LATEST ADDITIONS

Viva Hifi (Vienna, VA, near Washington, DC), is holding a special Technics Open House Saturday, December 5, from noon–7pm. The featured guest will be Gregg Lee, Training Manager for Technics, who will be presenting and discussing Technics' new C700 Premium Series components (above). This series features a D/A integrated amplifier, a network player and CD player, as well as the new, linear-phase, point-sound-source SB-C700 loudspeaker, which is enthusiastically reviewed in the forthcoming January issue of Stereophile.

San Francisco's AudioVisionSF (1628 California Street) is hosting "From Digital to Analog" on Thursday December 3, 8–11pm. The event will feature Robert Watts (Chief Digital Designer for Chord Electronics, whose Mojo portable D/A headphone amplifier is pictured above) and Jeff Dorgay (Editor of TONEAudio magazine). Shown and demonstrated will be the latest in turntables, cartridges, tube amplifiers, cables, and electrostatic loudspeakers, as well as DACs, streamers, and servers.

In July 2000, I reviewed the Mark Levinson company's first integrated amplifier, the No.383, and found that its sound had "clarity, transparency, liquid mids and highs, with dynamic contrasts." Also evident were the No.383's power-output limitations, the result of building large power supplies and heatsinks into a single case that had to fulfill multiple functions. Still, the No.383's price of $5900 was much less than the total cost of the equivalent in Mark Levinson separates. Later, in April 2007, I reviewed a similarly powered integrated amplifier, Bryston's B100-DA ($3195), which included a built-in DAC.

With each review I've written for Stereophile, I've redoubled my efforts to choose my adjectives prudently—to curb my penchant for overstatement. I've been feeling a need to speak more concisely and maturely about what my ears, mind, and heart experience while listening to music through a component that's new to me. So today, at the start of this review, I ask myself: What adjectives must I use to describe the character of GoldenEar Technology's new Triton Five tower loudspeaker ($1999.98/pair)? Which words will best use our shared audiophile lexicon to give you a working vision of what I experienced?

Just as John Atkinson has a special telephone on his desk, by means of which the late J. Gordon Holt expresses his displeasure at this magazine's continuing decline into latitudinarianism, my own desk is littered with a dozen or so windup timers, each set to remind me how long it's been since I last wrote about this or that hi-fi eccentricity. Each timer has its own distinctive ring: The one labeled "LOWTHER" is a bit shrill, especially at certain humidity levels, while the one marked "QUAD ESL" can be heard to best advantage only when sitting in a particular spot—and even I have to admit that my "CARTRIDGE ALIGNMENT" timer seems to go off rather too often.

It's Thanksgiving week, which, in New York City, means that two of the best bands in jazz are playing at two of the best jazz clubs in the world: the Maria Schneider Orchestra at Jazz Standard; Jason Moran and the Bandwagon Trio at the Village Vanguard. Every set is usually packed, so make reservations now and get there early.

I'll need a few more listens to grasp the measure of Darcy James Argue's new big-band piece, Real Enemies, but my first impression—gleaned from its premiere at BAM's Next Wave Festival, in Brooklyn, Wednesday night—is that it's a remarkable work, maybe an oddball masterpiece: riveting, head-spinning, at once spooky and witty, abstrusely complex and foot-tappingly propulsive.