LATEST ADDITIONS

11 AM Thursday, my first room at HE2005: I've just spent way over an hour listening to VTL gear in two completely different configurations. The first, in a hotel suite whose dimensions are similar to rooms in many smaller homes or larger apartments, paired the new VTL MB-450 monoblocks, TP6.5 phono preamp, and just upgraded Reference TL-7.5 linestage preamp with the Jadis JD1 Mk.II transport and JS 1 DAC, VPI Aries 3 turntable with JMW 10.5i tonearm and Benz LP cartridge, Wilson Sophia 2s, and Cardas cabling.

Bagheera asks the question men everywhere dread. Of course I assured her she looked <I>muhvelous</I>.

Well, that's the twiddly bits inside <I>my</I> ears&mdash;a custom mold was taken by an audiologist so that Ultimate Ears could produce a pair of UE-10 Pros for me to review.

Apple gets more press for products it hasn't even announced yet than most companies get for products they are actually <I>trying</I> to promote. Here's the scoop (maybe) on the gen 6 iPod.

Whether or not Matsumi Suzuki has recreated the voice of the woman who sat for the portrait we call the Mona Lisa, he has already been awarded an Ig-Nobel Prize.

After experiencing Shure's Push-to-Hear control switch, I was in a headphone kind of mood, so I walked on over to HeadRoom's aptly named Headphone Heaven. I imagine that this heavenly set-up will serve as a much-needed respite for many weary showgoers. I found smiling faces, comfy lounge chairs, happy flowers, and lots of sunshine. Everything in the room begged, "Try Me!"

Also in the Belkin room, I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Bruce Edgar who had furnished the room with his Edgarhorn Titan II loudspeakers ($16,000). Dr. Edgar is an experimental physicist. And also a mind reader. I sat beside him, facing the system with its outrageous array of silvery PureAV interconnects and speaker cables jutting out like all sorts of tentacles and arms and legs, thinking: "Any other cables would make this system look ugly," when Dr. Edgar said to me: "Any other cables would make this system look ugly, don't you think?"