LATEST ADDITIONS

From left: Barbara Lamb Hall, Melanie Berzon, and Sybil Bolivar of San Mateo’s listener-supported KCSM, 91.1FM. Not only is KCSM one of Sam Tellig’s favorite spots on the FM dial, it’s one of the last all-jazz stations in the world.

Though they were also seen at the Munich Show, Magico’s Q1 monitors ($24,950/pair) are making their US debut here at the California Audio Show. The speaker incorporates much of the technology and design philosophy used in Magico’s Q5, reviewed by Mikey Fremer, but puts it in a smaller package. Like the Q5 and Q3, the Q1 is a sealed-box design with extensive internal bracing.

There are other examples: Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, Iron & Wine’s Our Endless Numbered Days, Feist’s Let it Die, Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut, and the XX’s XX come to mind. All of these albums were darlings of the indie pop scene and embraced by audiophiles. (What the?)

The fellows in the VooDoo Cable room were playing Joni Mitchell’s Travelogue, arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza.

When the hell did Wilson Audio’s Peter McGrath become so hip? Has the old dude been subscribing to The Wire, hanging out in Greenpoint, going to noise-rock shows in abandoned warehouses?

McGrath used a system comprising Wilson Audio Sasha loudspeakers, gorgeous D’Agostino Momentum monoblock amplifiers, Sooloos Control 15, dCS Debussy DAC, Transparent Audio cables, and ASC Tube Traps to demo music from Pan Sonic to James Blake to Nicolas Jaar.

Nicolas Jaar? Peter McGrath? What the hell? Where am I?

In one of several rooms set up by local dealer Audio Vision, an attractive and deceptively simple little system was making some outstanding music: Simaudio 650 D CD/DAC transport ($7999), Simaudio 600 I integrated amplifier ($7999), Dynaudio C1 Signature loudspeakers ($8950, with stands), and cables and accessories from Shunyata: Black Mamba power cables ($595 each), Anaconda power cables ($1999), Anaconda speaker cables ($3499/2m pair), Anaconda interconnects ($2499/1m pair), Dark Field cable-lifters ($295/pack of 12). The components sat on a Quadraspire Sunoko rack ($395/level).

Dyanudio’s Mike Manousselis always&#151always&#151plays good music and on this day it was Radiohead, Cold Cave, Low:

Typically, the mere thought of digitizing my vinyl is enough to give me the heebie-jeebies&#151the process can be so tedious and time-consuming&#151but after watching Channel D’s Rob Robinson quickly and easily set track markers on a virtual LP using his clever Pure Vinyl software ($229), I imagined that even I could have fun with it.