It’s inevitable: Working on “Recommended Components,” as I am now, leads to fantasies of new gear, new systems, <i>outstanding new heights of recorded playback!</i> I have to restrain myself, focus. Focus, Daniel-san, focus.
Call me shallow, but what first attracted me to Audience's Au24 cables when I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/802audience">reviewed them</A> in August 2002 was their looks. In contrast to superstiff cables as thick as garden hoses, the Au24s were slender and elegant. They were wonderfully flexible, too, and even their custom-made RCA plugs were slim and easy to handle. Instead of having to fiddle with a system of locking collet and barrel, merely slipping them on resulted in a tight, solid connection. Compared to the Au24s, a sizable number of audiophile cables seemed excessive, even a little foolish.
For the past few years, PSB Speakers International has been replacing its older lines with new models designed in Canada, and assembled in China from Chinese-made components. Judging from the reception here of PSB's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/408psb">Synchrony One</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/psb_imagine_t_loudspeaker"… T</A>, it's clear that the new models combine advanced performance with true economy. Now, with the new Image line, we see the result of trickling all this down to less expensive products.
<I>The best result of mathematics is to not need it.</I>—Oliver Heaviside, 1850–1925
Leben Hi-Fi Stereo Company is a very small company in Amagasaki City, Japan, that hand-builds an exquisite line of vacuum-tube audio electronics. I find it intriguing that Taku Hyodo, founder and main man of Leben, once worked for the comparatively huge Luxman firm. Years back, Luxman went through various corporate owners and spent some time wandering in the desert, before returning to its high-end audio heritage. Whether, as I suspect, Leben was founded during Luxman's years of ownership by car-stereo maker Alpine, or if Hyodo simply wanted to be the captain of his own destiny, I don't know.
In <a href="http://www.electronichouse.com/article/sharing_in_the_vinyl_groove/">th… nice piece</a>, Arlen Schweiger, managing editor of <i>Electronic House</i>, describes the great amount of fun he’s enjoyed while getting back into vinyl. Even on a modest analog rig ($50 Technics turntable and $100 Cambridge Audio phono preamp), Arlen has had no trouble noting vinyl’s virtues, which in his experience include wider soundstages, better focused images, and tighter bass. Most of all, it seems, Arlen is enjoying hunting for outstanding bargains on used LPs and sharing his discoveries with friends and family. Be sure to check out the slideshow.
Since <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_room_today/">the transformation</a> of my living room into a listening room, my record collection has been a woeful, helpless mess. Albums are grouped together more by my fleeting mood or by date of purchase than by anything usefully intelligible, or at all resembling order, such as genre or artist name. If, on some strange and rainy Saturday, I happened to have listened to albums by Mal Waldron, Crazy Horse, and Beach House, these albums will be found shelved together.
Are taken, yes they are.<br>
This video is just like my life. Sing it, brother.
Dear <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/021308sing/">Uncle Omar</a> in Italy,<br>
You missed a fine party. Though we were downright heartbroken that you could not attend, we managed to nevertheless have some fun. Fortunately, Uncle Norbert brought his new video camera, and we were able to capture much of that fun on tape! For your convenience, I've attached my favorite bit of footage, which came during one of our spontaneous sing-alongs.
