LATEST ADDITIONS

You might’ve noticed my big smiling mug on the stereophile.com home page today, calling attention to my review of <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/monster_cable_beats_by_dr_dre_stu…’s Beats by Dr. Dre headphones</a>. When I posed for that picture&#151a few months ago and with a hellish hangover from a night of fun spent at <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/at_the_monkeyhaus/">John DeVore’s Monkeyhaus</a>&#151I had no idea that I’d be today’s top model. The photo was the work of our sneaky web monkey, Jon Iverson. I came into the office, went to our site, and spit coffee all over my monitor. Hilarious.

And here's how <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_weight_of_my_loneliness/"… room</a> looks today. As I said, it looks, feels, and <i>sounds</i> like home.

I was looking out the window. I was waiting for the plane to take off. I was wearing Monster Cable's Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones ($349.95). I was listening to Pens' burning, fuzzed-out, 27-minute onslaught, <I>Hey Friend, What You Doing?</I> (320kbps MP3; LP, De Stijl IND071). I was shouting with sudden shock and pain.

<i>Almost there. And vodka tonics make lifting easier.</i>

My friend, <a href="http://eloisemoorehead.tumblr.com/">Eloise Moorhead</a>, helped me place the front-wall bookcase on top of the right-wall bookcase, creating a solid stack of vinyl!

It's difficult to believe that the former top model of Vandersteen Audio's line of loudspeakers, the Model 5, has been in production in one form or another since 1997. Time passes quickly when you're having fun. Like all Vandersteen speakers, the 5 was and remains a good value <I>and</I> performance proposition. For all the 5's high technology and excellent performance both measured and audible, its price now starts at under $20,000/pair (up from about $10,000/pair when the 5 was introduced in 1997), including a built-in, proprietary powered subwoofer in each cabinet, and a sophisticated equalization system for room compensation.

The April 2010 issue of <i>Stereophile</i> is now on newsstands. For the cover, we selected the <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2009/monitor_audio_platinum_200/">Monitor Audio Platinum PL200</a> loudspeaker. Like Bob Deutsch, I was impressed by this speaker when I heard it at the <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2009/">2009 Salon Son & Image</a>, so I was especially pleased by John Atkinson’s decision to highlight it. Our cover photographer, Eric Swanson, and designer, Natalie Baca, were also pleased by the speaker’s great looks: The fine-furniture finish of its Santos Rosewood cabinet, the silvery ceramic-coated aluminum magnesium drive units, the handsome Strathspey leather front baffle, and, <i>ooh</i>, that sexy rear port (see the extreme close-up on page 109!) all worked to win over our design team.