The stereo gear that amplifies my friendships - CNET

Audiophiles swear tube amplifiers "warm" music. I'm not sure what that means, but I can tell you Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" expands when played through the ST-70. The space between the voices and instruments opens, and you can sense the separation of the sections.

It feels as if you could walk through the orchestra.

I'm not into technical details. In fact, I had to look all of that up when I sat down to write this essay. For me, the ST-70 isn't about warming music. It's about connecting me to people I've shared music with throughout my life.

The ST-70 plays through a pair of Onkyo D-102AX speakers an English friend helped me pick out in Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics district, when I lived in Japan 18 years ago. Another close friend, a man whose wedding ceremony I officiated last autumn, helped me set the system up, fiddling insistently with the speakers until they were positioned properly for the acoustics of my small living room.

As soon as it was up and running, we listened to the recordings of another close friend who sings jazz.

Since then, everything from erhu standards to Blue Öyster Cult has run through Peter's ST-70.

As a child growing up in war-to Korea, Peter saved his money to buy music. He was infatuated with opera and would get emotional listening to classical recordings. He particularly loved Bellini's "Norma" and Brahms' Piano Trio No. 1 in B major.

Peter was an accomplished musician himself. He was a tenor in his church choir and sang around the world. Sometimes, after a whiskey or two, his performances were spontaneous.

He moved to the US in 1966 and later started an import-export business. As he grew more successful, he indulged his love of music with stereo equipment. The ST-70, which cost $99.95 when it was new ($818 in today's dollars), was one of those splurges.