LATEST ADDITIONS

Remember <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/my_bat-lightning_heart/">that crush I had</a> on Bat For Lashes' Natasha Khan?

I was very impressed by the hi-fi dealers I encountered while at the <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2009/">2009 Salon Son & Image</a> show in Montreal. Representatives from <a href="http://www.filtronique.com/en/default.asp">Son-Or-Filtronique</a&gt;, <a href="http://www.audiobasics.com/">Audio Basics</a>, and <a href="http://www.cdfaudio.com/">Coup de Foudre</a> seemed intelligent, enthusiastic, friendly, energetic, and cool: All qualities the high-end audio industry could use more of.

So, just when I start getting used to <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/my_new_rega_p3-24/">my white P3-24</a>, Rega goes and introduces three new high-gloss finishes: Orange, Blue, and Pink. Can you believe it? I feel kinda ripped-off. Had I known, I might've gone with Orange. I might've gone with Blue. I might've gone with Orange <i>and</i> blue. (Let's go Mets.) Hell, I'm in touch with my feminine side and secure in my masculinity; I might've gone with pink.

It's been a while since I auditioned a Meridian CD player in my system. I had enthusiastically reviewed the English company's groundbreaking <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/285meridian">Pro-MCD player</A> in early 1986, and over the years had kept up with the progress they were making in digital playback, either through my own reviews or by performing the measurements to accompany reviews by other <I>Stereophile</I> writers. The 508-24 player, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/590">reviewed by Wes Phillips</A> in May 1998, was one of the finest digital products of the 1990s, I thought. But when Meridian began promoting surround sound and DVD-Audio at the turn of the century, their goals became somewhat incompatible with my own. Yes, I can appreciate what surround playback can do, but my own musical life is still solidly rooted in Two-Channel Land.

I stayed up late last on April 2&#151;late for me, anyway: 11pm. I watched the last episode of <I>ER</I> in real time. (Hang in there, peeps, there will be an audio point after the jump.)

A couple months back, a question from a dealer set me back in my chair: "Are you guys <I>really</I> going to put out <I>Stereophile</I> on a monthly basis?" I was surprised&#151;when he put the question, we were just starting production work on the issue you hold in your hands, the twelfth to hit the stands since we started publishing monthly. Beginning with Vol.10 No.5 in August 1987, a <I>Stereophile</I> has gone in the mail every month, pretty much on time despite having gone through the trauma of changing printers last December on one issue's notice.

Not the least astonishing moment of President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Europe (and for my more serious thoughts on that diplomatic voyage, click <A HREF="http://www.slate.com/id/2215264/"&gt; here</A>) was when Michelle Obama met Carla Bruni and appeared her peer in every way, not at all outclassed. Ms. Bruni, of course, is the Italian-born French model and <I>chanteuse</I> who last year married French President Nicolas Sarkozy and, soon after, dazzled, nay seduced, every world leader she met at diplomatic <I>soires</I>. Mrs. Obama’s one-upmanship in London in no way shoves Ms. Bruni aside—the pairing marked, more, the reemergence of a French-American cultural <I>entente</I>, and we are all the headier for it.