LATEST ADDITIONS

Tom Watson picks the greatest cover versions of rock'n'roll and comes up with Patti Smith's "Gloria." Interesting choice. I might have gone with "Respect," myself.

And now the important question: What percentage of music in your collection is both great music <I>and</I> sounds great?

<B>Wireworld:</B> Wireworld has "completely redesigned" its Series 5<SUP>2</SUP> (pronounced "five squared") audio cables. Chief engineer David Salz says they deliver the "highest fidelity the company has ever offered."

<A HREF="http://www.marquisclassics.com">Marquis Classics</A>, a Toronto-based CD label specializing in classical, jazz, world, and crossover recordings, recently issued its second batch of "<A HREF="http://www.marquisclassics.com/orion.html">Orion Master Recordings</A>." Drawn from the large classical catalog of the defunct Orion LP label, the CDs include prized rare recordings by Robert Silverman, Steven Staryk, Joel Krosnick, Leonid Kogan, and other fine artists.

One of the highlights of such annual events as the Consumer Electronics and Primedia Home Entertainment shows has been the demonstrations of loudspeakers from TAD, the professional division of Pioneer Electronics. Designer Andrew Jones is always generous in using recordings brought by visitors, and enthusiastic in explaining the technology behind these beautiful behemoths. Among these speakers' unique features are a beryllium dome tweeter mounted concentrically inside a beryllium midrange cone, and a cabinet built of stacked, carved horizontal sections, for incredible rigidity without using exotic materials or excessive mass. The concentric upper-range driver is a reminder that, some time back, Jones worked for KEF, where the coaxial UniQ driver was developed, but the materials and details of the TAD drivers are all new. While the TAD Model 1s are always good for musical and audiophile thrills, their price is in the upper five figures, which put them out of serious purchase consideration.

I began writing this essay on New Year's Day 2007. The passing of the old year reminded me that I am now in the 21st year of editing Stereophile, my 25th of being the editor-in-chief of a mainstream audio magazine, and my 31st of working full-time as an audio journalist. (Prior to joining Stereophile in 1986, I had worked for 10 years at British magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review, the final four as its editor.) Back in the innocent 1970s, reviewers and editors generally picked and chose what products to review based on their own interest and what they felt appropriate for their readers to know about. Back then, there was only a tiny fraction of the audio brands now available to the audiophile, and even with fewer review pages than we now have, it was possible each year to cover a representative sample of the products being offered our readers. But such was the explosion in high-end audio throughout the 1980s that, by 1989, I felt it necessary to impose some restrictions on what products we choose for full review coverage in Stereophile.

KINGS OF LEON: <I>Because of the Times</I><BR>
RCA (CD). 2007. Ethan Johns, prod., eng.; Lowell Reynolds, asst. eng. AAD? TT: 51:41<BR>
Performance ****&#189;<BR>
Sonics ****