What happens to your old audio components? We're asking <I>Stereophile</I> readers <A HREF="http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/displayvote.cgi">that very question this week</A>, but the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has already studied the habits of general consumers and found that most unwanted consumer electronics go to secondary users, not into America's waste stream.
Audiophiles are known to upgrade every once in a while, leading to the question of what to do with the old equipment being replaced. What do you do with your cast-off audio equipment?
Nirvana Audio's cables have long been fixtures in my audio system: first the SL interconnects and speaker cables, and, after their debut in 1998, the S-X Ltd. interconnect. In 2002, after a long development process, designer Stephen Creamer introduced the companion S-X Ltd. speaker cable ($2780/2.5m pair, add $50/pair for biwire configuration). He explored a wide range of options, including dramatically different structures and materials, but always returned to the elements he'd used before—and ended up with a design that combined elements of his two existing speaker cables, the SL and the entry-level Royale. At its core, the S-X Ltd. has the Royale's two conductors, each a symmetrical Litz element consisting of 285 isolated strands of high-purity copper of several different gauges. In the S-X Ltd., the conductors are spaced slightly apart to minimize capacitance, wound into a twisted pair, and wrapped in FEP insulation.
A "CD processor," is how I distinctly heard Cary Audio's Dennis Had describe it. The venue was <I>Stereophile</I>'s High End Hi-Fi Show in New York last April. Nothing really unusual in today's digital marketplace, I thought to myself, though a bit out of character for a company dedicated to vacuum-tube technology. But wait a minute. Dennis had described it as an <I>analog</I> CD processor. Analog!? Well, yes, the unit processes the analog signal from a CD player.
David Chesky, whose company has been making superior recordings for nearly 20 years now, isn't from the engineering side of the business. He's talent—a pianist who sometimes performs on his label, a composer of classical and jazz selections integral to its catalog, and an arranger as well.
<I>What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.</I>—Gustav Mahler
This week, XM Satellite Radio launches <I>Classical Confidential</I>, a series of hour-long artist profiles. Modeled after XM's <I>Artist Confidential</I> series, in which listeners can get to know high-profile artists "up close and personal," per XM, the new show's first installment features an hour with Sony BMG's favorite male violinist, the sweet-toned, extremely gifted Joshua Bell. Subsequent shows will feature the magnificent mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli and conductor Leonard Slatkin.
<i>If it’s not the Avian flu, it’s the maple syrup.</i><br>
—Nina Myers, Esquire magazine<br>
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But it’s not the cats that are killing me. It’s the commute.
Music editor, Robert Baird, comes over and asks: "How’s it going, chief?"<br>
The "chief" part I take as a compliment. This is a magazine publishing company we’re working for, after all.<br>
"Not bad," I say, while handing him the new <a href="http://www.silverjews.net/">Silver Jews</a> album I purchased last night: "Have you heard this yet? It’s pretty good."<br>
"Oh yeah," he responds, "It’s great. Did you <i>buy</i> this?"<br>