LATEST ADDITIONS

The trio of Paul Motian, Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell finishes a two-week gig at the Village Vanguard this Sunday, and if you’re in the New York area, you should drop in (though call ahead for tickets, as nearly every set, including the one I saw last night, has been packed). Here are three of the most creative jazz musicians around, each playing at the top of his game, a combination that doesn’t always make for the most coherent combos (think of the many “all-star bands” of yore that amounted to little more than blowing contests), but this trio is that rare thing, a truly equilateral triangle: no player consistently dominate, all parts are equal.

Exposure, the old-school British company best known for its <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/1105exposure/index.html">hi… amplifiers</a> and disc players, has entered the ever-growing iPod market with its new EXPO3 wireless dock. The EXPO3 uses a Bluetooth A2DP-equipped cradle to transmit music files to a base station receiver connected to your hi-fi. A fully-charged iPod is good for eight hours of fun; the base station can recharge both iPod and cradle transmitter, and you can continue listening to music while charging.

I first spotted Audia Flight's exquisite-looking two-box phono preamplifier ($6100) at last year's Hi-End show in Munich, and now that Musical Sounds is importing Audia Flight gear, a review of the Phono seemed a good idea. I know nothing about Audia Flight or the designer, or what Italian audiophiles think of them, but the more time I spent with the versatile, exquisitely built Phono, the more I liked <I>everything</I> about it.

Sometimes products are too cheap for their own good, and people don't take them seriously: the Superphon Revelation Basic Dual Mono preamp, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/184rega">Rega RB300</A> arm, AR ES-1 turntable, Shure V15-V MR cartridge, and the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/675">B&amp;K ST-140</A> power amp. They can't be any good because they cost so little, right?

In my last post (and the story of why it was so long ago is an epic which I won't go into now), I observed that the listener I am today is a completely different critter than the one I was years ago. It's inevitable that time, experience, and liff its ownself change us&#151;and change the way we perceive art.

Many audiophiles who have only recently subscribed to <I>Stereophile</I> will be surprised to find that those clunky, heat-producing, short-lived tubes that reigned up through the mid-'60s are still Executive Monarchs in the mid-'80s. Why, for Heaven's sake? Because, despite everything, people <I>like</I> them.

The <A HREF="http://www.hovlandcompany.com">Hovland Company</A> is no more. Less than 10 full years after its incorporation, the manufacturer of highly coveted Hovland Musicap propylene-film and aluminum-foil capacitors and visually striking electronic components has dismissed its staff and closed the doors of its manufacturing facility and headquarters in Los Angeles.