LATEST ADDITIONS

Sometimes, a product review in <I>Stereophile</I> can breed additional reviews. Shortly after I reviewed the Audio Valve Conductor line stage in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/audio_valve_conductor_preamplifi… 2009 issue</A> (Vol.32 No.7), I was contacted by NAT's US distributor, Musical Sounds: "Hey, if you liked the Audio Valve Conductor [$13,995], you'll love the NAT Symmetrical line stage at $8000! Would you like to review it?" Aside from Michael Fremer's review of the battery-powered NAT Signature Phono stage in the July 2007 issue, I was unfamiliar with this Serbian maker of tube electronics. But "Sure," I replied; "why not?"

The phrase "the mystic chords of memory" comes from Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address. Of course, larger issues than those addressed in this column occupied most peoples' minds just then. But it is nonetheless worthwhile for us to spend a moment or two thinking about how differently people experienced music in 1861, compared to how things are today.

Victor Tiscareno and Byron Collett of AudioPrism are known in audiophile circles for their complete line of power-conditioning products. (See Barry Willis' omnibus review in the December 1998 <I>Stereophile</I>.) Their intimate knowledge of the ever-capricious electrical supply has resulted in a series of front-end components bearing the company's logo. The flagship Mana Reference monoblocks, under consideration here, represent AudioPrism's collected wisdom and engineering savvy taken to its logical extreme.

Klaus Heymann has some surprising news. During an in-person chat in the lobby of San Francisco's Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the founder of the label that turned the classical-music recording industry on its ear revealed that, in the US, classical-music sales for the labels that Naxos distributes are stable.

Today Klipsch announced the launch of their new Synergy Series loudspeakers. If recent reviews by Wes Phillips (of <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/audaciousaudio/klipsch_palladium_p-39f_louds… $20,000/pair P-39F</a>) and Erick Lichte (of <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/klipsch_palladium_p-17b_lo… $4000/pair P-17B</a>) can offer any indication of what to expect from this new Synergy line, we are in for a treat.

As evidenced by the response to last week's vote, audiophiles are increasingly turning to their computers as a source of music. Should <I>Stereophile</I> review more or fewer computer audio products?

Bo Christensen, who was the guiding light behind, first, Primare, then Bow Technologies, graduated as an architect&#151;not surprising, considering his products' drop-dead-gorgeous looks. I talked with Bo while preparing my review of his Bow Technologies ZZ-Eight CD player (see <I>Stereophile</I>, August 1998, Vol.21 No.8), and started by asking him if his knowledge of electronics was self-taught.