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	PAYING THE RENT/ RAVING THE VENT So I ended up in New York City, where the East Village is “just a little” more popular now than 20 years ago when I arrived. Just a few months before leaving town, my shop lease expired, and the landlord wanted to double the rent. (Commercial leases are not bound by rent control, and $1,800 seemed a little steep for a measly 450 square feet plus six floors overhead of potentially leaking bathrooms.) When someone mentions building an audio facility in New York City, I realize that those self-administered shock therapy treatments were beneficial. For me, the transition from the Big Apple to the Mini-Apple was mildly traumatic, as any move would be. I was too busy getting back into the biz to worry about culture shock; the biggest hassle was getting a quick cuppa cappa. What was formerly an enjoyable walk now requires a car. In New York City, at least 90% of my biz was walk-in. Compare that to the Twin Cities, where most business now arrives via UPS and FedEx, a factor that has radically changed one facet of my servicing technique. In New York, I could be a “cowboy,” providing reasonably fast turnaround, knowing that any problem child could be “returned to day care for conflict management.” Now, with shipping time and costs, all machines spend more time on the burn-in rack. For a while, Panasonic DAT decks were so problematic that post-surgery monitoring was extended to three days to make sure they stayed fixed. This is not the way to increase profit margin, but the process eventually shed some light on the cause of the failures. The mysterious problems have since been nailed. New Yorkers generally don’t like to ship, because there’s no space to store the original packing materials. Add in the fear of shipping damage and compare both to the ease of getting into a cab. If you must ship and don’t own the original box, then use two boxes. When possible, choose heavyweight, double-wall cardboard, rated for 275 to 350 pounds. Bubble-wrap the device in the first box and use packing peanuts in between the two boxes. Insure for the list price. Don’t ship the power cord unless it is unique. Include a description of the problem with the device. But enough about me. Here are some random musings for you, along with the answers to some questions you’ve sent my way. ANALOG REBIRTH The rebirth of analog technology—and the cottage industry that supports it—owes thanks to the CD and to digital naysayers. All of the enhanced digital formats that offer higher sampling rates and bit depths will make digital audio more accurate, but none will endow it with analog’s “elusive and desirable idiosyncrasies.” In the achievable-reality department, we all need to be careful what we wish for. One example is 24-bit technology, where even the most expensive 24-bit converters barely achieve 21.5-bits. Admittedly, this is an impressive accomplishment—24-bits is more than en ough, and more samples will push the envelope of what is possible. All the licensing and format wars aside, we need to increase user confidence in digital technology so that it is considered sonically accurate by the majority and have long-term data integrity. __ Reprinted with permission from Magazine, February, 2001 © 2000, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved [an error occurred while processing this directive]