethereal how all of a sudden the fatigue of my migraines and neck pain clears so much room in my head to invite evolved sound as if it’s an old friend forgotten. I missed feeling this way.

*On that note, as I recommended in my last post, I invite everyone to visit our showroom and listen to one of Iron & Wine’s crazier songs, Walking Far From Home, on our Totem Speakers, and tell me you don’t hear about 20 different instruments in the duration, clearly picked apart and yet symbiotic.

Check out Jo's next entry here.

Join us in early May for our Spring event, The Evolution of Audio, where you too can discover all the latest technology and listening experiences Gramophone has to offer. Click here for more information and to RSVP today!