Give me back the rear mono button of the late 80s
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In the very late 80s and early 90s I did a lot of travelling around Aotearoa New Zealand in Avis rental cars, mostly Toyota Corollas and Coronas. They all came equipped with Alpine car audio that had a really good button for rear mono. So you had stereo up front and punchy weight from the rear parcel shelf speakers. In all likelihood, given capitalism was alive then too, there was probably not much more than 7 Watts of sound and paper woofers, but it was better than nothing. I'd pack my handful of favourite CDs and do the chair dance boogie thing while I drove from Public Trust Blenheim to Public Trust Nelson and then on to Public Trust Greymouth to install late 80s computer networking. Good times, I loved every minute of that travelling.
Today, 2026, in my mancave I have a Rotel A12 amp sitting on the desk that drives some small(ish) Jamo speakers on wall mounts above my desk. They are bloody perfectly placed that I sit in the perfect sweet spot that the sound stage is in my brain. I don't know how I achieved that but the placement could not have been more perfect if I had actually spent time figuring it out.
At the other end of my man cave I have some Jamo C103 Speakers. These things were proper expensive in their day, but I bought some as store demo units and got them for much less even though they were basically brand new. I use those speakers over there with the playstation because there is a TV in between them. The bass off them is perfect for Battlefield explosions. They are also very good sounding loud speakers after a martini on a friday night while I dance to Duran Duran or Bryan Ferry or Strawpeople.
My #JukeboxFridayNight goes something like I mix my martini, sit at my desk and close my eyes and dig deep to find what mood I am in. Tonight I start with Simply Red, So Beautiful. Because bloody hell it's so good. After about 35 seconds I reach out to the Rotel remote control sitting on my desk to press the B button to get the really good speakers at the other end of the mancave to contribute.
Instantly the room is completely filled in with music. It's like I've hit the 3d button. I can feel the music as well as hear it. I am smothered, enveloped, squashed by Mick Hucknell. And then my brain kicks in. I'm facing the desk and left and right is correct but behind me the left and right is reversed, as it should be so that on the PS5 the left and right is correct when I'm facing the other way playing Battlefield.
What I bloody need is the button 1980s Alpine created for rear mono, but in my mancave. Maybe I give Claude Code a problem to design me some electronics for rear mono...
The Photo I've always wanted to sit at the bar near the chefs while they cook my food so that I can watch properly skilled people at work. We went out for dinner a few weeks back and couldn't get into our first choice restaurant but El Humero had space on the bar. Yes. Loved every minute of it.
