I decided to pay for Qobuz, but get why others might not. My hearing is shot and difference in fidelity compared to Spotify really helps. I'm also planning to upgrade me turntable/receiver/speakers.
P.S. Paper tickets and sittin' in the cheap seats forever!
One of the best concert experience I ever had was when my wife and I had standing room only way at the back of Scotiabank Arena in TO for McCartney in 2015 and had an absolute blast!
I liked Qoboz - it sounded great to me and hearing some of the songs I have loved for 40+ years was quite an eye-opening experience - but I feel like I am in a Stockholm Syndrome situation with Spotify - I couldn't cut the cord (damn you Daniel Ek!).
I dislike not having a ticket - i have kept only one - Dylan in St. Paul in 78 cause it said Saint Bob and I thought that was funny (maybe St. Bob but the same).
I used to enjoy keeping movie tickets back when I was a more active movie-goer and occasionally, looking through them and remembering all the movies I had seen. Those days too are long gone.
Anyone who uses "Luddite" as an insult - suggesting stodgy stupidity and reflexive progress-rejection - is reporting their own historical ignorance, or their credulity of techno-optimism.
The Luddites were not stupid. They were an organized, politically aware movement, consciously resisting *specific* new technologies - and the economic shifts these enabled - which they *correctly* understood as threats to the craft quality of their work, their personal livelihoods, and their community way of life.
We should all aspire to being as mindful and serious as Luddites in our embrace of new technologies.
This is great, glad you are exploring! I am not sure how much you have explored sound quality...but you aren't getting full available sound quality using Bluetooth. Also, the issues with "high resolution" music...if you can source some "true" hi res, it's amazing (true = original recording made with hi-res equipment). I am a fan of "old" music, remastered for hi res, though if the source is tape, it will never be really "hi res" due to the limited signal-to-noise ratios of tape. And I get that folks like LP's, I'm a digital music lover myself (and have had Qobuz for a long time, I actually purchase my favorite music, not just stream)...but, be aware of the RIAA "curve" (Recording Industry Association of America). This is a "standard" equalization curve (which dictates the need for a phono-pre-amp)...music must have the bass dramatically lowered and the treble dramatically raised in order to get it to sound decent on vinyl...so music mastered for vinyl suffers from the limitations inherent to the format...music remastered for digital, if done right, expands the soundscape beyond the limitations of vinyl but remains inherently limited by the source material.
It's all very personal, I know...but fellow "old guy" here who has much upgraded music "chains" for both headphone listening and stereo & multichannel listening via decent speakers. And, like you have described in your article...it becomes much more dimensional and immersive with better-sourced music.
It's all about the love of the music, and that is never "wrong"! Much enjoyed your article!
Thanks, John! Buying my first high-quality turntable in 2005 was a big day for me. Even had my had come with me to Bay Bloor to make the purchase. First play was an early-seventies pressing of 'Rubber Soul' and it sounded just heavenly. Twenty years later, it is still going strong.
I agree with you in spirit but would differ on the terms. To me "purity" of sound is the opposite of what you are seeking. It seems that what you desire is "real sound." Real sound is full of the impurities that make music magical. Everything from the timbre of the instruments to the surface imperfections of vinyl add up to create character, and that's what we humans can emotionally (and spiritually?) respond to. Purity of sound in science would take the form of a sine wave!
Gotta say I'm bugged by the tossing around of the term Luddite, on both sides of the equation, which tends to be either a feeble insult to refuse new technology or a prideful ownership of the term in that you are not taken in by the latest gadget and its promises. It seems that knowing that accolade gets the conversation nowhere. And besides, a true Luddite would only listen to live acoustic instruments. Any reproduction of sound would throw the true Luddite into a rage, and they would want to destroy the machine that created it! Just my take, not a mountain I would die on if anyone disagreed.
Perhaps "real sound" better captures what I am trying to say here, the complete immersion in the sound, everything coming through clear and authentic, no distance between me or what I am hearing. Music listening as meditation.
Luddite is certainly a term that is divorced from its original meaning. For me, it mostly represents the derogatory way it is tossed around to label anyone who seems to cling to an outmoded technology or way of reading, listening to music, watching movies, etc.
A lovely reflection, Robert! I'm with you on the superiority of physical media: I wrote about my CDs a while back, but -- even though I have an eReader with hundreds of books on it -- I still have a room full of physical books, articles, essays, journals, notepads, etc.
