News

To balance or not to balance? That is the audio question that Martin Colloms sets out to answer in Balance: Benefit or Bluff? Although balanced capability is a fashionable feature in many expensive audio products, Colloms writes that "the High End could be paying dangerous, costly lip service to the received wisdom that balanced operation is the goal for an audio system."

George Reisch opines that there are three topics to set the sparks flying at the audiophile dinner table: sex, religion, and speaker cables. Reisch decides to tackle that last contentious item in Illuminated Cables & the Laws of Physics. As Reisch writes: "Witness the recent flare-ups in this magazine about Purist Audio Design's illuminated PAD cables. Many seem to feel this product is breaking new ground in the business of snake oil and pseudoscience."

Larry Greenhill reports that the Dynaudio Contour 3.0 loudspeaker has changed his domestic life. His wife, who had so far ignored the products that Greenhill regularly auditions, began to offer positive comments whenever he played music through the Contours. "I'm happier when my wife likes the product I'm evaluating," writes Greenhill, who reveals whether or not he also liked the sound he was hearing.