LATEST ADDITIONS

Extremes of cost and performance continue to impress. But plenty of high-performance products can be had for very little money as well. With all of this, is high-end audio moving in the right direction?

First, it’s time for all good thoughts and good energies to be directed south, to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville where Charlie Louvin, the great Charlie Louvin, is about to undergo the long and complicated operation needed to try and remove the stage 2 pancreatic cancer that he was unexpectedly diagnosed with last week. For those who don’t know, Charlie, 83, was once half of the Louvin Brothers, who were and basically still are the greatest duo act in the history of country music. Charlie has experienced something of a late career comeback in recent years thanks to Josh Rosenthal and his Tompkins Square record label. His brother Ira, (who Charlie calls EYE-ree), the man responsible for the tire fire on the cover of the duo’s most famous record, 1959’s <I>Satan is Real</I> was a hellion of the first order and was killed by a drunken driver in 1965. Charlie, not surprisingly, has been nearly the opposite and is one of the sweetest guys it’s been my pleasure to meet. I particularly remember one night at the Rodeo Bar in NYC where the man had an endless store of really silly sex jokes. He’s says he expects to be back onstage a month after his surgery so we’ll see. Despite his health, he’s gonna be a trooper and play a previously scheduled Opry gig this Saturday which because of the recent floods is back in the Ryman Auditorium, which seems very fitting for this Charlie appearance. He goes on at 8:45 PM CDT. Listen at www.opry.com

<A HREF="http://www.arkivmusic.com">Arkivmusic.com</A&gt; is an Internet retailer of classical media (CDs, SACDs, and DVDs), including its own licensed CD reissues of out-of-print classical titles from labels major, minor, and micro. ArkivCDs are bit-for-bit copies of the original masters, burned on demand to CD-R and shipped to the customer with on-demand printed booklets and liner notes, as Wes Phillips <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/120406heaven">wrote</A&gt; in December 2006.

Two highly respected product lines, one founded 32 years ago, and another whose pedigree dates from 1932, have returned to the North American market. <A HREF="http://www.ta-hifi.com">Theory & Application Elektroakustic</A> (T+A) products, from Germany, has returned to the US and Canada thanks to Dynaudio North America, and the venerable line of <A HREF="http://www.wharfedale.co.uk">Wharfedale loudspeakers</A> will once again reach the US from the UK, thanks to the dedication of Sound Import, LLC, of Hopedale, Massachusetts.

Rega’s <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/708rega/">outstanding P3-24 turntable</a> is available in lots of fun colors, and even though I do love my white P3, I still suffer from color envy. I want a green one, a blue one, an orange one, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2010/regas_p3-24_is_pretty_in_pink/">a pink one</a>. I would like a different P3 for every day of the week, a P3 for my every mood. I wonder if the different colors have different sonic properties. For instance, does my white P3 sound <i>purer</i> than a black P3? Are certain colors better suited to certain types of music? Blue for the blues?

Why bother with three phono preamps most of us can't afford? For the same reason the enthusiast automobile magazines cover the newest Ferraris and Lamborghinis: just <I>reading</I> about them is fun.

Jason Moran’s <I>Ten</I> (Blue Note) commemorates the 10th anniversary of his trio called Bandwagon (with Tarus Mateen on bass, Nasheet Waits on drums), and it’s by far the group’s best recording, maybe Moran’s best all told, which, if so, would mean it surpasses his 2002 solo disc, <I>Modernistic</I>, which is saying a lot. Whether it does or not (I’m still mulling), this is a great album, that much is certain.