LATEST ADDITIONS

Stereophile's founder, the late J. Gordon Holt, always had a thing for horn loudspeakers, feeling that these archaic beasts offered a "jump factor" that could never be rivaled by conventional, direct-radiating designs. A horn drastically increases the efficiency with which electrical power is converted into acoustic power, which means that for a given sound-pressure level, a smaller amplifier can be used compared with a direct-radiator, and that all distortions, both electrical and mechanical, can theoretically be much lower. Yet outside of a small circle of enthusiasts, horns never got much of a following in high-end audio, and as high amplifier power became plentiful and relatively cheap, horns largely disappeared from domestic audio use (except in Japan).

The flipside to last week's question is hard to resist: Are there any artists (living or dead) that you go out of your way to avoid collecting?

Sony/Legacy’s 40th anniversary, deluxe reissue of <I>Bitches Brew</I>, Miles Davis’ landmark fusion double-album, is everything that the company’s 50th anniversary reissue of <I>Kind of Blue</I> tried to be but wasn’t: a fitting commemoration, handsomely packaged, with liner notes by a scribe (Greg Tate) who fully grasps the music and its cultural significance, and—a remarkable achievement—a boxed set that warrants tossing the original out.

So call me a wild colonial boy, but while I found European record stores fun and all&#151;and being in huge Virgin megastores stuffed full of jazz and classical records made me long for the days when they were still in the U.S.&#151;one visit to Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania made me realize what that rock and roll immortal Chuck Berry said best&#151; “Anything you want, we got right here in the U.S.A.” Jerry’s is easily, I mean EASILY! one of the top five record stores here on Starship Earth. The man is a mensch, the store is a huge, rambling barn of a place, and my God does he have the product. No onesies at Jerry’s. You often have many different copies of a single title to choose from. Never, ever miss Jerry’s when you’re anywhere near Pittsburgh. Seriously, the place is as much a shrine to the vinyl LP as it is a store.

Berlin was a much smaller market yet there were some interesting music stores, headed by <B> Mr. Dead & Mrs Free</B> which sells only new vinyl. Nearby was <B>Rock Steady Records</B> (pictured above) which had a decent selection of used vintage vinyl. I hear the flea market by the Brandenburg Gate has a number of vinyl dealers but somehow I never made it there.

One more word for unhappy consumers, in any marketplace, who confuse praise for the new with rebuke for the old: 20 years on, I continue to admire the best qualities of my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/1103linn">Linn Sondek LP12</A> turntable (itself not the first LP12 I've owned). I smile to think of all the records I enjoyed during those two decades.