Stephen Mejias

I've been working on the Buyer's Guide. Again, I find myself getting all tangled up in the content. Goodness me. My focus shifts away from the cold cells. I lose sight of borders, completely forget about column width. And find myself wondering:

"Who the heck is Tangent Audio?"

So, surrounded by some of the world's greatest authorities on hi-end audio, I, of course, consult Google.

A quick search leads me to Tangent's surprisingly attractive webpage, decorated with sleek table radios.

Sleek?

"Young Stephen," JA informs me, "Don't you know that those are modeled after 50s-era radios?"

"Well, there can be a sleekness to some old stuff."

Indeed, while the styling may be a bit retro, there's a simplicity and cleanliness to the Tangent gear that I find attractive. And even more attractive than all that are their relatively affordable prices. This is stuff even my friends might be able to buy.

The very good-looking CDP-100 CD player goes for a modest $350. [No relation to the Classe player of the same name.] $350 also gets you Tangent's AMP-100 integrated. Add speakers (and cables, of course), and you've got a pretty system.

How this stuff sounds, I can't say. But, maybe someday, I'll let you know. The Tangent site shows no US distribution, but we received their information from our friends at VMAX Services, who handle the distribution for Italy's Opera Loudspeakers and Unison Research, among others.

I've put in a call to get the lowdown.