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It’s been a year and a few months since I’ve seen Anat Cohen, the young Israeli-born jazz clarinetist, play live, and she’s grown still more assured and supple, her swing more insouciant, her tone more sheer and gorgeous. She and her quartet began the early set at the Village Vanguard last night with “Jitterbug Waltz” (as she did the previous time I saw her there) and breezed through it with breathtaking speed, but not just as some virtuosic show: there was brio, gusto, real delight in her playing, as she slid in and out of a slew of styles and rhythms—trad, bop, Latin, quasi-klezmer—seamless and natural and fresh. And so it went through the set, with ballads and blues and multiculti sonic frescoes. She plays tenor and soprano sax as well, though the licorice stick is her glory (second only to Don Byron in fire, versatility and skill). The band consists of the agile Jason Lindner on piano, Daniel Friedman on drums, and Joe Martin (replacing Omer Avita) on bass. The gig continues through this Sunday. She also has a new album, <I>Notes from the Village</I>, which is nice and fine (though I prefer her earlier quartet disc, <I>Poetica</I>, both on her own Anzic label).

"Physical discs seem <I>so</I> 20th century!" That's how I ended my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/406Bstph.html">eNewsletter review</A> of the Logitech (then Slim Devices) Squeezebox WiFi music server in April 2006, and it seems that increasing numbers of <I>Stereophile</I> readers agree with me. In our <A HREF="http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?551">website poll</A> of January 5, 2008, we asked, "Are you ready for an audiophile music server?" The response to that question was the highest we have experienced: 32% of respondents already listen to music via their computer networks, many using home-brewed solutions, and 44% intend to. We've published a lot of material on this subject in the last five years, and it seemed a good idea to sum it up in this article.

Fried Products Corporation's Compact 7 is a two-way, standmounted loudspeaker with a 1" ring-radiator tweeter and a 7" woven glass-fiber&#150;coned mid-woofer in a "line tunnel" enclosure. Its cabinet is substantial and well made, with handsome real-wood veneers. The speakers come in mirror-imaged pairs, the tweeters offset toward the inside. The Compact 7 is unusual in that its mid-woofer is above its tweeter, which is likely related to the line-tunnel bass loading. Fried insists that the speakers be placed at least 28" above the floor, which dictate I followed.

You'd think that setting up a pair of loudspeakers would be a piece of cake: Stick 'em where they look good, and be done with it. It <i>can</i> be as simple as that, but to get the <i>best</i> sound from your speakers, you'll have to do a bit more work.

We're lucky. There's always an enormous amount of great live music to be enjoyed in New York City, but this week is especially crammed with sound. The CMJ Music Marathon is here. As I type, our very own Mikey Fremer is moderating a discussion titled "Hi Fidelity for the Future." Panelists include NYU professor Jim Anderson; David Chesky of Chesky Records and <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/052008hdtracks/index.html">HDTracks.com…;; <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11283/index.html">D&M Holdings</a>' Jeffrey Cowan; and <a href="http://news.cnet.com/audiophiliac/">the Audiophiliac</a>, Steve Guttenberg.

Toward the end of the 1992 Summer CES in Chicago, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/66">J. Gordon Holt</A> ambled into Audio Influx's demonstration room. He was curious about which <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/recordingofthemonth/592rotm">PDQ Bach CD</A> we were playing, as a fitting end to the show. We chatted about PDQ Bach live concerts and the grand-spoof entrances made by Professor Peter Schickele. Suddenly he said, "You know, these speakers sound real," going on to mention that he hadn't heard many real-sounding systems. I told JGH that most of what I heard at shows and in dealer showrooms nowadays was <I>sur</I>realistic sound.

John Marks ponders the deeper depths of audiophile hell with the following question: If you had to spend eternity listening to only one song or one piece of music, what would it be?