Merry Christmas!
Dave Barry posted this one today and it's just too fabulous not to share. Enjoy—and then spend the rest of the day listening to music with your families.
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VTL S-400 Reference power amplifier
When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A> VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."
EAR 912 preamplifier
My opinions keep changing—more evidence of life before death, I suppose—including my thoughts on audio-system hierarchies. I used to think that preamps were among the most sonically influential components, certainly more so than power amplifiers. I'm not so sure anymore (footnote 1).
Whest PhonoStage.20 phono preamplifier
Like the $29,000 <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/phonopreamps/621">Boulder 2008</A> phono preamplifier, the new Whest PhonoStage.20 with its MsU.20 power supply costs as much as a car. Fortunately for you, that car happens to be my first new Saab, which cost exactly $2737 back in 1972. The solid-state Whest costs $2595, so it's a few hundred dollars cheaper. But at only a tenth the cost, it comes closer to the Boulder 2008's performance than it has any right to. That it's good enough to be mentioned in the same paragraph should tell you something about how good I think it is. Nor did it come to me hyped by the manufacturer—it took me by surprise from the minute I first heard it. I began my listening right away, before reading anything about the circuit design.
Listening #36
<I>"Not for pianists."—pianist Leopold Godowsky, at Jascha Heifetz's Carnegie Hall debut</I>
Concord Buys Telarc
On December 19, the Concord Music Group announced its acquisition of Telarc International Corporation, which includes the venerable audiophile label Telarc and the instrumental jazz and world music label Heads Up. Concord already owned many formerly independent labels such as Peak, Playboy Jazz, Stretch, and Concord Picante; in 2004, it acquired Fantasy Records, which encompassed Milestone, Pablo, Prestige/New Jazz, Riverside/Jazzland, Stax/Volt/Enterprise, Specialty, Takoma, and others.
Absolute Multimedia Buys Hi-Fi Plus
In the December 2005 issue of the UK magazine <I>Hi-Fi Plus</I>, editor Roy Gregory announces that Absolute Multimedia, Inc., publisher of <I>The Absolute Sound</I> and <I>The Perfect Vision</I> magazines, has purchased the British audio journal.
Someone Must've Pinched My Front Legs Off
Here in the office, on Christmas Eve Eve, it's just me and the crickets. Wes Phillips, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/wesphillips/">man of many links</a>, tells me that <a href="http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1648623,00.htm… are known to shed a leg if they get caught in a sticky situation, but only if they have had sex first</a>.
Friday Cat Blogging 2
"Like my speaker? I have another one over there."
Friday Cat Blogging 1
"I think the lead channel needs more bite!"