Sound report My system is monaural. I use a Garrard 401 motor and Denon DL-102 monaural cartridge mounted on an oil-damped tonearm for phono reproduction. The DL-102 cartridge is designed to output mono signal from a stereo LP, so it does not endanger modern LPs. It is used at AM broadcast stations for this purpose. To obtain a mono signal from CD and DAT, I made up a converter using some transformers, capacitors, and resistors. I chose my VT25/801A push-pull preamplifier to drive the new 845 amplifier. The 801A has a uniquely beautiful character in the high frequencies, which I think would combine well with the 845's rich and powerful midrange. First I Iistened to Duke Jordan trio playing "A Night in Tunisia" and "Summer Time.'" I lost my words... The sound appeared suddenly as if an apparition and the audio system vanished. This amplifier destroys a wall between me and the jazz players. In Art Blakey"s solo drumming in "A Night in Tunisia" and in Jordan's piano in "Summer Time," I see their philosophy of life. The amorphous core transformer has powerful and speedy bass. The 845 is very powerful. But the most important goal is not 'power,' but 'energy' and 'frame of tone.' The only way to get Energy and Frame is to mount many transformers, although I can't tell you a scientific reason for this. 845 driving amorphous core transformers can shade the sound of music. I see the human story in the bright and shadow of 845's tone. To use an example from the painterly arts, Rembrandt's expression through light and shadow is marvellous. Most figures on his canvas reside in darkness. Lighted figures he draws only partially. Our eyes are initially drawn to the lighted part, but to recognize Rembrandt's theme, the darkest areas need to be searched. Darkness is silence; this darkness includes many subtleties to which we must listen. Darkness makes us search our imagination. Amplifier builders seem to think that clear and "accurate" tone can express the essence of music. I need non-analytical tone in reproduced sound. I aspire to Rembrandt's interplay of light and shadow, to evoke memories both happy and sad. My audio life is to make emotional shadows from sounds. Hints are found in the many transformers. I draw the contrasts with transformers and tubes. I hope the amplifiers will be my portrait. Ending I come back to myself when the Lowther PM6 unit tells me the end of LP. I go to the player and lift the arm. As I return the LP to the shelf, I notice a book resting there. That small volume, "Opium" by Jean Cocteau, has greatly influenced me and my audio life. I read again. "When I record my poets, I dislike the notion of taking a picture of a voice. I notice there is a problem. If this problem can be solved, the recordings will turn from being the camera for our ears to become a new tool for our hearing. Then this new tool promises us new surprise future. The machine's hard voice is not same as my voice and is the result of the co-operation with human and machine. Don't admire machine. Don't regard machine as tool which we can control easily. And create with machine." I close the book It is evening by this time