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Listening room not up to snuff? Kalman Rubinson fires up the Rives Audio PARC 3-Band Parametric Equalizer to see whether it can tame a wild acoustic beast. KR reports that at "low frequencies, electronic EQ can be implemented without introducing significant distortion or noise in the midrange, where the ear is most sensitive."

From 1991, Lewis Lipnick does a detailed analysis of the Krell KBL preamplifier, finding that, "As with everything else Krell's Dan D'Agostino designs, the KBL is a visual and technical tour de force."

In "Listening #7," Art Dudley first uncovers a couple of "good recordings of bad performances of good music" and then explains, "Those who can play music play music, those who can't play music design loudspeakers, and those who can't even do that become audio reviewers."

Next, for "The Fifth Element #18," John Marks applies the ideas of Jonathan Swift to the audio business and then notes, "Extracting the most performance from the least expensive design remains as evergreen an engineering challenge as is pushing the limit of diminishing returns when cost is no object."

Finally, the latest installment in our "Recording of the Month" series for the online archives, Recording of August 1994: Blues for Thought. Richard Lehnert says this Terry Evans disc contains "one of the most powerful blues performances I've heard since, well, Mighty Sam."