Class distinction

摘要

Phone calls from company spokespersons such as Marantz's Steve Harris, are generally one of two types. Either 'Would you like to review our new Model XYZ whatever?' or 'Where the hell is our Model XYZ whatever, which you've had for nine months?' Such phone calls are never about reviewing components that are out of production. But I hadn't reckoned on Steve being a latent anachrophile. It seems that my review of the legendary, long out-of-production Marantz Model 7 Preamplifier [HFN Nov '84] affected Steve the way Roots affected half the population of the USA, and it must have awakened in him an interest in his employer's past. But knowing Steve, there had to be an ulterior motive, the cynic in me refusing to accept the notion that he'd found a Marantz Model 10B tuner or some equally desirable antique. I was right.