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Beginning in November 1996, Sam Tellig, Muse Kastanovich, and John Atkinson took turns with the Musical Fidelity X-10D line-level preamplifier. "I'll reveal the true identity of X-10D in a moment," Tellig writes. "But I'll say straight off that for those of you with such CD players as the Marantz CD 63, RadioShack Optimus CD-3400, etc, this may be the most cost-effective CD upgrade ever to come down the pike."

Next, from October 1993, Jack English reviews the gorgeous Sonus Faber Electa Amator loudspeaker. Another case of audio beauty over brains? "The Amator's appearance has received at least as much attention as its performance," English observes. " But is it just another pretty face?"

Also from October 1992, Dick Olsher puts the Berning EA-2101 power amplifier under test. Olsher is clearly under the amp designer's spell, noting, "David Berning symbolizes for me the quintessential high-end designer: someone with a glint in his eye who pushes the art forward because of the desire to uncover the truth."

In his As We See It from April 1993, Robert Harley searches for "The Real Thing. " Harley writes, "What do we get from live music that hi-fi systems can't deliver? Conversely, is there something a playback system can achieve that live music will never provide?"

Finally, the next installment in our "Recording of the Month" series for the online archives: Recording of September 1994, Mahler: Symphony 1. Kevin Conklin exclaims, "Holt's Law—that the sound quality of a recording is in inverse proportion to the quality of the performance that recording reproduces—has been broken again. Big time."