I disagree with you about something, though. You wrote: "It’s ultimately up to you to decide whether an album is transformative, meaningless or something in the wide in-between."
I don't think I've ever made this decision. If this doesn't sound too strange, the music decided for me. Sometimes an album was just too good or powerful and I had to respond to the call. At other times, an album or a band that I "should" have liked did nothing for me. I take the rather Platonic view that, when beauty shines out to us, we respond instinctively.
I wrestled with that point. I guess what I tried to capture is the idea of active vs. passive listening - a divide that streaming has exacerbated significantly - and that ultimately it's up to each individual listening to decide where music fits into his/her/their daily life.
For me, when I was young, I had to respond to the call (as you put it). There was a pull, perhaps existential, that I can't put into words that has remained. Not everyone receives that call and certainly not everyone responds to it in the way that I had and I suspect you have too.
Oh, yes, I understand you completely! In the age of streaming, rare is the person who gives their whole attention to music. There's nothing wrong with having a playlist on in the background, but only listening to music that way deprives you of one of life's greatest joys.
I have a Thorens TD-160 turntable (circa 1972), a Luxman R-1050 (mid-'70s receiver), KEF 104.2 speakers (early '80s), an Onkyo tape deck (late 1980s), and a Pioneer CD player (2019). I listen to my thousands of LPs, hundreds of CDs, and a few hundred cassettes on this system, and the sound fills the space in my house.
I only listen to Spotify at work, while walking my dogs, or in the car (ok, I admit, I sometimes stream through a Bluetooth Bose portable speaker when I'm cooking, washing dishes, or mopping the floor so I don't have to flip the record.) However, every time I stream on Spotify, I can definitely hear how inferior the sound is!
Robert, you touched a nerve with this piece. First, the mandatory wallet. I endured this nonsense last year when a friend transferred a ticket for Jacob Collier in Vancouver to me. Ticketmaster demanded the google wallet, and my old Samsung phone lacked sufficient space to install another app. I had to do a lot of re-jigging to make it work, and was on pins and needles as we made our way into the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. But we made it! A few months ago, I got a new Samsung, and it had the wallet feature. I have used it to pay at most places, and made my peace with it. It's actually more convenient than pulling out the Visa card, and there's less chance of leaving the card somewhere. So.... one win for modernity.
I have a loooong history with stereo equipment, beginning with a KLH portable system. It was the best you could buy at the time, cost $150, and it took an entire summer to earn enough to take it away to university in Boston. It went with me to Vancouver, when I left the U.S. in '69.
Over time, I upgraded to components. A Phillips turntable, AR-10 bookshelf speakers, and a good Sony amp, which I blew up by stupidly by playing my first electric guitar through it. When I was making good scratch as a CBC Radio producer in the 70's, I bought a pair of handmade bass reflex speakers that stood 3 feet high, with a 12" woofer and a lovely tweeter. By then, I had a high-end Revox reel-to-reel tape deck, thanks to a Canada Council Grant. I felt that I'd finally "made it". I had everything I wanted.
Naturally, I added a cassette deck when they became ubiquitous, and then a CD player. By then, I'd acquired over 600 LPs and 200 7" reels of music, mostly recorded from albums in the mammoth CBC record library.
And then, as I aged, and we moved from a house rental to an apartment, the shocking, evil period of downsizing began. If you haven't experienced this, you are fortunate. Imagine touching everything you own and having to decide what it means to you! Thousands of books left, along with the entire record and tape collection.
I auditioned many speakers in the early aughts, trying to find a pair that could provide decent sound. I found a good set, made by AudioEngine. When my bass reflex speakers left - a freebie, as nobody wanted to buy them - I mourned their loss. But square footage is the ultimate decision maker, just like weather and old age. Over time, I had amassed a gigantic digital collection, thanks to an underground forum that specialized in bootlegs (but run by a semi-principled proprietor in Ottawa, who did not traffic in commercially released material, mostly he offered live recordings, unreleased material and a lot of soundboard recordings of all genres; he had an erratic lifestyle marred by numerous evenings in the drunk tank and some run-ins with the law, and one day, poof, he vanished, along with his site).
Now, I play music off a Plex server, running on an old laptop powered by Windows 7 (!) that plays the music through a Plex app on my smart TV, which has my nice, apartment-sized speakers plugged in.
