LATEST ADDITIONS

Taking a <I>really</I> close look at Leonardo's portrait.

At last, an explanation of why carefully coiled cables grow knots.

I read <I>Slate</I> primarily to catch my colleague Fred Kaplan's "War Stories" column, but whenever I read Fred, I also go to Garry Trudeau's "The Sandbox," a milblog that allows military personnel stationed in Iraq and Afganistan to "vent, rhapsodize, and [inform] the folks on the home front . . . what is going on from their point of view."

The new Miles Davis <I>On The Corner</I> set, which Sony says is the last metal boxed chunk of Miles they're gonna release, ever, is also the most beautiful, ever. Like the LP which reached its finest, most completely perfected form just before CDs came in, the boxed set is reaching its zenith with this one. The funky characters from the original cover are now stamped into the metal casing into which the set, book and CDs combined slip into. It's the same setup that Sony’s been using since the beginning of what has proved to be colossal reissue program.

Philip K. Dick has become a huge success 25 years after his death. He'd have seen the humor in that.

I was delighted to end the final day of RMAF 2007 in the Soundsmith room. I’ve spent quite a while in Peter Ledermann's rooms at previous shows, and loved every minute. This year was no exception.

Nordost has entered the realm of stratospherically-priced cabling with the introduction of Odin interconnects and speaker cable. With Odin interconnects draped around Lars of Nordost's neck, and the speaker cable seen running between Raidho Ayra C3 speakers and Burmester 001 CD, BAT preamp, and Gamut D-200 amplifier (a last-minute replacement for an ailing Burmester amp), the combination of Odin interconnects and speaker cable and Nordost Valhalla power cables&mdash;Odin power cables are yet to come &mdash;delivered one of the most breathtakingly realistic depictions of a huge, three-dimensional soundstage I've ever experienced. It's you-are-there transparency was pretty damn amazing. I greatly look forward to reacquainting myself with this cabling at CES 2008, and promise to report on it in my show blog if five other <I>Stereophile</I> colleagues don't get to the Nordost room before me. But oh, the price, which is in the "don't ask" category, adds JA.