As a journalist who is a veteran of combat in the rock and roll wars, I get a perverse pleasure from writing about electronics. Partly because electronics are the media of our time and have more to do with the propagation of rock and roll than even the music itself, but mainly because I don’t have to interview any musicians to write about electronics. And after conversational contact with almost two thousand of those creative geniuses who are what’s happening, that’s a big plus. In fact, electronics writing is a pretty insular affair. I don’t have to shlep to any concerts to watch my brothers and sisters ODing around me; the only power I’m concerned with are the wattage values of amplifiers; and it is infrequent that, anyone will keep me on the phone for half an hour asking me if I’ve listened to their new turntable.

So it was with a great deal of hesitation that I accepted an invitation extended by Pioneer Electronics to attend a press party in honor of their new line of equipment. I’ve gotten gun shy of press parties because of my rock and roll experiences where such events usually come down to nothing more than a lurching contest between the members of the group and the members of the press, with the group winning because they get to play for an Jio.iir or two and, simultaneously, the bar gets closed down.