Remember that part in Eyes Wide Shut where Cruise goes to the mansion in a cloak and mask and sees all sorts of unspeakable acts he can't tell his wife about? Well, there's this place in the depths of Pennsylvania known only as Oswald's Mill where similar unspeakable acts take place. But at Oswald's Mill, instead of high class hookers, you get high class audio. If you go and your friends ask where you were, best tell them you were with hookers, lest they know the truth.

The mill is, in fact, a big ol' mill, perfect for hosting massive audio rigs from the fringes of the retro audio scene. But this isn't retro-stupid, it's retro-fab. Many of the hottest minds in this audio segment get together to show demo equipment the likes unavailable anywhere. It's the Akihabara of underground audio, so to speak.

American Wired has the goods, but know it's pretty techie stuff. Definitely interesting to see the future for this segment of audio. Tubes and high-efficiency systems are growing in popularity every day, with the likes of Altec Lansing and Klipsh releasing new versions of their legendary speakers. Give it a few years and tube audio will be as big as typical solid state amplification.

(below, the prototype 50 watt 304tl tube amp, the most powerful class A1 SET amp E-V-E-R. It's also 400 pounds, thus the heaviest SET amp E-V-E-R)