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Naturally, non-audio sightseeing and sampling also were vital ingredients on this RoadTour exit. Here a rain-peppered lens struggled mightily with post sunset lighting to capture a very alien-looking massive war memorial on a hill-top clearing.

Historic too were the paintings in the Aleksandar restaurant of Arandelovac whose present owners are part of Serbia's royal family. We nearly didn't make it in as the entire place had been rented by a graduation party. Yet the affable owner took pity on us visiting foreigners, parked us in overstuffed furniture beneath the oil paint likenesses of the former king and queen for a short duration and loaded up the first available table with scrumptious Serbian fare. The graduation party meanwhile sobered down, the singer soon got audience reactions, one of the teachers began to sing duets with him and a few of the graduates overcame their shyness and chimed in. We had crashed a party and enjoyed every bit of it.

The music continued in our hotel which, over two floors, only sported a total of 12 rooms but then a giantific ball room on the ground floor. Its raison d'être, we quickly discovered, was to host massive weddings. Wild Balkan music snuck up the open spiraling staircase to our bedroom until 1:00 AM. Next morning at 9:30 sharp, another band of musicians with two violins, accordeon and drums was already warming up for a 10:00 follow-up. Or perhaps it was a fresh new group of revelers altogether? Clearly, live music plays a huge part in Serbian social lives. Bravo!

Your scribe on the porch of a sculpture garden adjacent to a famous spa with healing waters which attract the locals to fill up empty bottles and cure themselves in the comfort of their own homes. Leave the fancy treatments to the tourists.

Meanwhile back at Sasa's, we took the OEM prototype amp for a spin over his JMlab speakers. Excellent stuff!

I do believe this rather rudely interrupted a movie Sasa's wife and son were enjoying but our hostess sitting besides Misha was far too charming to let on that she noticed.


When our pickup for the Raal stop got delayed by a few hours the following day, Misha promptly invited us to his birthday fete which had us crash our second party of this trip. Misha's wife had cooked up a storm, Misha's Serbian godfather and his Indonesian wife had flown in from Holland and we once again experienced Serbian hospitality at its finest. This calls upon a true incident which transpired a few days later in the lobby of the Quark Hotel in Milan during the Top Audio Show 2008.
I saw a prominent US manufacturer sitting on a table and quickly said hi. He'd just come from visiting a Croatian importer who apparently was doing splendidly well with the brand. I replied that I'd just returned from Serbia whose economy was still recovering from NATO bombings and sanctions ten years ago. "No, that's different. Bombs were absolutely necessary to impose some measure of order on those unruly people." This post-colonial bit of arrogant American jingoism is truly what this man uttered, in an off-handed but smug manner to boot. Sadly no Serb was present to give him the thorough trashing he deserved. But let's leave politically embarrassing talk in the comfort of a hotel lounge, to a man fortunate enough to live in a country which hasn't seen a war on its own soil since the Civil War. Trafomatic was far too happy a visit to speculate on just what would provide some much-needed perspective for that man.

We'll conclude with a clearly happy mug of Sasa. Before Trafomatic, he had designed and built agricultural egg incubators with Misha and outfitted domestic farmers with substantial volumes. Both men grinned while recalling those carefree days. They later adapted to changing economics without complaints but resilience and can-do resourcefulness. Presently, their audio division has grown to account for about 40% of their overall output. Anyone doubting their abilities would be wise to recall Dirty Harry's famous line: "You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" This relates also to their Experience Head One preamp/headphone amp. It's the equal of Yamamoto's HA-02, my to date favorite can amp. Not half bad for a company nobody had ever heard of two short years ago, is it? Compliments, kudos and thanks to our gracious hosts in Mladenovac. Make no mistake, theirs is a company to watch.
Trafomatic Audio website