The Audio/Train Connection
When I started writing about audio, several eons ago, the
conventional wisdom had it that most audiophiles were also interested in photography.
Audio and photo magazines regularly pitched each other's subscription lists, in the
knowledge that the groups were so similar in interest that many would want to buy both
types of publication.
Virtually everyone I got to know in audio was also an
accomplished photographer, and most held their Nikons and Rolleiflexes in the same esteem
as their Marantz preamps and their AR3a or JBL L100 speakers. In my case, I shot with a
1954 Leica M3, bequested to me by a grandmother who was an avid photog until cataracts
made using the camera impossible.
I continued to dig out the M3 now and again over the years,
although its relentlessly non-automatic nature required a fairly intimate knowledge of the
picture-taking process and a willingness to devote a fair bit of time to every shot. For
regular work purposes, I found a more prosaic Pentax SLR more useful. I found I could
shoot and wind with one hand while holding a drink and a cigarette in the other. I'm not
sure my employers properly valued this versatility, but I did get some great pictures.
There seems to be a similar relationship between audio and
cars. I've never felt this myself, having driven a series of wrecks over the past decade
or so. But most of my closest colleagues have always had very upscale cars. All of them,
needless to say, have great sound systems, but that's incidental; the cars themselves are
what's important.
I recently discovered a third companion to audiophilia.
Several years ago, as a Christmas present, my wife gave me a wristwatch that commemorated
Lionel model trains. Instead of a second hand, it has a little train that chugs around a
track on the watch face, and if you push a button on one side it emits a series of very
convincing train noises (steam, of course). I have since learned that any hobby shop can
sell you a little battery-operated box that makes the same noises, driven by the same
chip.
I began to sense the connection between audio and electric
trains when I wore the watch to the pressroom of the Consumer Electronics Show. Everyone
wanted to hear the sounds, and one prominent audio journalist was particularly anxious to
find out if the train whistle sound was exactly the same as that of his childhood Lionel
set (it apparently was).
One female acquaintance, who does tech support for a major
hi-fi company, confessed that she co-opted her brother's trains, and still ran them. I
believe she was the first woman I ever met who was interested in model trains. There are,
however, lots.
In my case, audio and trains were always closely linked. I
have to admit to being a bit of a brand snob in that I always felt -- my current watch
notwithstanding -- that Lionel stuff sucked. It had those three tracks, which made
electrical sense but was totally unrealistic. I was an American Flyer partisan: two tracks
and much more realistic scaling.
I think my father liked to lavish train things on me to
compensate for the rather Spartan upbringing he had as a small-town clergyman's kid.
Whatever the reason, I got train stations that talked, people that walked on and off
trains, coal hoppers that dumped, and enough rolling stock to keep a miniature Amtrak
going for a long time. FAO Schwartz in New York -- the major purveyor of American Flyer
gear -- could have declared an extra dividend based on what my father bought there.
In my teens, I thought of electric trains as toys, and I
was turning my interest to other things, notably electronics. In those days, that meant
high-fidelity sound equipment, and I was determined to get what I could of that.
I put an ad in the local paper to sell my trains, and a
hobbyist who could hardly believe his luck showed up in nanoseconds. He handed me 200
bucks in traveler's checks, and carted away all my prized American Flyer equipment.
I immediately used the money to buy some of my earliest
audio gear, and that -- some years later -- led to a career in audio. But I have always
missed those trains.
Then, some months ago, my wife and I were cruising the
local megastore and we saw a train set marked down to 50 bucks. For some weird reason, the
supermarket chain was into the choo-choo biz, as they had apparently been doing for years.
Their trains were of superior quality; a whole setup cost less than a locomotive alone at
a hobby store.
We now have a couple of trains, but no permanent setup for
them -- that'll have to wait for a special train room.
But that will not be too far off. My audio gear, including
several tons of vinyl and tape, has moved with me from place to place for years. Frankly,
the train stuff takes up less space; it can come too.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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