Wes Phillips

Bill Maxwell always wanted to teach journalism at a historically black college, but after only two years, he quit, disillusioned. Judging from the comments of many of my professor friends, his story wouldn't have been all that different at any land grant university, either.

The slot-loaded two-way JM Reynaud Duet loudspeaker ($1525/pair) sounded quite special, driven by the Blue Circle FtTH. "That was surprising," the Reynaud rep explained. "We had Gilbert's top-of-the-line preamplifier and a pair of Blue Moon monoblocks, which we had intended to use. While we were setting up, we connected the FtTH and the synergy between that amp and these speakers was just magical—so we knew what to do."

The Beeb censored Shane MacGowan's "Fairytale of New York" for its use of a slur. Sam Leith argues that Auntie mistook a slur for a swear-word—an unforgivable sin in the maidenly world of journalism.

Gamut makes everything from source components to loudspeakers, so the Gamut room really was the Gamut room. Lars Goller designed the $14,800/pair l-7 three-way floorstanders and I was knocked out by how relaxed and natural acoustic music sounded though them. They looked fabulous, too.