Actually no. I thought I was gonna go there till the horizontal period of my life. Circumstances etc make that I am not there this year and how do I feel about it? I feel great! Of course I will miss the atmosphere, I will miss the friends from all over the world, but … do I miss some of the crazy dinners that cost a few 1000 US $ a person (yes, that is correct!!!)? No, I don’t miss that. Do I miss the hours of waiting in line for a taxi? No I don’t miss that. Do I miss all the new companies which won’t be there anymore next year? Mmm, kind of. They might not return next year, but they have a passion, an idea, they want to share. I think that is great, even if they don’t survive. I will miss that.

I see now audio journalists making statements they won’t be there as with all the digital tools it is easier (and cheaper) to catch the news at home than on location … how sad this is. Without all the trouble, without all the costs. It reminds me of things I describe now and then in a file “the portable computer still does not exist”. It’s funny that very often it’s really a kind of science-fiction. I write something and a few months later it is kind of “normal and accepted”. It kind of worries me. Lately I mentioned that I was afraid we were going to end up as real people in an empty room laying on a virtual sofa waiting for the ordered digital orgasm to pass by. So Ladies and gentlemen stay analog instead as long as you can.

We are lucky to have still enough “analog” around us. Music of course, but also in every other possible field you can think of. Photography, art, food preparing etc. Maybe not 100% perfect, but still enough old fashioned “feeling” in it to enjoy it more and better than the so-called always “perfect” (whatever) technically planned and executed digital way.

That’s why I still have most fun with products like phono-cartridges and tubes. Maybe old fashioned, but oh what a lot of pleasure.  And oh what a lot of pleasure to be able to announce “new” old fashioned products in these categories. Even while not being physically in Las Vegas. So in tomorrow’s blog I will be happy to announce some “old-style” new analog product we introduce in Las Vegas. Another 2014 Good News Day.