Stereophile – August 2019

stereophile.com n August2019 29

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BY MICHAEL FREMER

INSIDERVIEWSONEVERYTHINGVINYL

during the break between Making

Vinyl Berlin, which ended on the

evening of Friday, May 3, and the

May 9 opening of High End 2019, in

Munich. It was only a few days, so it

didn’t make sense to come home. I

could take a well-deserved vacation

somewhere in Europe, but if I did, it

would be without my wife, who has

a real job.

I did once take a much-needed

solo vacation that she didn’t believe I

would take. I invited her to join me

in Hawaii after a late November Los

Angeles and Orange County Audio

Society gala, but she didn’t want to

go, even though, at the time, she

wasn’t working. Part of the reason

was that she didn’t believe I would

go. So when she saw me packing my

snorkeling stuff, she said “Why are

you taking those things?” What fol-

lowed shall remain private.

Back to Berlin: Instead of a vaca-

tion, I hatched an insane plan: CH

Precision’s Raphael Pasche had

invited me to visit their Geneva

manufacturing facility while I was

preparing my review of the M1.1

I

went everywhere!

Attending the two-day Making Vinyl Berlin B2B conference on May

2 and 3 was an obvious decision for me, even if Day 1’s “Physical Media

World Conference” panel discussion was more about optical digital media

than it was about analog vinyl.

The two previous Making Vinyl Detroit conferences I’d participated in had

been successful, well-attended events. This year, organizers Bryan Ekus and Larry

Jaffee invited me to participate in a music journalist’s panel discussion on Day 1

and then to run two vinyl-related panels on Day 2. The venue was the famous

Hansa Studios in the Meistersaal,

where, in the shadow of the Berlin

Wall, David Bowie recorded the

albums “Heroes” and Low. This was a

symposium not to be missed, especially

for this big David Bowie fan who

regularly wakes up in the morning and

reminds himself that he’s still alive and

Bowie isn’t. Plus, the building houses

the Emil Berliner Studios, where mas-

tering engineer Rainer Maillard has his

lacquer-cutting facilities.

Maillard famously wheeled his lathe

down the block to the Berliner Phil-

harmonie to record, direct-to-disc, a

Brahms symphony cycle conducted by

the orchestra’s conductor at the time,

Sir Simon Rattle. Maillard is someone I

certainly wanted to speak to!

The only problem was what to do

I’ve Been Everywhere

THIS ISSUE:Mikeybarnstormscentraland

westernEurope,loseshisluggagetwice,and

givesashout-outtohisfavoriteunderwear.

Above: Home Entertainment Trends According

to the Journalists panel. Left: Rainer Maillard at

his VMS 80/SX-74 Neumann lathe.

PHOTOS: MICHAEL FREMER