Listening

There was a fight. And when the fight took a turn for the worse and things began being broken and thrown, it was time to leave. Not later. Not soon. Now.

- Art Dudley

Cohearing, Part One

Which meant he had to get as much stuffdownstairs and out to the curb in as few trips as possible. Clothes and a few treasured paintings and photos were musts. LPs were left behind and written off. (Too many to haul, too difficult to choose just a few.) Likewise, the amps and turntables were written off—someday there would be others. And the loudspeakers, in their custom-made one-offcabinets, were over 5' tall: might as well try moving the refrigerator out of the apartment. Twice.

But the loudspeaker drivers were another story: two vintage Altec 604E full-range units, each as big around as a snare drum and more or less the weight of a small microwave oven, yet as fragile as a Ming vase—and presently bolted fast to those refrigeratorsize cabinets.

As glasses were smashed and books torn and cool was lost so thoroughly it might never again be found, he made a hasty decision. My best audio friend ever grabbed a screwdriver and began undoing the bolts that held the Altecs in place. If you can imagine unbolting those bolts to the sounds of screamed epithets and threats of financial and physical ruin, you can also imagine how easy it would have been to have slipped, under stress, and punctured the cones with the screwdriver—at least one hole in each driver. But never mind that: In minutes, the Altecs and their companion crossover boxes were freed from their moorings. In one minute more they were on the curb, and their owner went out the door for the last time.

Sixty-nine