LATEST ADDITIONS

<A HREF="http://www.axpona.com">Axpona</A&gt;, the Audio Expo of North America, is geared up for its premiere next Friday in Jacksonville, Florida. The new Show runs March 5&#150;7 at the 350-room Wyndham Riverwalk Hotel, which overlooks the St. Johns River and is just 15 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean. Sponsored by <I>Stereophile</I>, which will blog live from the show, Axpona is already looking like a winner. Impressive figures for advance Internet registration (discounted through March 1) indicate that Axpona might meet or even surpass attendance at last year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, in Denver.

<i>It’s alive! Nirvana brings nirvana to SM’s listening room.</i>

On two occasions I've caught myself wondering how to afford a pair of Wilson Audio loudspeakers. Interestingly, both happened within the past year. The first was in April 2009, at the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/ssi2009/wilsons_to_the_maxx">Son et Image show in Montreal</A>, during a demonstration of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/wilson_audio_specialties_m… Series 3</A>. The experience was notable for its blend of genuinely great sound with genuine musicality: Each performance unfolded of its own natural accord, with human randomness and nuance, and without the fussy, mechanical, shallow artifice that attracts some audiophiles in the way a carnivorous plant attracts flies&#151;and, if they're lucky, kills them (the audiophiles, that is).

During my recent interview with the Sheffield Lab people in connection with their Moscow recording sessions (Vol.10 No.3), both Lincoln Mayorga and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/sheffield_steel_doug_sax">Doug Sax</A> had some unkind things to say about the cost of recording an orchestra in the US. Their complaints are justified. It costs more to record in the US than anywhere else in the world, and these astronomical costs are detrimental both to symphonic music in the US and to the audiophile's pursuit of sonic perfection.

Everyone knows music is a good thing. More than merely good, it appears to meet some kind of human need, because every race in every land has a musical tradition going back to before recorded or recounted history. Some of their music may not seem like music to our unsophisticated ears, but as soon as someone discovered that two sticks of different sizes produced different pitches when struck on a venerated ancestor's skull, he advanced beyond mere rhythm to what must be considered music. (Two sticks would, presumably, play binary music: the first precursor of digital sound.) In fact, were there no music at all today, humankind would probably find it necessary to invent it on the spot, along with a mythology relating how it was created on the eighth day, after ingrown toenails.

<a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/all_schmutzed_up_and_i_dont_k… problem</a> has not been solved.

Joanna Newsom’s third full-length LP, <i>Have One On Me</i>, is available today. You can <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123981491&ft=1&f=9… the entire thing</a> from NPR, if you’re interested. Today, after work, I will go out into the light rain and hunt down this album. The arrangements are as intricate as ever, but Newsom’s voice has never been so seductive, alluring, inviting. So far, I especially like the kindness and yearning of “No Provenance,” but the entire thing&#151three LPs, 18 tracks, and two hours long&#151is bewitching and rewarding.