Japanese audiophile, and Queen lover installs his own concrete power pole for musical clarity

The WSJ (Wall Street Journal) has a story up right now on a Japanese gentleman who I would personally love to visit, or have over for some Suntory Time® since he seems like a legit audiophile animal to me.

Takeo Morita is a retired, 82-year-old lawyer, and the WSJ piece is priceless, these are some of my  favorite quotes from the interview:

“Electricity is like blood. If it is tainted, the whole body will get sick,” says Mr. Morita. “No matter how expensive the audio equipment is, it will be no good if the blood is bad.”

Mr. Yoshihara is another Japanese audiophile who was bitten by the power-pole bug, and had one erected in 2011 for $40,000. While that is no small sum, even in extreme audiophile circles, it’s Mrs. Yoshihara’s understanding of her husband’s dedication to the best sound quality possible from his system that is truly priceless:

“It’s completely beyond my understanding,” says his wife, Reiko, 57. “But if I take it away from him, he will lose the motivation to live.”

As someone who has heard, firsthand on numerous occasions, the instantly noticeable sonic improvements when power filtering, regeneration, or dedicated lines are utilized, this story seems to take that pursuit to it’s logical conclusion.

[Morita] met a utility-company engineer who disputed the notion that a pole would make any difference. “He was so adamant,” Morita said, “and that actually made me want to install it more.”

I think Morita is just plain awesome, and I’m going to email him, and start some sort of pen pal thing. I really have to get to Japan, there are so many amazing audiophile stories I’ve read about over the years that originate from that gorgeous island nation, plus it would be a great excuse to visit the Shindo, and Koetsu factories.

Anybody game?