LATEST ADDITIONS

In a surprising move, the San Francisco Symphony has announced plans to release the next installment in its ongoing Mahler series, the beloved Symphony 5, in download format before issuing the recording on hybrid SACD/CD. The Fifth will first become available on iTunes on September 12, and in hard format three weeks later. Such an unprecedented release schedule, from one of the few symphony orchestras in the world to regularly record in the high-resolution SACD format, can be seen as part of a near-universal recognition among record labels of the importance of online sales.

Naxos, possibly the world's largest classical music label, has taken a leap into the virtual universe of digital downloading. In an unprecedented collaboration—including Naxos of America, the country's largest independent distributor of classical music; eMusic, the world's second-largest digital music service; and bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Borders—Naxos has introduced MPkey, an exclusive series of downloadable classical music collections. Available for purchase only at bricks-and-mortar retailers (and exclusively at Borders stores through December 1), MPkey enables consumers to painlessly download pre-selected Naxos collections of classical music.

As readers of the <I>Stereophile</I> eNewsletter will be aware, the twin subjects of distributing music around my home and integrating my iTunes library of recordings into my high-end system have occupied much of my attention the past year. I bought an inexpensive Mac mini to use as a music server, using an <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple">Airport Express</A> as a WiFi hub, which worked quite well, but my big step forward was getting a Squeezebox. I described this slim device in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/306Bstph.html">mid-March</…; and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/406Bstph.html">mid-April</…; eNewsletters; I urge readers to read those reports to get the full background on this impressive device. In addition, the forums and Wiki pages on the <A HREF="http://www.slimdevices.com/dev_overview.html">Slim Devices website</A> offer a wealth of information on getting the most from a Squeezebox.

My first encounter with the Acarian Al&#243;n IV was at the 1992 Las Vegas WCES. I was doing the show report dealing with speakers, and there was already enough advance buzz about the Al&#243;n IV that I put it on my "Speakers I Must Listen To" list. And listen I did, at some length, and came away impressed with their open quality and well-defined soundstage. In discussing reviewing assignments with John Atkinson, I told him that the Al&#243;n IV was one of the speakers I wouldn't mind spending some time with. (The list also includes the WAMM, the MartinLogan Statement, and the Apogee Grand, but I'm not holding my breath.)

In audiophile circles, it is the "Stuart"&mdash;electronics designer Bob Stuart of the Boothroyd-Stuart collaboration&mdash;who has received most recognition. The contribution of industrial designer and stylist Allen Boothroyd has gone relatively unremarked. Yet as I unpacked Meridian's D600 "Digital Active" loudspeaker, I was struck by Boothroyd's ability to make the humdrum&mdash;a rectangular box loudspeaker&mdash;seem more than just that. The man has one hell of an eye for proportion. From the first Orpheus loudspeaker of 1975, through the Celestion SL6 and '<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/744">SL600</A&gt; (where AB did the industrial and package design), to this latest Meridian loudspeaker design, his brainchildren look "right," to the extent of making competing designs appear at minimum over-square and clumsy, if not downright ugly.

Remember Rube Goldberg? He was a cartoonist during the late 1920s to early 1950s who specialized in devising the most outlandish and ingenious devices ever conceived by man, before or since. A Rube Goldberg mousetrap, for example, would occupy an entire small room. In taking the bait, the mouse would tip a balance beam, dropping a steel ball into a gutter, down which the ball would roll to strike a paddle whose spin would wind up a string that hoisted a weight into the air until it reached a trigger at the top, which would then release the weight to drop onto the unsuspecting mouse. Splat!

Okay maybe Kate Moss wasn’t so far wrong.

The National Portrait Gallery does caricature. Its collection is incomplete though&mdash;no Jeff Wong. Yet.

It might be a duck anyway&mdash;or at least it was <I>meant</I> to be.