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With two new high-rez audio formats on deck, is a CD-only player still relevant? John Atkinson listens to, and then measures, the Classé CDP-10 CD player to discover why it sometimes takes 20 years to perfect a format.

Paul Bolin then wires up the Aesthetix Rhea phono preamplifier, musing that "trickle-down technology is a grand thing," when it leads to "a tubed phono preamplifier of exceptionally distinguished lineage."

Next, Kal Rubinson surrounds himself with multichannel components and recordings for "Music in the Round #2." KR profiles the McCormack MAP-1 multichannel analog preamplifier and the Bel Canto eVo6 power amplifier.

Art Dudley suggests that the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band wasn't 1967's only significant release, as he devotes Listening #9 to the Classic Records re-release of Procol Harum's debut LP. "How does it all sound?" asks AD. "Nothing short of glorious."

Finally, the next installment in our "Recording of the Month" series for the online archives: Recording of January 1994, Elvis Costello: 2½ Years. Richard Lehnert gets happy, noting, "Every once in a great while a rock musician comes along who not only sums up everything that has come before him, but who sounds so new his appeal is irresistible."