LATEST ADDITIONS

For years, I have espoused the use of the same speakers (except subwoofer) in all positions for multichannel music. To have no speaker in the system contributing a different voice to the choir seems as intuitive as having the room acoustics not color the sound. Of course, this still doesn't guarantee perfect timbral match&mdash;positioning and room acoustics usually impose some unique characteristics under all but the most perfect and symmetrical conditions. You can hear tonal imbalances even between the left and right speakers of most <I>two</I>-channel systems simply by switching pink noise between them. On the other hand, there's no reason to superimpose on these unavoidable differences the additional imbalances inevitable with using different speakers in a multichannel array.

On March 24, the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division stated that, "after thorough and careful review" (<I>translation:</I> more than one year) Sirius Satellite Radio's $5 billion offer to purchase XM Satellite Radio "is not likely to harm consumers."

I still sometimes forget that the year is 2008. It'll take me a few more months to get used to it. No doubt about it, though: 2007 is old news. I can tell by the copyright dates on my new CDs. It's 2008. The birdies are making all sorts of happy racket outside my kitchen window; the high temperatures are creeping up, up, slowly up; Opening Day is less than a week away.

We already know that your life is devoted to music and audio, but what comes next? In addition to being an audiophile, what else are you passionate about?

"I thought starting an audiophile record label was hard," Chesky Records co-founder Norman Chesky told <I>Stereophile</I>. "That was <I>nothing</I> compared to this. We've spent three years developing <A HREF="http://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=staticpage&pagename=aboutus">HDt…;

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/092005knowing/">I knew nothing</a> about high end hi-fi. Hard to believe, I know. But true. I didn't even know that the high end existed. My Magnavox boombox worked just fine. As a person grew older and gained the responsibilities and markings of an adult, I knew that his or her speakers and amplifiers grew larger and flashier and more expensive&#151like their houses and cars and debt&#151but I didn't equate those changes with better sound. I didn't even think about better sound.

Art Dudley reviewed the original <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/705arcam/index.html">Ar… Solo CD receiver</a> in our July 2005 issue. Art was impressed. He wrote: