My opinions keep changing—more evidence of life before death, I suppose—including my thoughts on audio-system hierarchies. I used to think that preamps were among the most sonically influential components, certainly more so than power amplifiers. I'm not so sure anymore (footnote 1).
Like the $29,000 <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/phonopreamps/621">Boulder 2008</A> phono preamplifier, the new Whest PhonoStage.20 with its MsU.20 power supply costs as much as a car. Fortunately for you, that car happens to be my first new Saab, which cost exactly $2737 back in 1972. The solid-state Whest costs $2595, so it's a few hundred dollars cheaper. But at only a tenth the cost, it comes closer to the Boulder 2008's performance than it has any right to. That it's good enough to be mentioned in the same paragraph should tell you something about how good I think it is. Nor did it come to me hyped by the manufacturer—it took me by surprise from the minute I first heard it. I began my listening right away, before reading anything about the circuit design.
<I>"Not for pianists."—pianist Leopold Godowsky, at Jascha Heifetz's Carnegie Hall debut</I>
On December 19, the Concord Music Group announced its acquisition of Telarc International Corporation, which includes the venerable audiophile label Telarc and the instrumental jazz and world music label Heads Up. Concord already owned many formerly independent labels such as Peak, Playboy Jazz, Stretch, and Concord Picante; in 2004, it acquired Fantasy Records, which encompassed Milestone, Pablo, Prestige/New Jazz, Riverside/Jazzland, Stax/Volt/Enterprise, Specialty, Takoma, and others.
In the December 2005 issue of the UK magazine <I>Hi-Fi Plus</I>, editor Roy Gregory announces that Absolute Multimedia, Inc., publisher of <I>The Absolute Sound</I> and <I>The Perfect Vision</I> magazines, has purchased the British audio journal.
Here in the office, on Christmas Eve Eve, it's just me and the crickets. Wes Phillips, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/wesphillips/">man of many links</a>, tells me that <a href="http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1648623,00.htm… are known to shed a leg if they get caught in a sticky situation, but only if they have had sex first</a>.
"Like my speaker? I have another one over there."
"I think the lead channel needs more bite!"
Well, actually they said E differs from mc2 by at most 0.0000004, which is "consistent with equality."
Yet they've been largely ignored by the industry. I don't expect it to change either. My take is that women are buying more e-gear now because a lot of the tech has become mature—for example, you can buy a five megapixel camera for a reasonable price this year. But watch how the industry tries to court the female consumer. You'll see brighter colors and "simpler interfaces" billed as woman-friendly. Sheesh, most women want what <I>I</I> want: a good product at a good price. Instead, they get vanity mirrors.