Neil Young's Home Stereo System

Macintosh 275 Amp
(Click photo to enlarge)
With all of this chatter about audio quality lately, one might wonder what kind of a stereo system Neil Young listens to at home?

From An Interview with Neil Young and Pono CEO John Hamm | The Absolute Sound by Spencer Holbert:

The Absolute Sound: When you’re at home, vinyl or digital?

Neil Young: Both. Depends on my mood and the quality of the digital. Old vinyl is great, but Pono is great. Pono through a good system is really great. In my car I use Pono.

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The Absolute Sound: What kind of stereo do you have at home?

Neil Young: I have a lot of McIntosh equipment that I use for listening. My studio is full of different stuff, Tannoy and an old pair of Altec [Lansing] speakers with Mac 275s running them. It’s the old Voice of the Theater speakers. They’re ridiculous [laughs]. Also some reel-to-reel gear.

TAS: Speaking of reel-to-reel, how does Pono source its material?

NY: We make sure to go to the Master Tape, right to the original. That’s what our goal is. When we do Thriller, we’re going to get the master.

TAS: So when can we start buying music from PonoMusic?

NY: October. We’re trying to have it available before that, but October for sure.

TAS: Why use Kickstarter to fund this project?

NY: Now that we have some funding, we can actually do this. Before, we couldn’t find anyone that wanted to support this and save an art form. The money is coming from people who actually care about music. It’s the absence of format availability that’s driving this movement, because people didn’t have a choice, they were stuck with compressed, low-res music that was sucking the life out of the art of music.

TAS: You mentioned that everyone understands the importance of high-res photography and other digital media. Why do you think there is a disconnect between high-res music and the general public?

NY: It’s because they’ve never had a choice. When digital music downloads became available, there was only low-res. It’s simply not there. In America, of all places, there’s no freedom of choice when it comes to digital music like there is in France and Germany and elsewhere. There are the niche sites, but most people are handed MP3s, and that’s it.

The giants who sell that music have actually created the largest opportunity yet for a renaissance in music.

More of An Interview with Neil Young and Pono CEO John Hamm | The Absolute Sound by Spencer Holbert.

Tannoy Westminster Royal cut-away horn illustration
(Click photo to enlarge)

Altec Lansing "Voice of the Theater" Speakers
(Click photo to enlarge)

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