LATEST ADDITIONS

The golden rays pouring in through the left oculus transport a tiny child carrying a cross: ". . . the devil was vanquished, as if he had just swallowed the bait in the mousetrap." In his essay "'Muscipula Diaboli,' The Symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece," the late art historian Meyer Schapiro explains how every object, every surface—even the smoke, light, and volume of space—depicted in the famous triptych by Robert Campin (ca 1375–1444) is a coded symbol explicating the mystical underpinnings of Netherlandish Protestantism.

Talk dirty to me!

"I had to master this record 11 times to get it to sound the way I wanted," Joanna Newsom growled with the knowing grit of someone who's worked through a sonic ordeal.

"Instead of test pressings, we had test lacquers for this one."

"I have no way to listen to music digitally in my house."

Oooh, baby!

At a time when the future of print is troubled, Newsom can make even a magazine editor feel slightly more secure.

"I love your magazine. I love your publication."

Fidelis AV (460 Amherst Street) is holding a Technics Open House, Head-fi meet, and REL subwoofer demo on Saturday December 5 from noon–5pm. Bill Voss from Technics 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 favorably reviewed in the forthcoming January issue of Stereophile. Dave Shultz will be demonstrating REL Acoustics subwoofers, and Vinnie Rossi will be showing his headphone amplifiers.

I don't think Americans dislike the French a tenth as much as the corporate media, in their endless struggle to sell our pettiest ideas back to us in cartoon form, suggests we do. Our nations' histories are intertwined, to our great mutual benefit. Americans envy the French their centuries of cultural accomplishments, the French envy Americans their sense of industry and their wide-open spaces. (That one's a tie.) We turn to them for wine, they turn to us for blue jeans. (A point for France.) We watch their films about law-breaking hipsters, they watch our films about law-breaking gangsters. (A point for the US, in whose films things actually happen.)

Multiple product premieres take place at Berkeley, CA store Music Lovers Audio (2116 Blake Street), Saturday December 5, from 1pm–6pm. Philip O’Hanlon of On A Higher Note is presenting the North American premiere of the Vivid B1 Decade, 10th Anniversary, limited-edition loudspeaker (above). John Quick of dCS will show the new dCS Rossini D/A processor, and Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio Specialties will present the Wilson Sabrina loudspeakers in a system featuring the Spectral DMC-30SV Super Veloce preamplifier.

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.