To me, it has been a weird, 60+ years-long trip through technology. I have made my accommodations to it, by necessity, and still love listening to music. And along with the passage of time, my hearing ain't what it used to be, so I'm not sure what I've lost and what I've gained.
But jeeze, it's 2025, and who ever thought that would happen???
(Sorry for such a wordy post. I love writing about this shit.)
Love reading it! Space in my record room is at a premium, full as it is with CDs and LPs (overflow is in two places upstairs). The burden, of course, with such stuff is whenever there is a need to move (something, thankfully, I have only done but a few times). My dad once said, marveling at my collection, that it's something to be proud of, an archive, a statement, an expression of passion.
Robert, great article. I tend to take a picture of my ticket on my phone for a souvenir. Like you, I miss the paper tix. We are old school. I listen to Satellite radio, the jazz station is awful, but the country stations are fantastic. A lot of big hair stations with the typical Motley Crew. I assume you subscribe to Spotify, I don’t but listen to playlists for free and it is annoying. Love to see you do an essay on Sun Volt and the Wilco connection. BTW remember when Neil Young had his perfect sounding system that went south.
Oh yes, I recall Pono. I feel like Neil Young is the patron saint of the analog grumps.
Thanks for the suggestion - I'm afraid I know very little about Wilco but hope that someone else who does know them reads this comment and is inspired to write that essay.
"The immediacy of the vinyl transmitted through the stylus of the tonearm of his Technics turntable fed through a Marantz receiver and transmitted through two wood speakers (manufacturer long since forgotten) imprinted two ideas: the first being to one day have my own stereo system and the second being what I call “pure sound.” Ah, memories. I had exactly the same equipment. My wooden speakers were Dynaco. I still have them. The company vanished ages ago. I'm with you re. Google wallet, by the way.
My dad's Technics turntable still works like a dream. The speakers eventually conked out. The receiver gave up the ghost with a shudder one autumn day in 2003 - by then, my dad had given it to me to use. I still recall the sudden crackle of apocalyptic distortion that signified the end of a very long and noble run.
My Technics turntable still works too. It's a direct-drive, not a belt-drive (I was a snob when I bought it). I replaced the Marantz with a big fat Technics receiver. It produced the closest thing to "Pure sound" I ever got. It still works, but it's pre-IC era, and getting replacement parts for components that burn out became harder and harder over the years. One shop offered to buy it for parts, but I couldn't do it.
Taking the time and energy to set up a stereo system that can do justice to your physical media, be it analog or digital allows you to get closer to what the artist(s) intended when they recorded it in a studio. It is like viewing Monet through a black and white prism instead of color. It is the small details that your system is able to pull out of your physical media which allows you and everyone you share the experience with to bask in the joy of pure sound.
I remember going shopping for a high-end stereo on 8th St in the Village, carrying a check for $2,500 that Playboy had just paid me. My plan was to use that amount as my limit and sign over the check to the store. I did exactly that, purchasing 4 Bose "direct-reflecting" speakers, a MacIntosh pre-amp, and an amp I can't recall the name of, but which I was thrilled to see being used by the Grateful Dead when I went backstage and saw the backside of their "Wall of Sound" at Winterland in S.F. with stacks of the amps. The guy from the store played me a track from a Cat Stevens album that featured acoustic guitar through a huge pair of electrostatic speakers. The sound was so clear, it made me nervous. I went with the Bose speakers instead. I didn't want to be nervous every time I turned the thing on.
Indeed - great story! When I bought my current receiver, I went to a high-end store in downtown Toronto and pursued the options with one of the sales guys. We made our way to a Yamaha and the gentleman pointed at it and asked me, "do you know what another name for Yamaha is?" I shrugged. He paused, waited another beat and then pronounced, "bullet (pause) proof." Five minutes later, I laid the cash down on it and eleven-and-a-years later, it's still very much alive and kicking.
Robert you are far from a Luddite. You are a music lover like me. In addition your writing is true and from the heart. Thanks!
Thanks, Marco - I try always to keep the music front and centre and to write from the heart and the soul.
It shows Robert.
I decided to pay for Qobuz, but get why others might not. My hearing is shot and difference in fidelity compared to Spotify really helps. I'm also planning to upgrade me turntable/receiver/speakers.
P.S. Paper tickets and sittin' in the cheap seats forever!
