LATEST ADDITIONS

I should have known by the looks in their shining eyes. When people told me that I'd probably enjoy it, that it was probably a good idea for me to go, they were being coy. But never mind: No words could have prepared me for the enormity of the event, for the knee-weakening prospect of innumerable treasures. And so, on Saturday morning, when I decided to go to the <a href="http://www.wfmu.org/recfair/">WFMU Record Fair</a>, I was entirely, woefully, indubitably unprepared. I am reminded of <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/010605cessm/index.html">my first Consumer Electronics Show</a>. You can't know what it's like until you've been. And only after it's over can you pretend to prepare for the following year. I will begin pretending to prepare for next year's event today&#151taking for granted that next year will exist&#151but, until then, I'm left wanting a do-over, wondering <i>why didn't anybody tell me it would be like this</i>, while nevertheless enjoying the few treasures I did come home with.

Speakers Corner Records, the German audiophile vinyl reissue label (distributed in the U.S. by Acoustic Sounds), has one of the more diverse jazz catalogues, drawn from a variety of golden-age labels (Verve, RCA, Impulse, Columbia, among others). Three new additions are worth mining:

Reader "max" says he has a young friend who "wants to try classical music, but does not know where to start." Which single composer would you recommend to introduce someone to classical music? And why?

"Physical discs seem <I>so</I> 20th century!" That's how I ended my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/406Bstph.html">eNewsletter review</A> of the Logitech (then Slim Devices) Squeezebox WiFi music server in April 2006, and it seems that increasing numbers of <I>Stereophile</I> readers agree with me. In our <A HREF="http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?551">website poll</A> of January 5, 2008, we asked, "Are you ready for an audiophile music server?" The response to that question was the highest we have experienced: 32% of respondents already listen to music via their computer networks, many using home-brewed solutions, and 44% intend to. We've published a lot of material on this subject in the last five years, and it seemed a good idea to sum it up in this article.

Fried Products Corporation's Compact 7 is a two-way, standmounted loudspeaker with a 1" ring-radiator tweeter and a 7" woven glass-fiber&#150;coned mid-woofer in a "line tunnel" enclosure. Its cabinet is substantial and well made, with handsome real-wood veneers. The speakers come in mirror-imaged pairs, the tweeters offset toward the inside. The Compact 7 is unusual in that its mid-woofer is above its tweeter, which is likely related to the line-tunnel bass loading. Fried insists that the speakers be placed at least 28" above the floor, which dictate I followed.

You'd think that setting up a pair of loudspeakers would be a piece of cake: Stick 'em where they look good, and be done with it. It <i>can</i> be as simple as that, but to get the <i>best</i> sound from your speakers, you'll have to do a bit more work.

We're lucky. There's always an enormous amount of great live music to be enjoyed in New York City, but this week is especially crammed with sound. The CMJ Music Marathon is here. As I type, our very own Mikey Fremer is moderating a discussion titled "Hi Fidelity for the Future." Panelists include NYU professor Jim Anderson; David Chesky of Chesky Records and <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/052008hdtracks/index.html">HDTracks.com…;; <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11283/index.html">D&M Holdings</a>' Jeffrey Cowan; and <a href="http://news.cnet.com/audiophiliac/">the Audiophiliac</a>, Steve Guttenberg.