LATEST ADDITIONS

Alright, it's cold now. <a href="http://wcbsfm.com/WCBS-FM-Airstaff---Mr--G/2073164">Mr. G says</a> the mercury will only creep up to around the 38- or 39-degree mark today. I guess it's to be expected. We <i>are</i> deep into November. New York City in the cold, with all of the wreaths and lights and scarves and frigid breath, is beautiful. For a moment or two, that is, until I remember how much I hate this weather. It's funny, too, how I forget how unbearable it can be in <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/102606window/">my apartment</a> this time of year. I don't know how I've lived through the last three winters in that old, drafty shack.

"Ain't it strange how sounds can let you down / When you're waiting for the one you love."

Founded in 1925, Luxman has long been one of Japan's most highly regarded audio manufacturers. Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, Luxman's tube preamplifiers and power amplifiers occupied the top shelves of high-performance audio retailers, and to many older American audiophiles, the Luxman name is as familiar and esteemed as those of such storied American brands as McIntosh and Marantz. Luxman's combination of rich, warm sound, superb build quality, and indelible industrial design made its products fully competitive with other brands then considered among the world's best.

It's Friday evening. I would like to be at home, sitting on the orange couch, a beer in my hand, the light rain tapping against my windows, listening to Grails' <i>Doomsdayer's Holiday</i>. Sounds bleak, doesn't it? But Grails are really kind of perfect for this sort of warm, rainy autumn night, with their dark mix of Eastern psychedelia, folk, metal, and free-jazz ramblings. Beautifully recorded, too, with heart-jolting impact and sweet, sweet dynamic range.

Thursday, December 4: <i><b>The Sound Experience</i></b> (233 South Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL) will celebrate their official grand opening with a listening party. Michael Fremer is the guest of honor and will give an analog clinic. RSVP: (561) 391-7868. For more info, visit <a href="http://www.thesndexp.com/">The Sound Experience</a>.

<i>Jimmy Boyd's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Columbia, 10" (MJV 152).</i>

Here's how God makes audiophiles: He starts with several million blank brain cells, then programs each one, individually, to function as either a love for one single aspect of music reproduction or a hatred for another. There are over a thousand such cells&#151;far too many to list here&#151;but theologians and audio reviewers have worked together to compile this list of the Top 20, which, just like real life, contains a little more love than hate: