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Hmm, I thought. Pioneer. Speakers?

To be fair, I've had the Pioneer brand on my mind for well over 30 years. The company was my brand of choice for car-stereo electronics in the 1970s, for Dolby S cassette decks in the '80s, for DVD players in the '90s, and for plasma TVs in the '00s and '10s. I felt a bit guilty that I hadn't focused on the fact that Andrew Jones, the very same design guru who came up with Pioneer's TAD Reference One loudspeaker ($70,000/pair), had had a hand in designing a few two-channel speaker models starting at $99.99/pair. The audio gossip was all about the second model from the bottom of Pioneer's speaker line, the SP-BS41-LR ($149.99/pair). I thought I'd better get a pair and review them.

Behold:

It was the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, and JA and I were nearing the end of a dog-and-pony act expertly presented by Atlantic Technology's president, Peter Tribeman, touting a prototype of his company's new loudspeaker, the AT-1. JA and I had just heard about the finer points of the AT-1's new bass-venting technology, the Hybrid-Pressure Acceleration System (H-PAS), which was supposed to combine all the benefits and qualities of a transmission-line enclosure, horn loading, and sealed and ported designs. At the time, I didn't care if it combined all of the qualities of Kim Kardashian, Sacagawea, Joan of Arc, and Marie Curie—I was just thrilled that the AT-1s were sounding so good in a partitioned ballroom.

Here’s a new track from Zola Jesus’ upcoming record, Conatus, to be released by Sacred Bones Records on October 4. The track is called “Seekir” and suggests a more polished sound for Miss Nika Rosa Danilova. Combining elements of goth, industrial, pop, opera, and noise, Danilova seems to still be searching for her voice, which is exactly as it should be for a 22-year old with an extremely promising future.

Let her keep searching. I'll follow wherever she goes.

The video for Colin Stetson’s “The Stars in His Head” (Dark Lights Remix), directed by Isaac Gale and Dan Huiting. Kinda lovely, kinda creepy, kinda perfect for this chilly, gray day.

Colin Stetson's powerful record, New History Warfare, Vol.2: Judges, available from Constellation Records, was reviewed in the July 2011 issue of Stereophile.

I was talking last winter to Musical Fidelity's Antony Michaelson, who had been enthusing about his forthcoming stereo amplifier, the AMS100. It would be physically enormous—almost a yard deep—and commensurately heavy at 220 lbs. Despite its bulk, its maximum rated output would be just 100Wpc into 8 ohms. It would also be expensive, at $19,999. And to cock a snoot at environmentalists and their concerns, the AMS100's output stage would be biased into class-A up to its rated 8 ohm power, meaning that, even when not playing music, it will draw around 10 amps from a typical US wall supply of 120V. This also means that it will run very hot, making the amplifier impracticable for summer use in homes without central air-conditioning. Like mine.

“Oh, loudspeakers,” Nori Komuro might have said.