LATEST ADDITIONS

If you asked me to name a single specific high-end audio component that could make or break a system, I'd name the Linn LP12 turntable. Of all the thousands of hi-fi products I've heard over the years, not a one of 'em—not a speaker, amplifier, or digital processor—has been able to draw me into the music, no matter what the associated componentry, like the LP12. I've heard the most highly regarded speakers/amps/processors fall flat in certain situations due to a lack of synergy with their surrounding systems, but I've never heard an LP12-based system that didn't put a smile on my face and make me green with envy.

As fascinating as the design of high-end hardware can be, it goes without question that without musical software (or <I>firm</I>ware, as our more computer-minded readers would have it) of an appropriately high standard, the whole business would be pointless. <I>Stereophile</I>'s interviews have therefore often featured engineers and producers whose recorded work reveals sound quality to be a major concern. I interviewed Performance Recordings' James Boyk back in Vol.9 No.6; J. Gordon Holt spoke in Vol.10 No.3 with <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1282awsi">Doug Sax</A> and Lincoln Mayorga, of Sheffield Lab, and with Keith Johnson of Reference Recordings, about their history-making Moscow sessions; JGH also discussed Brad Miller's and Lou Dorren's Colossus digital project in Vol.10 No.1 and <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/asweseeit/the_colossus_of_audio">Vol.11 No.4</A>; while last month Dick Olsher interviewed Peter McGrath, responsible for some superb-sounding recordings for Harmonia Mundi USA as well as for his own Audiofon label.

Let’s put the main point up front. The new duet album by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden, <I>Jasmine</I> (on ECM), is a gorgeous piece of work: all standards, mainly ballads, nothing fancy (not overtly anyway), but such poignance and quiet passion; it’s a glimpse into the intimacy of the act of making art.

People of my generation have learned that change is certain. You can't know what the change will be, but you can bank on the fact that there will be serious change over the next ten years. Look at the historically most important change in ten years: microcomputers.

<B><I>Sonic Booms</I></B><BR>
Steam Locomotives, Jet Fighter Aircraft, Military Exercise (with live ammunition), WWII Aircraft, Comic Relief I &amp; II, West Mountain Inn, Diesel Train, Steam Train with Rain &amp; Thunder<BR>
Bainbridge BCD6276 (CD only). Produced &amp; mixed by Brad S. Miller. DDD. TT: 58:00

John Atkinson is psyched about the new iPad version of <i>Stereophile</i>. “I LOVE it!!!!!” he said, with five exclamation points.

As someone who wrestled endlessly with the nine-pin serial ports and the RS-232 protocol with which early PCs came fitted (footnote 1), I welcomed the Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface when I first encountered it a decade ago, on the original Apple iMac. Plug it in. Don't worry. Be happy. The computer peripherals work as they should, which was often not the case with RS-232. It was a given, therefore, that the then-new USB port would be seen as a natural means of exporting audio data from a PC (footnote 2), but the first generation of USB-connected audio devices offered disappointing performance.