Liner Notes 001, The Door Is Open

Sonic Temple Audio is open. Online at sonictempleaudio.com, and in person at 215 East Lewis Street, suite 301, in Livingston. Third floor, by appointment, free. There is no window on Main Street to walk past. There is a stairway, a door, and a room with chairs in it, and that room is shared with a recording studio, so some days it is a control room and some days it is a place to sit for an hour with a pair of headphones.

Here is what is in there to hear right now. A Sennheiser HD 800 and an HD 650. An Oppo PM-3. A FiiO FT-1. A Grado SR60x sitting next to an RS1x, which is the most useful ten minutes I can offer anybody. Bring the music you know best. An hour is enough, two is better, and nobody is going to stand at your elbow while you use it.

The website is the other half of it. Everything on it is something I would own. If you want to know what a pair actually sounds like before you spend the money, that is what the room is for, and it is why the room costs nothing.

About the waiting. I worked at HeadRoom in Bozeman for years, handing headphones across a counter to people who had driven a long way to try them, and I have wanted my own version of that room ever since. This year I built this business three times and threw two of them away, including one that was making money, because it was not the shop I wanted to run. So this is not a milestone, and I am not going to dress it up as one. It is closer to a phone call. The thing I have been talking about is real now, it is a short drive off the interstate, and you can come and see it.

One note on what this is. After this, a letter comes when there is something worth sending: what came in, what we listened to, what we got wrong. No schedule and no invented reasons to hurry. Six good letters a year beats twelve dutiful ones, and you will not hear from us in between.

If you want an hour in the room, write back and we will find one. If you are too far away for that, write back anyway and tell me what you are listening on. I read all of it.

Jamey