Alison and I flew out of Heathrow on British Airways at 11.00am and arrived in San Francisco at 2.00pm local time. In actual fact it was 11 hours later! We spent an interesting two days exploring San Francisco and acclimatising before heading north about 50 miles to the Santa Rosa area where my first client lives.

I was installing a Linn Klimax Radikal and Ekstatik cartridge for him and checking over his Linn Klimax Exakt active Isobarik system. It’s fair to say I’ve never heard a better pair of Isobariks. The system sounded fantastic, musical and totally engaging.

Whilst in the Santa Rosa area we visited Armstrong Woods where there are some fantastic examples of the Giant Redwood (Sequoia) trees. We also managed to get to the coast at a place called Point Rey where we were treated to some amazing views of the coastline, both north and south where we were treated to the sight of a large gathering of seals.

That night we took the redeye service from San Francisco to New York. I spent the day setting up a beautiful Cocobolo Harban plinth which my client, who lives in Lower Manhattan overlooking the Williamsburg Bridge, had been able to acquire locally and also fitting an Aro Keel and a Radikal 2 upgrade kit.

The day after was a rest day and we spent it walking round the entire circumference of Central Park before walking back to midtown in the evening. The next day we caught the train using the Long Island railway to an area near Mineola where I replaced the clients aging walnut plinth with a Tangerine Stiletto and also fully upgraded his Radikal with a Dynamik power supply and the Radikal 2 upgrade. We managed to do some sightseeing on Long Island Including Sag Harbor and also Jones Beach Island.

The following day we returned to Penn Station on the Long Island railroad before catching the Amtrak service to Boston where we met up with our fourth client who had a Karousel, a fluted Linn plinth and also an active upgrade to his Naim audio system, adding a pair if NAP135 amplifiers, which he purchased from a UK seller and had the voltage changed plus a service by Darran at Class A in Sheffield before shipment out to him. This system is completed by a pair of Kudos Audio Titan 606 loudspeakers.

It was very evident, being further north, that Fall was approaching in this part of the world and the bright colours of autumn we’re all around us. A really beautiful area to live in. Having completed the active set up along with the LP12 we spent the next day sightseeing, travelling out to Cape Cod. We returned to check over the active system in the evening.

Our final day was spent sightseeing around the historic parts of Boston and Cambridge where Harvard University is situated. That evening we headed to Boston Logan airport after our final action-packed day for the flight home again to Heathrow.

All the best, Peter

*written and performed by Chuck Berry