LATEST ADDITIONS

I have built up a large collection of CDs since the medium's launch more than a quarter century ago, along with a modest number of SACDs and a small number of DVD-As. But I find these days that, unless I'm getting down to some serious listening and can give the music my uninterrupted attention, I use iTunes to feed computer files to my high-end rig (footnote 1). I've mostly been using the superb-sounding combination of <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/hirezplayers/dcs_puccini_sacd_playback_syste… Puccini U-Clock and Puccini</A> player/DAC that I reviewed last December to take a USB feed from a Mac mini, but I've also been using the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/bel_canto_usb_link_2496_us… Canto USB Link 24/96</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/lindemann_amp_stello_usb-s… U2</A> USB-S/PDIF converters, particularly for headphone listening, when I use one of those two format converters with a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/886">Benchmark DAC1</A> D/A headphone amplifier.

High-end audio exists at the intersection of art and science. Either discipline can produce a good product, but it takes both to create the very best. The Sonic Frontiers gear I auditioned many years ago, for example, was technically sound, nicely built, and sounded good—just never as sublime as products from, say, Audio Research or VTL. On the other hand, an experienced, insightful designer such as Quicksilver's Michael Sanders can create wonderful products from humble circuits and parts, but be ultimately limited by the underlying technology. But when brilliant design, uncompromised execution, long experience, and artistry all come together, the results can be staggering.

The vast majority of audiophile equipment is well-built, but accidents do happen. Have you ever had anything smoke or catch on fire?

I’ve told you a bit about my favorite cassette label, Al Bjornaa’s <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/why_cassettes/">Scotch Tapes</a>, out of Batchawana Bay, Ontario, Canada. In <a href="http://www.imposemagazine.com/features/scotch-tapes-label-sampler">this Impose article</a>, Al goes into more detail, explaining how he built the label, and revealing some of his big plans for the remainder of the year, which include 60-70 new tapes, 4-5 vinyl releases, approximately 20 lathe cuts, a dozen zines, a couple of 8-tracks, and a monster summer compilation. (You can also download a Scotch sampler.)

A trend of sorts has taken hold the past few years: albums (in most cases, multi-disc boxed sets) capturing not just the highlights of a jazz concert but the whole concert—or a whole week’s worth of concerts, the entire run of a gig at a nightclub—every note of it.

Good news for jazz and vinyl lovers: The world’s greatest record store (at least in New Jersey), <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/708awsi/index.html">the Princeton Record Exchange</a>, just received a collection of over 2000 carefully maintained jazz titles, and they are now on sale, most priced between $1 and $4.99.

Back in October 1989, former publisher Larry Archibald told us to just have fun and buy cheap speakers.