One of the best concert experience I ever had was when my wife and I had standing room only way at the back of Scotiabank Arena in TO for McCartney in 2015 and had an absolute blast!
I liked Qoboz - it sounded great to me and hearing some of the songs I have loved for 40+ years was quite an eye-opening experience - but I feel like I am in a Stockholm Syndrome situation with Spotify - I couldn't cut the cord (damn you Daniel Ek!).
Understandable! They’re very good at roping us in and making it easy to stay.
I dislike not having a ticket - i have kept only one - Dylan in St. Paul in 78 cause it said Saint Bob and I thought that was funny (maybe St. Bob but the same).
I used to enjoy keeping movie tickets back when I was a more active movie-goer and occasionally, looking through them and remembering all the movies I had seen. Those days too are long gone.
Anyone who uses "Luddite" as an insult - suggesting stodgy stupidity and reflexive progress-rejection - is reporting their own historical ignorance, or their credulity of techno-optimism.
The Luddites were not stupid. They were an organized, politically aware movement, consciously resisting *specific* new technologies - and the economic shifts these enabled - which they *correctly* understood as threats to the craft quality of their work, their personal livelihoods, and their community way of life.
We should all aspire to being as mindful and serious as Luddites in our embrace of new technologies.
I agree completely - the people pushing new technologies on us need to be treated with the utmost scrutiny and suspicion.
This is great, glad you are exploring! I am not sure how much you have explored sound quality...but you aren't getting full available sound quality using Bluetooth. Also, the issues with "high resolution" music...if you can source some "true" hi res, it's amazing (true = original recording made with hi-res equipment). I am a fan of "old" music, remastered for hi res, though if the source is tape, it will never be really "hi res" due to the limited signal-to-noise ratios of tape. And I get that folks like LP's, I'm a digital music lover myself (and have had Qobuz for a long time, I actually purchase my favorite music, not just stream)...but, be aware of the RIAA "curve" (Recording Industry Association of America). This is a "standard" equalization curve (which dictates the need for a phono-pre-amp)...music must have the bass dramatically lowered and the treble dramatically raised in order to get it to sound decent on vinyl...so music mastered for vinyl suffers from the limitations inherent to the format...music remastered for digital, if done right, expands the soundscape beyond the limitations of vinyl but remains inherently limited by the source material.
It's all very personal, I know...but fellow "old guy" here who has much upgraded music "chains" for both headphone listening and stereo & multichannel listening via decent speakers. And, like you have described in your article...it becomes much more dimensional and immersive with better-sourced music.
It's all about the love of the music, and that is never "wrong"! Much enjoyed your article!
Thanks for the kind comment and the note (which is fascinating by the way!).
First and only TT I’ve ever had. Purchased in 1977. Pure sound? It is to me. Nice essay Robert.
Thanks, John! Buying my first high-quality turntable in 2005 was a big day for me. Even had my had come with me to Bay Bloor to make the purchase. First play was an early-seventies pressing of 'Rubber Soul' and it sounded just heavenly. Twenty years later, it is still going strong.
This resonated a lot with me. Your writing is superb, and the things you say ring increasingly true.
Thanks, Andres - appreciate the kind words here.
I agree with you in spirit but would differ on the terms. To me "purity" of sound is the opposite of what you are seeking. It seems that what you desire is "real sound." Real sound is full of the impurities that make music magical. Everything from the timbre of the instruments to the surface imperfections of vinyl add up to create character, and that's what we humans can emotionally (and spiritually?) respond to. Purity of sound in science would take the form of a sine wave!
Gotta say I'm bugged by the tossing around of the term Luddite, on both sides of the equation, which tends to be either a feeble insult to refuse new technology or a prideful ownership of the term in that you are not taken in by the latest gadget and its promises. It seems that knowing that accolade gets the conversation nowhere. And besides, a true Luddite would only listen to live acoustic instruments. Any reproduction of sound would throw the true Luddite into a rage, and they would want to destroy the machine that created it! Just my take, not a mountain I would die on if anyone disagreed.
Cheers.
Perhaps "real sound" better captures what I am trying to say here, the complete immersion in the sound, everything coming through clear and authentic, no distance between me or what I am hearing. Music listening as meditation.
Luddite is certainly a term that is divorced from its original meaning. For me, it mostly represents the derogatory way it is tossed around to label anyone who seems to cling to an outmoded technology or way of reading, listening to music, watching movies, etc.
