LATEST ADDITIONS

Speaking of upgrades, this just arrived in the mail. Rega’s drive belt upgrade ($59) is supposed to do something good for my P3. It has something to do with tolerances and stuff.

Two highly respected product lines, one founded 32 years ago, and another whose pedigree dates from 1932, have returned to the North American market. <A HREF="http://www.ta-hifi.com">Theory & Application Elektroakustic</A> (T+A) products, from Germany, has returned to the US and Canada thanks to Dynaudio North America, and the venerable line of <A HREF="http://www.wharfedale.co.uk">Wharfedale loudspeakers</A> will once again reach the US from the UK, thanks to the dedication of Sound Import, LLC, of Hopedale, Massachusetts.

Rega’s <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/708rega/">outstanding P3-24 turntable</a> is available in lots of fun colors, and even though I do love my white P3, I still suffer from color envy. I want a green one, a blue one, an orange one, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2010/regas_p3-24_is_pretty_in_pink/">a pink one</a>. I would like a different P3 for every day of the week, a P3 for my every mood. I wonder if the different colors have different sonic properties. For instance, does my white P3 sound <i>purer</i> than a black P3? Are certain colors better suited to certain types of music? Blue for the blues?

Why bother with three phono preamps most of us can't afford? For the same reason the enthusiast automobile magazines cover the newest Ferraris and Lamborghinis: just <I>reading</I> about them is fun.

Jason Moran’s <I>Ten</I> (Blue Note) commemorates the 10th anniversary of his trio called Bandwagon (with Tarus Mateen on bass, Nasheet Waits on drums), and it’s by far the group’s best recording, maybe Moran’s best all told, which, if so, would mean it surpasses his 2002 solo disc, <I>Modernistic</I>, which is saying a lot. Whether it does or not (I’m still mulling), this is a great album, that much is certain.

<i>So easy to look at, so hard to define.</i>

Although the idea of a $1000 moving-coil cartridge no longer shocks audiophiles, it is still not exactly what I'd call "Mainstream Hi-Fi." <I>Audio</I> magazine's <I>1984 Equipment Directory</I>&#151;the most complete such compendium published in the US&#151;lists only 10 models in this price range, not counting the Kiseki Lapis Lazuli at a whopping three-and-a-half grand! I have not tested most of these, nor have I tried any of the current models from the Japanese Koetsu firm, which was first with the gall to put a $1000 price tag on a cartridge. But I have tested a couple of one-granders during the past few years, and was sufficiently unimpressed to be hesitant about testing any more samples of what were beginning to look like nothing more than monumental ripoffs. So when Ortofon sent us the MC-2000, I was naturally less than enthusiastic about trying it.