I had forgotten how much I missed listening
I sat quietly and listened to music. I didn’t get any work done this afternoon! Luckily, this review actually is work-adjacent…
That sentence sounds almost embarrassingly simple. But I realized how long it had been since I had allowed myself to do it, without working, testing, designing, answering, building, or being “busy.” I had forgotten how much I missed sitting in a room and letting music be the only thing demanding my attention.
The room became the stage
We were not confined to a tiny, approved listening position.
We spent much of the evening in the family room toward the back of this part of the house. From there, singers, guitarists, and drummers sounded as if they were performing in the front room.
I walked through the house while the music played. It remained surprisingly loud, clear, and coherent away from the speakers, particularly in the hallways.
It sounded as though the performance had taken possession of that entire part of our home.
We followed the music wherever it led us
There was no formal listening checklist. We did not sit with clipboards, swap cables every 45 seconds, or reduce music to a sequence of approved audiophile sound effects.
At some point, without deciding to, we settled into our own private Eva Cassidy concert.
We had stopped reviewing the system.
The system disappeared into the experience it had created
The Cabasse Pearl Akoya convinced me on performance. But the strongest thing I can say about it is not technical.
It made me sit quietly and listen to music again.
Then my love came home, sat with me, and the review became a date.
The system disappeared into the experience it had created.