Design jokes from the Web

Japanese weirdness: a giant Tetsujin 28...

No comment!

Tetsujin 28 on You Tube

WJAAS - Japanese debrises or an afterword

As it is quite clear, my interest for Japan and Japanese people and facts to the broader extent isn't like a flu... it's not something I'll easily recover from... it's a love for life!

From the several - thanks all - messages I received since I began my recent Japanese diary, one by Mirco Denti impressed me as he touched the core of my quest - i.e. why having such an experience... what's the reason.

Being hungry and thirsty of knowledge and of Life isn't a reason... it's DNA;-) - so what?!?!

As Mirco wrote:

"A BEN PENSARE ESSI STESSI - SAKUMA, ENDO, SHINDO, IMAI... - STANNO
ANCORA CERCANDO."
[It seems them all - SAKUMA, ENDO, SHINDO,IMAI - are still looking for (absolute musical truth)]

... I heartfeltly agree, as this was the hidden message to be read in my report... during my visits I met the antiquarian, the hyper-tech-head, the romantic artisan, the bohemienne, the musicophile, the cleverly artful, the collector and the old sage.

They all someway scratched the Truth and know - partially - about the Mistery of Music and its reproduction at home, but no one owns the Absolute Truth.

Tubes, horns, solid state, digital, analog - all the above and more - are means and the faces of a multi-faced "Thing".

They all look for it - let's call it "Emotion", like we all do, period... because there is no "one" Truth!

Almost a Zen tale;-)

... and like in every trip with capital "T"... it's far, FAR more important the route than the destination itself, as very often there is no "destination" - i.e. - The End of The Search and Quest for The Very Best - at all.

This is the case, folks... what I hoped to find out, I found!

P.S. - Only one of my hosts used to speak about his gears and goals in the above terms, as something able to "emotion" at home like a real performance... won't say who.

WJAAS - An ending...

... as it began, I'd wish to finish this Japan trip report returning, after audio and related stuffs, to what's most important: Music... music played on real instruments... the real thing!

Always in Ochanomizu station area, a very musical area, as per the superb record shops I found (and talked about), can't resist in briefly reporting about the great musical instrument-shops which are scattered for kilometers...

Beside I played nice, often superb acoustic and classical guitars in Nashville, Dublin, NYC, Los Angeles, Berkeley, London, Paris, Madrid and Salzburg... must say what I found in a couple of shops is worth "hey days" at Matt Umanov, Mandolin Bros, George Gruhn and Gryphon's shops in my early '90s travels... at few hundreds meters from each other I played an original '70s Zemaitis acoustic, a '48 Martin D-28, a '43 Gibson LG-00, a '64 Martin 00-28, a beautiful (reissue) Martin 00-45 Jimmie Rogers in Brazilian/Adirondack...

The staff in these shops - mostly gifted musicians - were extremely kind and knowledgeable, never worried about damaging often precious instruments, in the 7-digits price-tags and willing in letting them play.

Another aspect of a great city, Tokyo, where the wealthy pocket is TRULY able to find virtually everything.

Again, sayonara... 'til the next time.

WJAAS - The best of the crop: A.L.E. Acoustic Laboratories

Like a cherry on a cake, Tadao Endo's A.L.E. Acoustics Laboratories visit in Yokohama-shi suburbs represented the azimuth of my knowledge audio quest or pilgrimage, like recently named it Johannes LeBong.

I had a date with Endo-san for that day... took my Shinkansen to Yokohama-shi, changed train to reach another station, then another local train and arrived, as per Endo-san's instructions to my destination...

Out of the station, as happened other times, like a lion;-) I cleverly choose my "victim" - usually a smart, intelligent, cool looking guy - whose I asked to call A.L.E.'s telephone number I had handy, explaining and complaining, yet politely, about the poor english spoken by my host...

After some "arigato" and bows to the guy who helped me, in five minutes a gentleman in a small japanese car approached me at the station and after greetings and more bows, we headed in few minutes to his workshop and, as I discovered soon, home.

We entered the workshop where the only employee was carefully examinating and defect-proofing some 15" paper woofer cones...

Tadao Endo-san showed to me EVERYTHING!!!

The BIG, HUGE 100 kilos raw permendule magnets, semi-finished, YEN 6,5 millions worth super tweeters, horns... everything!

In a moment, after a steep iron stairs we were in his home and music room... introduced to his wife and his daugther, Chikako Ono-sama.

Green tea and fresh fruit was kindly served in few moments and, with precious support of a computer, Yahoo Japan translator and Chikako's support, Tadao-san and me had a GREAT, informative chat; he also proudly showed to me a "family pictures album", with greatest audio systems he installed worldwide, and, again, that already felt "proud to be Italian" strange feeling: my friend Eugenio Lazzari and Tadao Endo in a picture, with 5 ways, all top of the line A.L.E.'s drivers in Marco's system in Bologna, Italy.

My friend Gianni began working on this system and amplification/x-over related troubles some months ago... a big, impressive, complex system, indeed.

In the LARGE, for both japanese and european standards, Endo's music room, a 4 ways self-contained spakers system, named "Incense", multi-amped with Telefunken's and japanese made EL-34 push-pull amps and disk playback only, I listened to A.L.E.'s musical and audio vision.

A violin, a cello and piano, some jazz... all was dynamically beautiful, quick, pellucid and easy to the ear.

Endo-san showed and let me handle berillyum and FRP/Berillyum diaphgrams and, proudly, showed two Ikeda-san made cartridges.

One was so similar to my pipe I put on the coffee table for comparison.

What can I say? If someone is after audio and music reproduction at home, should taste and have a listen to this super-expensive, ultra-cleverly hand made stuffs, period.

The sound is so far from previous Akihabara's sound like Mars from Earth.

It's music... Music... MUSIC!

That's the trick, the little, great secret... the hidden message in our wonderful, unique passion: good audio let's (better) understand music and its message.

Not noise, BUT Music.

That's it.

Sayonara.

WJAAS - Too much honey, folks?!?! Here is some pepper...

Seems I only have good (audio) experiences, don't you?!?!

False!;-)

The yuppie, '80s sound, too loud, too expensive, too shouting, too... everything, BUT so afar from Music spirit and Soul, it happened, at least once, in an Akihabara's upper-class, upper-floor audio salon...

The owner/employee was, like the BIG sound coming from this system... well, ignorant: in approach, empathy, kindness... like in imaging and detailing.

Once, but it happened... like the man in the shop, the sound coming from this very big-bucks audio system was nasty, overwordy, shouting, unnatural and "wrong", period...

When I quitted greeting and thanking in Nihongo... too late, pal...

Ah!

Japanese details: some pixes...