Audio is about to take a quantum leap forward. Generally speaking, what happens in audio, as in many other fields, is that fashion changes and we come full circle with better technology we've seen this happen with power amplifiers over the last dozen years or so. When tubed units ruled the audiophile's roost, power was the name of the game. In some cases it was a child's game in comparison to what's available now, but 50 watt amplifiers replaced 40 watt units and the champion (for a while) was the huge (and heavy) 100 watt monster. Then transistors came in and we went back to moderate power sizes. Over the last few years we've seen 400 and 500 watt amps and receivers with not much less power enter the market.

Much the same can be said of speakers and their styles. Once reflex speakers dominated the market and then they gave way to air suspension speakers, typified by Acoustic Research models. Now, reflex speakers are again coming into favor and around we go again.

Ot^do we? There have been some real changes in the market and more changes are coming. The principal change is one of price. Very simply stated, while the price of most items is escalating rapidly, the price of audio equipment is coming down. If you look at a 1970 audio catalog, you might well see a solid state 20 watt per channel Marantz receiver for around $400. Today a comparable receiver is available for a list price of half that. You figure in the inflation that has hit the U.S. economy in the intervening years and the beating the dollar has taken

against the yen in only the last year and you realize that something amazing has taken place.

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Not only is the receiver of today a better buy in terms of hard cash, but if you look at the specs other than power, you'll find that quality of the product has improved immensely.

Let's take a look at that Marantz receiver which sold in 1970 for $425 and a current $200 receiver and see what we get. While Marantz is deservedly an honored name, let's take a name that is, perhaps, not quite so revered. Let's look at the JVC JR-S100 receiver. It's the low end of JVC's line. It packs 20 watts per channel with

0.5% distortion against the Marantz Model 22 of 1970 which delivered the same power at 0.3% THD. The JVC's FM sensitivity figure is 2.2 uV vs. the Marantz's 2.4. Separation figures give the edge to the Marantz with its 40 dB against the JVC's 35. And in capture ratio both come in with 2.5 dB figures.

Let's take a look at what the years have done to Marantz. Say you wanted to go into a ballpark area of $425 for a receiver and wanted to buy a Marantz. What would the equivalent of the 1970 Model 22 be? You'll find it'listed in the catalog as Model 2252B (at $460) giving you 52 watts per channel with 0.05% distortion, while the old 22gave you 20 watts with 0.3% distortion. Other interesting comparative specs ..give the edge to the newer model by far. FM sensitivity is 1.9 uV rather than 2.4. Capture ratio shows the 2252B with 1.0 against 2.5 for the 22.

So, eight years has given you more power and improved spec for essentially the same dollars. Try pricing out a Chevy the same way and see what happens. Dollar for dollar, audio electronics is one of the best values on the American market today.

But, there is more than increased value in audio today. We are on the brink of a revolution. The opening shots have been fired and while the results are not in, the end is not really in doubt. Computer circuitry is coming to audio. In the past year or so we have seen the introduction of several units that are microprocessor controlled. That is, they do reasonably conventional things, but what makes them do those things is a microprocessor rather than a simple switch or lever or other controlling device.

Perhaps the first shot in the revolution was fired by ADC when they introduced their Accutrac 4000 turntable. A direct drive unit with good specs, this single play unit could pick out particular tracks on a record and play them in any pre-selected order. Two features make this turntable possible. The first is the light sensing device that "sees" the light reflected by the non-music bands between cuts on a disc and the second (and to us, more important) is the microprocessor which accepts, stores and sends signals to act on commands punched into it via the keyboard. Incidentally, the full control section (which includes up to 13 tracks, a button where all the tracks are played in order, cueing, stop and repeat) is duplicated on a remote control unit which looks like a calculator.

Sharp's RT-3388 is a microprocessor controlled cassette deck. The first of its kind. The unit will find the start of any song on a cassette as long as you know which number in the sequence it is. The all ills, my love and I climbed the four flights to Shark's railroad flat and knocked.

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The apartment door flew open. Shark smiled a greeting—the full six feet, one and a half inches of him stuffed tidily into a pair of bone-colored, dark-topped, fancy-stitched, lizard wing-tipped genuine Tony Lamas boots. Exactly, precisely la meme fucking chose.

The end (almost). The next size up boots arrived just before Christmas this year—that is, I repeat, twelve months later—after I'd spent about three quarter of a million dollars on long distance phone charges tracking them down. They fit, and just in time...again. That evening we were going to see Willie— her number one cowboy hero—Nelson perform in person at the dress rehearsal for his Saturday Night Live appearance.

Mounting her new boots for the first time, the girl told me the wait had been worth it. I almost believed her. That evening at the rehearsal, half the audience wore cowboy boots. I almost cried.

Later that night, during an impromptu set by Willie at a local music bar, everyone wore not just cowboy boots but authentic Tony Lamas, and now I wept openly. Cowboy was In.

Epilogue: Three weeks later the "Best Bets" section of New York magazine reports that some Soho dandy store is now selling silver tips for all your authentic cowboy boots.

Five weeks later, we attend the Willie Nelson/Waylon Jennings press party at the Rainbow Room and we both wear cowboy boots (she has purchased me a pair at Miller's on East 24th Street in the heart of pokey ol' Manhattan). This night, the crowd sports evening clothes. Didn't we know that Cowboy was Out?