Colin Vanderburg's Essay Explores Audiophilia's History and Culture in n+1's Power Play Issue

Colin Vanderburg's essay "Heaven's Melodic Strains" appears in n+1's Issue 54: Power Play, with a publication date of Fall 2026. The piece examines the subculture of audiophilia, tracing its origins to 1940s consumer audio innovations such as wide-range speakers, FM radio, and long-playing vinyl records. Vanderburg profiles engineer Emory Cook, an MIT dropout who founded the record label Sounds of Our Times, known for field recordings like Rail Dynamics, which sold 100,000 copies. The essay discusses the divide between subjectivists ("golden ears") and objectivists ("meter readers"), referencing a 2004 article by ethnomusicologist Marc Perlman. It also covers the contemporary high-end audio market, including the 2025 New York International Audio Show held in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, where Vanderburg observed equipment ranging from $22,000 speakers to a $199,500 system. The essay critiques the industry's "premiumization," citing components like a $150,000 amplifier and a $64,000 turntable featured in a Lexus commercial. Vanderburg contrasts this with the Hot Club of New York, a listening space on West 20th Street that hosts weekly 78 rpm jazz sessions using vintage equipment, including a 1947 RCA LC1 speaker. The essay also references Ge Fei's novel The Invisibility Cloak, translated by Canaan Morse in 2016, as a rare literary depiction of audiophile life. Throughout, Vanderburg reflects on the pursuit of perfect sound reproduction and its cultural implications.