News

From the March 2004 issue, John Atkinson finally gets to listen to the Sonus Faber Cremona loudspeaker and explains, "it took rather longer than I had expected to set the Cremonas up in my listening room. But, like everything worth experiencing, the wait was worth it."

Since we have just added the 2003 "Recommended Components" for purchase as indexed and searchable pdf files on the website, we include JA's "As We See It" from a few years back: "Recommended Components: The Stereophile Way." As Atkinson notes, "Recommended Components" is "the only place where the experiences of all reviewers are taken into account when determining the ultimate value of a component, whether it be the heights of Class A or the value-for-money Classes D and E."

More "As We See It" RC musings from John Atkinson are revealed in "Recommended Components: If It Works, Don't Change It." JA explains the origins of the fabled feature more than 30 years ago, and gives a rundown of the most common gripes about the list.

Finally, the latest installment in our "Recording of the Month" series for the online archives, Recording of March 2004: Our Endless Numbered Days. Robert Baird provides a lesson in modern folk music taxonomy, adding, "Now there's the shaggy, left-field, he's-from-Miami (?), folk of Floridian Sam Beam, who records under the name Iron and Wine."