A lovely reflection, Robert! I'm with you on the superiority of physical media: I wrote about my CDs a while back, but -- even though I have an eReader with hundreds of books on it -- I still have a room full of physical books, articles, essays, journals, notepads, etc.
I disagree with you about something, though. You wrote: "It’s ultimately up to you to decide whether an album is transformative, meaningless or something in the wide in-between."
I don't think I've ever made this decision. If this doesn't sound too strange, the music decided for me. Sometimes an album was just too good or powerful and I had to respond to the call. At other times, an album or a band that I "should" have liked did nothing for me. I take the rather Platonic view that, when beauty shines out to us, we respond instinctively.
I wrestled with that point. I guess what I tried to capture is the idea of active vs. passive listening - a divide that streaming has exacerbated significantly - and that ultimately it's up to each individual listening to decide where music fits into his/her/their daily life.
For me, when I was young, I had to respond to the call (as you put it). There was a pull, perhaps existential, that I can't put into words that has remained. Not everyone receives that call and certainly not everyone responds to it in the way that I had and I suspect you have too.
Oh, yes, I understand you completely! In the age of streaming, rare is the person who gives their whole attention to music. There's nothing wrong with having a playlist on in the background, but only listening to music that way deprives you of one of life's greatest joys.
Absolutely!
I have a Thorens TD-160 turntable (circa 1972), a Luxman R-1050 (mid-'70s receiver), KEF 104.2 speakers (early '80s), an Onkyo tape deck (late 1980s), and a Pioneer CD player (2019). I listen to my thousands of LPs, hundreds of CDs, and a few hundred cassettes on this system, and the sound fills the space in my house.
I only listen to Spotify at work, while walking my dogs, or in the car (ok, I admit, I sometimes stream through a Bluetooth Bose portable speaker when I'm cooking, washing dishes, or mopping the floor so I don't have to flip the record.) However, every time I stream on Spotify, I can definitely hear how inferior the sound is!
I guess I, too, am a "luddite."
Welcome to this most wonderful club!
Robert, you touched a nerve with this piece. First, the mandatory wallet. I endured this nonsense last year when a friend transferred a ticket for Jacob Collier in Vancouver to me. Ticketmaster demanded the google wallet, and my old Samsung phone lacked sufficient space to install another app. I had to do a lot of re-jigging to make it work, and was on pins and needles as we made our way into the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. But we made it! A few months ago, I got a new Samsung, and it had the wallet feature. I have used it to pay at most places, and made my peace with it. It's actually more convenient than pulling out the Visa card, and there's less chance of leaving the card somewhere. So.... one win for modernity.
I have a loooong history with stereo equipment, beginning with a KLH portable system. It was the best you could buy at the time, cost $150, and it took an entire summer to earn enough to take it away to university in Boston. It went with me to Vancouver, when I left the U.S. in '69.
Over time, I upgraded to components. A Phillips turntable, AR-10 bookshelf speakers, and a good Sony amp, which I blew up by stupidly by playing my first electric guitar through it. When I was making good scratch as a CBC Radio producer in the 70's, I bought a pair of handmade bass reflex speakers that stood 3 feet high, with a 12" woofer and a lovely tweeter. By then, I had a high-end Revox reel-to-reel tape deck, thanks to a Canada Council Grant. I felt that I'd finally "made it". I had everything I wanted.
Naturally, I added a cassette deck when they became ubiquitous, and then a CD player. By then, I'd acquired over 600 LPs and 200 7" reels of music, mostly recorded from albums in the mammoth CBC record library.
And then, as I aged, and we moved from a house rental to an apartment, the shocking, evil period of downsizing began. If you haven't experienced this, you are fortunate. Imagine touching everything you own and having to decide what it means to you! Thousands of books left, along with the entire record and tape collection.
I auditioned many speakers in the early aughts, trying to find a pair that could provide decent sound. I found a good set, made by AudioEngine. When my bass reflex speakers left - a freebie, as nobody wanted to buy them - I mourned their loss. But square footage is the ultimate decision maker, just like weather and old age. Over time, I had amassed a gigantic digital collection, thanks to an underground forum that specialized in bootlegs (but run by a semi-principled proprietor in Ottawa, who did not traffic in commercially released material, mostly he offered live recordings, unreleased material and a lot of soundboard recordings of all genres; he had an erratic lifestyle marred by numerous evenings in the drunk tank and some run-ins with the law, and one day, poof, he vanished, along with his site).
