LATEST ADDITIONS

If reviewers can be believed, the diminutive, $995/pair Epos ES11 loudspeaker has been a phenomenal success worldwide since its 1990 introduction. <I>Stereophile</I> added its voice to this hallelujah chorus in Vol.14 No.7, when the '11 kicked butt in a blind-listening-panel evaluation of inexpensive small speakers. While the ES11 did plenty of things extremely well, it was inevitable that it was limited in terms of ultimate sound-pressure levels (spls), deep-bass extension, and dynamic persuasiveness. While the ES11 was an unqualified success given its modest size and price, one couldn't help but wonder what Epos might be capable of in a larger model. (While a larger Epos model already existed in the $1695/pair <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/566">ES14</A&gt;, it predated the technology of the ES11 by four years.)

As far as I can tell, Santa Fe&ndash;based speaker engineer <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/694">John Bau</A> had designed but four commercial loudspeakers before the TC-60 was launched at the 1994 Winter CES: in order of appearance, they were the Spica SC50i (1980), the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/446">TC-50</A&gt; (1983), the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/693">Angelus</A&gt; (1987), and the SC-30 (1989). None were expensive, and all garnered much praise, both in <I>Stereophile</I>'s pages and elsewhere.

The latest edition of <I>Audio</I>'s annual equipment directory lists 238 speaker manufacturers. At best I can claim to have heard one product from 10&ndash;15% of the manufacturers on this list, and the top of the current product line from a far smaller percentage.

At least, according to Bagheera, is <I>down</I>. Preferably from a height.

Huckleberry uses the monitor to skritch that chin. Who needs humans?

In our move from the 9th floor to the 6th, a box containing a large amount of <i>Stereophile</i> back issues was damaged. All sorts of wildly-covered, strangely-colored, digest-sized issues came spilling out. A river of history.

Today I got <I>The Essential John Denver</I> and a newly remastered reissue of Boz Scaggs <I>Silk Degrees</I> in the same package. Mercy! I got a chill pulling them out of the envelope. Denver and Scaggs together again! What kind of subtle coding was Sony/BMG sending by pairing this dynamic duo? The Seventies really did suck? We're out of ideas so here's two surefire golden oldies? If you thought the George Winston reissues were great then check out these two?