Five favorite things (outside of hifi) from John DeVore, DeVore Fidelity:
Mechanical chronograph watches. Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved the look of the classic 3-subdial chrono and the miraculous complexity of the tiny machine whirring away, keeping time for whenever you might need some. To me these little harmonious mechanical marvels are about scale and the fractal nature of everything. The little spinning mechanism on my wrist like the atoms that compose it, the solar system, the movements of galaxies.
Cats.
Forests. Nothing is more calming to me than being in a forest. There is so much going on around you in a forest, but peace and comfort permeate, all is right. In Japan they call it shinrin-yoku and it’s prescribed to patients for its health benefits, and new research has revealed that trees communicate with one-another through enormous, underground root-networks, and that pea plants respond to Pavlovian stimuli. If that doesn’t make you think, you’re not paying attention.
Photography. Like the first three, this one goes back to my childhood; and like watches, it transformed from a fascination with the machines themselves to something more as I got older. I still love the gear–cameras and lenses are damn cool–but my new interest is showing how much of what’s around us every day is beautiful, and trying to infuse the feeling a subject gives me into its image.
Stillness. This one reinforces the favorite status of the other four. Cats respond to stillness. Walking through a forest I try to still my mind, walk carefully to make as little noise as possible, and breath gently so I can hear and see more of what’s going on around me. And even though I’m not supposed to talk about HiFi here, stillness is essential for the most immersive music listening experience.
