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The success of any party depends on just a few things: the venue, the guests, the food and drink, and (of course) the music. Evenings at John DeVore's factory at the <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/111806wander/">Brooklyn Navy Yard</a> are invariably successful. More than that, they are fun. You love the place. You enjoy the company. The food is delicious and the drinks do the trick. And (of course) the music is intoxicating. You want to be there.

As we approach the end of the 21st century's "oughts" decade, many feel that playing music from a discrete physical medium is positively 20th century. Much of my own music enjoyment now comes from computer files, often high-resolution, streamed to my high-end rig via a Logitech Transporter or Bel Canto USB Link 24/96. It is perhaps a paradox, therefore, that high-end audio companies are still devoting so much effort to developing expensive, state-of-the-art disc players. In April I very favorably reviewed Meridian's superb 808i.2 CD player–preamplifier, which costs $16,995 as reviewed, and Michael Fremer is about to review the ultimate Scarlatti SACD playback system from another English company, dCS. The $80,000 price tag of the Scarlatti makes the subject of my review this month, the Boulder 1021, seem relatively affordable at $24,000.

In the early to mid-1980s, I read every high-end hi-fi magazine I could get my hands on. Among the consequences was my discovery that the Grado Signature Seven phono cartridge&#151;which was better <I>and cheaper</I> than the Signatures One through Six&#151;was the cartridge that God wanted me to have. So I cut back on all manner of luxuries, saved every dollar I could save, and a few months later brought a walletful of cash to Harvey Sound in midtown Manhattan, where an unpleasant man with a bad comb-over handed me a little pill bottle of a plastic tube.

<A HREF="http://www.bluecircle.com">Blue Circle Audio</A>, the Ontario-based company that has championed the use of "no frills" packaging and solar powered devices, recently issued the latest addition to its line of minimal cosmetics audiophile products. The <A HREF="http://www.bluecircle.com/index.php?page_id=9573">BC301FY preamplifier</A>, which looks nothing like other companies' products, dispenses with the standard aluminum or steel box, engraved logo, designer controls, and other cosmetic frills. Housed in nine ABS cans&#151;a type of heavy-duty plastic commonly encountered in drainage and sewer piping&#151;its packaging is said to reduce consumer cost by over 40%.

Steve Kuhn’s new CD, <I>Mostly Coltrane</I> (on the ECM label), has no business working, but it does, for the most part really well.

If you like freak shows, then the current travails of the Republican Party are incredibly sweet. Marc Sanford’s <I>“I’m gonna try and fall back in love with my wife”</I> nonsense [need dental work? try repeating that one to your wife?], Palin’s rambling, basketball&#150;and&#150;dead fish&#150;laden resignation speech, and now the pride of Long Island, U. S. Rep. Peter King, calling Michael Jackson names on the day before he is buried. “Lowlife,” “pedophile,” “child molester,” oh yeah, King hit `em all. The run of bad news on Jackson is about to begin again&#151;his toxicology report is gonna cause a circus, not to mention the end of several medical careers&#151;so I’m thinking King coulda waited a day or two before giving us another dose of some righteous Republican extolling the heroism of firefighters, cops and soldiers. The fact that all three of those professions are paying gigs&#151;no one is being drafted lately&#151;is clearly beside the point for King. And okay, we all know Jackson had some unhealthy sides to his life, but couldn’t King have waited a day or so before becoming a new hero to the haters in the Republican Party. The appetites for hating and hypocrisy in the GOP are apparently insatiable. I loved it when one of King's colleagues questioned whether this outburst would help or hurt King by saying that it might help if has a lot of racists in his district.

<B>Allen Toussaint: <I>The Bright Mississippi</I></B><BR>
Nonesuch 480380-2 (CD). 2009. Joe Henry, prod.; Kevin Killen, eng.; Anthony Ruotolo, asst. eng. AAD? TT: 61:31<BR>
Performance ****&#189;<BR>
Sonics ****