Now, I play music off a Plex server, running on an old laptop powered by Windows 7 (!) that plays the music through a Plex app on my smart TV, which has my nice, apartment-sized speakers plugged in.
To me, it has been a weird, 60+ years-long trip through technology. I have made my accommodations to it, by necessity, and still love listening to music. And along with the passage of time, my hearing ain't what it used to be, so I'm not sure what I've lost and what I've gained.
But jeeze, it's 2025, and who ever thought that would happen???
(Sorry for such a wordy post. I love writing about this shit.)
Love reading it! Space in my record room is at a premium, full as it is with CDs and LPs (overflow is in two places upstairs). The burden, of course, with such stuff is whenever there is a need to move (something, thankfully, I have only done but a few times). My dad once said, marveling at my collection, that it's something to be proud of, an archive, a statement, an expression of passion.
Robert, great article. I tend to take a picture of my ticket on my phone for a souvenir. Like you, I miss the paper tix. We are old school. I listen to Satellite radio, the jazz station is awful, but the country stations are fantastic. A lot of big hair stations with the typical Motley Crew. I assume you subscribe to Spotify, I don’t but listen to playlists for free and it is annoying. Love to see you do an essay on Sun Volt and the Wilco connection. BTW remember when Neil Young had his perfect sounding system that went south.
Oh yes, I recall Pono. I feel like Neil Young is the patron saint of the analog grumps.
Thanks for the suggestion - I'm afraid I know very little about Wilco but hope that someone else who does know them reads this comment and is inspired to write that essay.
"The immediacy of the vinyl transmitted through the stylus of the tonearm of his Technics turntable fed through a Marantz receiver and transmitted through two wood speakers (manufacturer long since forgotten) imprinted two ideas: the first being to one day have my own stereo system and the second being what I call “pure sound.” Ah, memories. I had exactly the same equipment. My wooden speakers were Dynaco. I still have them. The company vanished ages ago. I'm with you re. Google wallet, by the way.
My dad's Technics turntable still works like a dream. The speakers eventually conked out. The receiver gave up the ghost with a shudder one autumn day in 2003 - by then, my dad had given it to me to use. I still recall the sudden crackle of apocalyptic distortion that signified the end of a very long and noble run.
My Technics turntable still works too. It's a direct-drive, not a belt-drive (I was a snob when I bought it). I replaced the Marantz with a big fat Technics receiver. It produced the closest thing to "Pure sound" I ever got. It still works, but it's pre-IC era, and getting replacement parts for components that burn out became harder and harder over the years. One shop offered to buy it for parts, but I couldn't do it.
My dad's has the little knob on the right to micro-adjust the rotation speed of the table.
Taking the time and energy to set up a stereo system that can do justice to your physical media, be it analog or digital allows you to get closer to what the artist(s) intended when they recorded it in a studio. It is like viewing Monet through a black and white prism instead of color. It is the small details that your system is able to pull out of your physical media which allows you and everyone you share the experience with to bask in the joy of pure sound.
I agree - it's an artform in and of itself. My current set-up is fairly cramped but one day, I'll create my audio set-up masterpiece.
I remember going shopping for a high-end stereo on 8th St in the Village, carrying a check for $2,500 that Playboy had just paid me. My plan was to use that amount as my limit and sign over the check to the store. I did exactly that, purchasing 4 Bose "direct-reflecting" speakers, a MacIntosh pre-amp, and an amp I can't recall the name of, but which I was thrilled to see being used by the Grateful Dead when I went backstage and saw the backside of their "Wall of Sound" at Winterland in S.F. with stacks of the amps. The guy from the store played me a track from a Cat Stevens album that featured acoustic guitar through a huge pair of electrostatic speakers. The sound was so clear, it made me nervous. I went with the Bose speakers instead. I didn't want to be nervous every time I turned the thing on.
Indeed - great story! When I bought my current receiver, I went to a high-end store in downtown Toronto and pursued the options with one of the sales guys. We made our way to a Yamaha and the gentleman pointed at it and asked me, "do you know what another name for Yamaha is?" I shrugged. He paused, waited another beat and then pronounced, "bullet (pause) proof." Five minutes later, I laid the cash down on it and eleven-and-a-years later, it's still very much alive and kicking.