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My buddy John Atkinson likes to say that what makes science work is <I>not</I> simply the measurement of observed phenomena, but the scientist's refusal to believe those measurements. I once asked him if he'd teach me to do audio measurements and he said no, "because you'd <I>believe</I> the measurements&mdash;a good scientist knows the measurements are trying to lie to him."

Audio companies have created thousands and thousands of audio products in the last several decades. But if you could send just one piece of equipment off in a capsule through space to represent the best audio has to offer, what would it be?

If you spotted an EICO HF-81 at the local Goodwill, you'd think nothing of this plain-Jane integrated amplifier in its nondescript gray case. But if you kept on walking, you would have passed up one of the best-kept audio secrets of all time. The HF-81 hails from hi-fi's pioneer days, before chromed chassis and slick Mac transformers. It isn't ultracool-looking, like early Marantz or McIntosh gear. It doesn't have the nostalgia factor of a Fisher. It's not a supercheap eBay steal like a Stromberg-Carlson or a Heathkit. So what's the deal?

"A few of us felt that we were the proverbial voices in the wilderness for a long time." So writes Gary Jacobson, whose <A HREF="http://www.quadesl.org">Quad ESL website</A>, is my favorite of the many good ones out there.

Were I trying to make a living by giving piano recitals, David Stanhope's new CD, <I>A Virtuoso Recital</I> (Tall Poppies TP184), just might tempt me to wash down a fistful of pills with a bottle of Scotch. The saving grace being that Stanhope seems to have enough things to occupy himself with in his native Australia. The risk of his showing up in New York City and playing a recital, thereby giving a lot of people existential crises and sleepless nights, seems remote.

Bob Stuart, chairman and co-founder of Meridian, will deliver a lecture on active loudspeakers to the UK Section of the Audio Engineering Society in London on Tuesday, July 11. Although Bob has been a champion of active speakers for 30 years, he has, surprisingly, delivered only one previous paper on the subject, at the AES UK Conference earlier this year. In this lecture he will expand on that presentation and be able to discuss the topic more fully with the audience.

After I decided to <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/352">join <I>Stereophile</I></A> as its editor in the spring of 1986, I took a road trip through Europe. The ostensible reason for the trip was to attend a hi-fi show in Lucerne, Switzerland, but the reality was that, faced with the transatlantic dislocation, I wanted to touch base with places that had meant much to me over the preceding years. I took the train to Paris, where I spent a day taking what might have been my last look at the Impressionist paintings (then at the Jeu de Paume gallery, now at the Mus&#233;e d'Orsay), then drove the rest of the way to Lucerne with KEF's then marketing manager David Inman.