I hear it all the time: “If you haven’t used it in six months, throw it out!” “It’s just collecting dust!” “Now you’ve got to think of the essential things…” Advocates of senior down-sizing, with the diatribe one receives from the most well-intentioned friends and family at every turn, have not won their case this time.
The fact is, it had been even more than six months that we’d been enjoying a new gadget: a compact, first-class hi-fi speaker made in England by Naim that provides its own amplification, and fills the room with gorgeous sound. It was meant as a medium-sized solution for online concert broadcasts and Youtube discoveries, taking so little space and providing so much real pleasure. And it would replace the cumbersome old sound system.
So, the large-sized pair of Danish Dynaudio speakers, purchased back when we could easily afford them, along with their separate Denon mono blocks for 2 x 600 watts of distortion-free total experience had been sadly left in place, unused and barren, unconnected even to the latest Marantz CD player bought specially to go with the new compact speaker. For several months they had been vaguely on sale on a free website for used but pricey material.
Last week, in an attempt to make some space in this front room which serves so many purposes and already houses a grand piano, they were put back on sale, with the notice “URGENT” and an especially attractive price. Of course, it made an electroshock among those specialized readers. Within an hour I had serious offers to have them picked them up the next morning, sight-unseen, cash in hand. It was exhilarating when the phone rang off the wall: the most eager of them said he’d take the amplifiers too, if he could just hear them. Fine, I said – performing a slow, dry Eve Arden drawl including eye roll to the sky — knowing that getting out the cables and hooking them up to performance standards might involve more than just two steps. Well somehow, after dusting off the stunning black-lacquered speakers and moving behind the furniture where the amps were condemned to silence, we got the rig going within minutes, to prepare for a pickup early the next morning. We cleaned our hands and breathed in relief.
Then it happened. Jacques put a CD on the tray, and Music performed it’s miracle. Everybody reading this knows that feeling: Like when you hear the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for the first time, at the Met; When you hear a truly grand organ in a magnificent vaulted cathedral; When you hear the first notes of a recital in a true concert hall (I’m thinking Carnegie, but there are so many great ones now). We sat, slowly, in the nearest available chairs, jaws dropped, dumbfounded by the clarity, depth, transparence of a simple recording of Rameau played on a piano exquisitely by Clément Lefebvre. It wasn’t enough. From the wall, Jacques pulled some Ravel, with orchestra, a vintage version with the wonderful, swelling phrases played with a rubato and a sentiment that is distinctly typical of years gone by. Then, silence. There was nothing to say. After a mutual glance, and a simple acknowledgement of the other’s presence, I moved slowly to the telephone, to announce to the buyer that there was a change of plans, the speakers and amps were no longer for sale.
Of course he thought this was crazy, so said to me, “OK you’ve had another offer, how much do you want?” I smiled, still with a lump in my throat, as I couldn’t believe this emotion that had just struck as surely as a clap of thunder. Once again in my life I knew Gratitude, that wonderful discovery that you already possess the thing you love the most in the world. It couldn’t have been clearer. Well, the music has been continuous since that day. In fact, we figured out how to use the little speaker simultaneously for even more room-filling effect. It’s really as if going through each CD in this rich, life-long collection is a new discovery, an adventure, of unlimited potential. The indoor bike, the spacious canape, can wait. I know again what I’ve got right here, and it’s going to be enjoyed. For many years.