LATEST ADDITIONS

I was in some sort of mood. Must’ve been the heat. I listened to:

Audiophiles often find themselves the go-to person for audio advice and shopping assistance. Have you ever helped someone buy their first audio system? How did it go?

Keith Jarrett’s “Standards Trio” played Carnegie Hall Thursday night, to predictable glories.

<i>Tris McCall has some trouble getting a hold of Joanna Newsom. Apparently, he’s not the only one. Photo: Annabel Mehran</i>

“These are pretty,” she wrote. Attached to the e-mail was a picture of the new Davone Ray loudspeaker. Pretty, indeed.

Spiral Groove's new Centroid tonearm ($6000) arrived just a few days before press time, so it would be risky to say anything definitive about it. But I will take that risk: using the system described in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/spiral_groove_sg2_turntable/">my review</A> of the SG2 turntable, this may be the best tonearm I've heard. Its sound is different in ways that will open people's ears, and I predict that it will affect the design of every tonearm from now on. The Centroid's design deserves and will await full coverage in its own review, but here are the basics: It's a fluid-damped unipivot design unlike any other that gives the user fine adjustment of all relevant parameters.

The July 2010 issue of <i>Stereophile</i> is now on newsstands. It had been far too long since we received a letter complaining about our love of reviewing insanely expensive products, so we decided to make this our “Special Aspirations Issue,” featuring, almost exclusively, products you’d have to be CEO of BP to afford.