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The SOTA Sapphire was the first, and the most successful in terms of sales, of the new generation of high-end American turntables. As such, the SOTA can be viewed as leading this country's resurge ence of interest in high-quality turntable production. At the time of the SOTA's introduction in 1981, it was the only high-end turntable manufactured in the US. Since then American-made turntables have appeared from the likes of AR, Mapleknoll, Sonographe, and VPI.

Despite displaying its products at nearly every CES since 1985, Merlin remains essentially unknown in the US. Problems have plagued the company in this country: key suppliers have gone under, marketing efforts have lacked focus, and the principals of the company seemed to have gotten caught up in audio politics.

Set times for tomorrow's <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_east_village_radio_music_… Village Radio Music Festival</a> have been announced. Looks like this:

Among British turntables, there is the Rega Planar 3, which sells here for $550 (approximately double the UK price). I've owned a Rega for three years and know it well.

<B>RICHARD THOMPSON: <I>Rumor and Sigh</I></B><BR>
Capitol CDP 95713-2 (CD only). Dave Leonard, Lance Phillips, Tchad Blake, engs.; Mitchell Froom, prod. ADD. TT: 61:25

It's a good, good thing <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_rega_p3-24_iin_colouri/">… voted for green</a> because that's the color I was going to pick anyway. It was a landslide. Foreshadowing of something greater, perhaps. (Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.)

Headphones get pretty short shrift in much of the hi-fi press, which is puzzling&#151;the headphone market is burgeoning. I don't know what the equivalent US figures are, but in recent years the UK headphone market has increased by an annual 15&#150;20% in both units sold and overall revenue. It's easy to dismiss this as a natural byproduct of the Apple iPod phenomenon, but 20% of the market value is now accounted for by headphones costing over $120; a significant subset of consumers would seem to be looking for quality. When you also consider that many people's first exposure to higher-quality audio comes via headphones, there is ample reason for treating them more seriously.