"Exciting!" I replied. "I was hoping you’d say this."

"I love it," he said. "It's one of my favorite parts of the job, but it's really difficult."

***

I wasn't taking notes, and it's been four days and fifteen coffees since, so I can't give you all the special little details and all the perfect words, but what's causing John DeVore all the trouble and excitement is a brand new monkey — a new loudspeaker, that is, in his Gibbon line, to fill the obvious gap between his $4000 Super 8 and his king of the jungle Silverback, and to be introduced at the 2007 CES.

I cannot wait to hear them. Listening to these speakers will be a top priority. I hope to give you more information on the process — the passion and pain — of designing a loudspeaker after my visit to the DeVore Fidelity factory next week.

***

I noticed that John had finished his Stella. I gulped down the rest of my coffee, and asked, "Wanna go listen to some music?"

Now at John's Lower East Side apartment — ("This is the last unrenovated unit in the building.") with its claw-foot tub beside the old kitchen sink, its small bathroom stall ("Turn on the light by pulling the string."), its large wooden plank floors, its in-wall LP shelves and its sliding glass doors, separating the listening room from John's wife's office ("This," he knocks on the glass, "was very important for our marriage. It's sound-proof.") — we proceeded to listen to some of the finest, loveliest music I've heard in quite some time.