LATEST ADDITIONS

A group of people sit along an old, grimy bar, doing things. Watching, waiting, aspiring. Every single one of them, in one way or another. Watches, waits, aspires. One of them&#151the strangest looking one of all&#151is a black dude with hair like the wind through a California Cypress. Eyes like two half moons. With more care and concern than any of the others, he watches. He watches the man on stage, a fellow named Henry Vestine. Henry is playing guitar, bass, and drums all at once, all by himself.

I love my job, I love my office, I love a whole lot of other things. But, when the sun is shining through my living room windows the way it was this morning, it is very hard to leave home.

A crime of passion? Depraved indifference to the importance of tuneage? Death by music? The simple fact is that most audiophiles got that way by having too many records. That's right&#151;very few got into this rewarding, non-contact sport because they were aroused by shiny brushed-steel boxes or supersexy speaker grilles. It's because they wanted to hear their piles of music&#151;their Mahler, Monk, or Rick James&#151;sound the best it could. (And, okay, yes: It <I>is</I> cool to show drooling friends your designer gear.)

<B>DVOR&#193;K: Symphony 9, "From the New World"<BR>
WAGNER: <I>Flying Dutchman Overture</I>, <I>Siegfried-Idyll</I></B><BR>
Jascha Horenstein, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra<BR>
Chesky Records CD 31 (CD only). Bob Katz, remastering eng.; David &amp; Norman Chesky, executive prods. (Original 1962 recordings: K. E. Wilkinson, eng.; Charles Gerhardt, prod.) ADD. TT: 67:30

In his <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/">blog</A&gt;, Stephen Mejias reports on the resurgence in cassette-only releases and is now looking for a good deck. Do you still use a cassette deck?

Perhaps impatience is my fatal flaw, the thing that keeps me forever this close to complete and undying happiness, but never quite there. I’m impatient. About certain things. I’m impatient, for instance, about acquiring a cassette deck. My cassette collection is growing large. My <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/cassettes_and_vinyl/">colorful cassettes</a> sit on my little footstool, waiting to be played, looking at me like what the hell. What the hell?

The <a href="http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?produ… TC-WE475</a> dual auto-reverse cassette deck plays tapes(!), offers all sorts of unnecessary conveniences (like Fast-Forward and Reverse), costs $149.95, and is available NOW.