The PC maker is scrambling to rebuild its business around high-margin services and sophisticated server-room gear.

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Unfortunately for lovers of dust and beautifully over-engineered gear, the room-sized recording console is dying out fast, replaced by software and small, neat, racks of pre-amps and analog summing mixers.

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It's a strangely Snow White-esque moment that unfolds minutes after we set up our gear in the conference room of the Leadership Development Center -- a drab, unassuming office space in the middle of Colorado Springs' Peterson Air Force Base that serves as a training facility for 11 months out of the year.

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The valet is partnered with Black Tie Ski Delivery, which I have written about here before, and with all the hassles airlines give skiers these days, you can just have state of the art gear delivered straight to your room on arrival.

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Not surprisingly the sound of the Twenty, which outputs a respectable 20 watts per channel, is transparent and probably a lot cleaner than the stack of gear you had in your dorm room.

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That little gear-and-widget ad operation in the back room of the maintenance manual shop has grown to be blended with others into the largest independent advertising agency in the world, focused on serving business-to-business clients.

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In the barn, home to the turkey, ducks and horses, there's an area he calls the "Wonders Room" that has elaborate rocket models, hiking gear and several pairs of night-vision binoculars.

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The store, modeled after a mountain lodge, has a chilled testing room (15 degrees Fahrenheit) where you can don gear in mountain conditions.

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