Back to Reality

Some philosophical soul once wrote that one of the greatest pleasures that travel affords you is returning home. With Las Vegas, the sheer scale and insanity gets to you after a while and most of my fellow HiFi journalists (we all met up at the terminal on the way back) agreed that they were delighted to be leaving. I call it Vegas Ennui.
That said, it was an amazing trip, with quicker live reporting than I have ever done, along with stuff to be collated and written for a couple of big features in Fast Car as well as huge versions with more photography for us here on Talk Audio. As I write, the Fast Car magazine version of the Gimme Richter story has been published and that pulls the trigger for the Guinness Book of Records Application, with letters from witnesses needed. To which end can we put the word out to find the few folks who were there as mere passengers and have them PM me? They can be part of the process.
I’ll try to add the Editor Review section to the Massive DC12 woofer test that was in a high state of readiness before I left for Vegas and will get on with writing up the Galpin Scythe. (suggestion – check out the YouTube build-video of the same name – it’ll poke your brains out and we’ll include it in the feature when that appears.) I met some amazing people and a selection of the biggest, most nutty transducers ever in my whole life. The maddest of all is by Cadence, although unlike the MTX Jackhammers it does look like a hand assembled item, and is fully 34 inches of sheer absurdity. Last time I looked, the brand was being distributed in the UK out of a shop near my home in North West London but I doubt they have any of these in for stock!
Absolutely smashed out of my mind with Jetlag, the Boss was telling me that some of the lads on my plane were back at their desks selling the day they returned, which is insane. I did manage to get some sleep on the plane but take one look at the average seat in coach and then at my bulk. Six feet two, shoulders like an Ox and padded all over like a duvet. Like a pair of Skis or a Double Bass luggage item, I am what’s called ‘Out of Gauge’ or bigger than the normal system is made to handle.
Thus, I don’t sleep well on planes, so apologies for lack of ruggedness – I make up for it in other ways like bass energy resistance (that’d be the blubbery layer again!)
Here’s looking forward to a nutty 2009, as there are still going to be cool cars and shows, just a few less of them perhaps.
Adam Rayner – Online Editor