I guess year end is as good a time as any to ruminate about the state of the art. Between contemplating the goodies under the tree and making up lists of resolutions, a little reflection is not lost.

A few months ago,, a friend loaned me an LED power output meter for my amp. Now, I've always wanted a power meter (they're sexy, but that gets ahead of the story) and visions of dancing LEDs danced in my head as giddily as visions of sugarplums at Christmas. However, my private light show was not to be .

Sure, the unit worked well. The problem was that my amp with 200 watts per side was too powerful to give anything but the smallest indication of strain. In fact, for most of the time I just got a light that said, "Hey, jerk, I'm ready. Put it to me." Well, not wanting to be thought a jerk, leastways by a dumb machine, I readjusted its scale and told the meter that it was attached to an 80 watt amp. "Now," I thought, "I'll get some deflection and the glow of different colored lights." Well, yeah, I finally got something—about 30% at peak points which were incredibly loud.

Now, what does all this mean? It means that for my system, 200 watts a channel is overkill by a prodigious amount. It means that the way I listen to music, I don't really go above 25 watts most of the time. Yet I have an amplifier that looks like a mother and weighs like a gorilla.

We're in a power race! In the last year three receivers (from Pioneer, Technics and Marantz) have been introduced as "The Most Powerful." They sport amplifiers well in excess of 200 watts a side. Unless you've got a system that's significantly more inefficient than mine or you're trying to get an acceptable acoustic level for the Sahara, you're buying more power than you need. A glance through Audio's Annual Equipment Directory revealed a total of well over 700 speaker systems. Of those, only half a dozen required over 100 watts with even fewer needing 75. Most speaker systems require minimum amp power of under 30 watts.

The argument that has long been advanced for super amps has been that of "headroom." That does not mean a place to stash your grass, but "power in reserve to get those crashing transient peaks with no distortion." The power

that is currently being given for amplifiers is continuous power. That means the power your amp is capable of delivering for long periods, For those transient peaks, an amp can rise to the occasion and give you that something extra. Another argument for the super amps has been if it can deliver collossal power at minimum distortion figures, it should be able to glide along at less power with less distortion.

That's a theory with two problems. Some amps are far more efficient at full power.. They heat less. The more important problem is that if the level of distortion is below your audible threshold, who cares how much lower it is?

So what are amp and receiver manufacturers doing? In a way, they are playing the high school macho game of "mine is longer than yours". In this case mine is more powerful than yours. The rational solution is, of course, Abe Lincoln's. The famous story goes that when Lincoln was asked how long a man's legs should be, he replied, "Long enough to reach the ground". How powerful should an amp be?. Logically, powerful enough to power the speakers of your choice at just more than acceptable levels with no audible distortion. That should leave you enough reserve power for those peaks.

Power Trip

There's another Power Game going on around the country. While it is currently pretty much restricted to major cities, last summer saw the proliferation of the "Blackout Special." The name is a generic New Yprk term referring to the dubious origin of many of the very expensive "portable" radio/ cassette deck combinations that began to overrun the Big Apple after the blackout and looting of summer '77. The concept of toting a very heavy radio around became a status symbol in and around the urban ghetto.

When I was a kid, transistors were just coming in and I had a large and heavy battery-powered portable. It was about as portable for a 10-year-old as a refrigerator. But it made me the hit of my school class at World Series time. Within a few years, transistors came in and the concept of "transistor radio" (synonymous with small radio) took hold.

A generation has grown up bopping to a tiny radio cupped to the ear. The current teenage crop is growing up listening to one side. These radios can weigh in at around 20 pounds and I fear that many people are growing up with one arm a fraction of an inch longer than the other—a feat that took Whitey Ford a career of Hall of Fame pitching to accomplish.

What are these black plastic covered monsters? Again, they are frequently overkill. They have two speakers designed for stereo, "biphonic" or super mono. They have a cassette player and usually record capability as well and they have multi-bands. AM/FM and a couple of short wave bands are thrown in. Exactly who listens to short wave broadcasts in the middle of an urban jungle is an open question. In terms of amplification, they are monstrous compared to the shirt pocket or wrist strap models we were used to. Those had power measured in milliwatts or fractions of milliwatts. These have a few real watts; puny by comparison to the hundreds we've been discussing, but mighty compared to its ancestors. The speakers are also mighty; instead of the one 1-inch speaker, these have speaker systems. One comes with a two way system with a 6V2-inch woofer. And* oh yes, the price—they cost in the hundreds of dollars. The one with the speakers mentioned above goes for $330.

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But 1 called the fad a Power Game; where's the real power? It's a variation on "mine is longer than yours." The ability to play music that is so overpowering that it can disturb an entire car on a moving New York subway bespeaks power second only to the Big Bomb itself.

Big Balls

Another current vogue is for open reel tape decks with 10V2-inch reels. Now, large reels have a legitimate purpose on many machines. If you are recording at 15 ips a 7-inch reel of tape simply won't last long enough for many applications. And 15 ips is a realistic tape speed for professionals and semipros.

But I know people who will buy an inferior (according to the specs) deck in order to get one with large reels. Those reels at 7V2 or 33A ips are more of a pain in the butt than you might believe. Trying to find a particular song on a 1200 or 1800 foot 7-inch reel pan be an unpleasant chore, but try to find three minutes of music on 3600 feet representing 90 minutes at W2 ips or 180 minutes at 33A.

If we explain the attraction of overkill in amps and radios as penis envy, how do we explain the fetish for large reels? I have a feeling that an answer can be found in the configuration of the deck itself.

What you've got are Big Balls. In fact on many decks, they are oversized. They extend over the edges of the cabinet. They drip (ooze, ejaculate?) masculinity. Combine that with the sexy attraction of large meters and you've got a very powerful attraction indeed.

Logic And Sex Appeal

What I've given you has been a series of logical arguments against certain trends in audio designed to capitalize on some of our baser or more basic instincts. They apply almost exclusively to men who at this point do mfike up the bulk of the buying public.

One thing I'd just like to state is that while I understand the intellectual fallacies involved, I'm not likely to give

up my 200 watt per side Dyna amp. In fact, 1 might like even more. If I was in the market for portable music, I might well opt for something like a JVC monster. After all, the sound really is better than the transistor jobs of the past. And I really crave a good quality open reel deck with IOV2 reels. Mine would, of course, have a 15 ips speed as well as 7 Wand possibly 3%.

Is the overkill worth it? Probably not on the tangibles, but the intangibles of life can sometimes be ever so much more satisfying.