LATEST ADDITIONS

Here's where we separate the musically inclined geeks from the musically inclined geeks with decent computer sound systems. Jeff Wong sent along the URL to <I>Deutsch's Musical Illusions</I>, so I checked out the examples on my laptop. I got nuttin'. Typical male-type guy that I am, <I>then</I> I read the technical note:
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" In listening to these illusions, it is best to use equipment with a flat frequency response so as to avoid spectral distortion. For example, enhanced high frequency transients tend to degrade the effects. And features that alter the signal in any way, such as spatialization features, should be turned off. Also make sure that the playback amplitude is not too high. With many sound systems, this amplitude needs to be set at a different level depending on whether you are listening through headphones or loudspeakers, and you might want to determine the appropriate settings before you begin. When you are listening to the stereo illusions through loudspeakers, it is best to be positioned equidistant between the speakers, with one to your left and the other to your right."

John Atkinson sends this link to the real scoop on what happened to NYC's famous, lamented radio row. Hint: 9/11 wasn't the first tragedy at ground zero.

<I>Air and Space</I> has a fascinating article about the mechanical naughty bits of the Wright Brothers aircraft. You can all but smell the hot oil.

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which last June became one of the first orchestras in the US to launch <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/101005milwaukee">its own e-label</A>, has now become the first orchestra to offer <A HREF="http://www.milwaukeesymphony.org/symphonystore/othermerchandise.asp">do… binaural recordings</A>. The binaural process, whose benefits are most apparent to those who listen through headphones, is based on the concept that the best way to reproduce the concert experience is to make sure that the recorded sounds that go into the listener's ears are as close as possible to what would be heard during an actual concert.

It's funny how things sometimes have to hit you in the head before you actually notice them. When Jon Iverson and I were cruising CES 2007 in January, we were stopped in our tracks by <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2007/107soolooscdslot/">Sooloos</A>'s media server technology. Sooloos <I>got</I> the whole no-compromise audiophile approach, but what really knocked us out was how thoroughly it utilized the metadata from AMG (All Media Guide): Feed the the Sooloos server a disc and it would access AMG's database and collect artist name, album title, track names, cover art, genre, <I>mood</I>, side-man information, and even "associated concepts."

<I>Stereophile</I> editor John Atkinson said one evening in 1995, "What I find fascinating is that, in an industry as mature as audio cables, a new company can appear out of the blue and upset everything." He was gently poking fun at my admission that I found cable design fascinating, in particular the practice of combining different conductor materials.

If reviewers can be believed, the diminutive, $995/pair Epos ES11 loudspeaker has been a phenomenal success worldwide since its 1990 introduction. <I>Stereophile</I> added its voice to this hallelujah chorus in Vol.14 No.7, when the '11 kicked butt in a blind-listening-panel evaluation of inexpensive small speakers. While the ES11 did plenty of things extremely well, it was inevitable that it was limited in terms of ultimate sound-pressure levels (spls), deep-bass extension, and dynamic persuasiveness. While the ES11 was an unqualified success given its modest size and price, one couldn't help but wonder what Epos might be capable of in a larger model. (While a larger Epos model already existed in the $1695/pair <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/566">ES14</A&gt;, it predated the technology of the ES11 by four years.)