LATEST ADDITIONS

Back in March, I wrote a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/305stph.html">reviewlet</A…; of Channel Islands Audio's VHP&bull;1 headphone amplifier for the <I>Stereophile</I> eNewsletter. (What&mdash;you aren't receiving that free download yet? Well, log on to www.stereophile.com and opt in.) The VHP&bull;1 has continued to enchant me&mdash;reason enough to examine it in greater detail, I reckoned. But the real reason I returned to the VHP&bull;1 ($349) is that CIA's Dusty Vawter recently sent me his new VAC&bull;1 ($159), a replacement power supply for the VHP&bull;1's stock wall-wart supply. Could a new power supply <I>really</I> offer a substantial improvement in performance?

I recently spent a few days filling in for a local engineer, recording middle-school and high-school bands and choral ensembles. This was a requirement of the statewide music-educator adjudication process. (Don't laugh; recording high-school bands is how Telarc got its start.)

Like many specialty audio companies, <A HREF="http://www.nhthifi.com">NHT</A&gt; has had its ups and downs. The Benicia, CA&ndash;based loudspeaker manufacturer, founded by <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/232/">Ken Kantor</A> and Chris Byrne in 1986, was sold to Jensen International in the early 1990s, sold again to accesssories perveyor Recoton, and then acquired (and some would suggest saved) by Rockford Corporation towards the end of 2002.

Want to improve your hearing? Have someone tickle your toes, or lightly stroke the palm of your hand. Sounds crazy, but it works, and things get even weirder.

So, I arrived at home (I mean, at Wes') one night, and decided to take <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/101705huckleberry/">John DeVore's advice</a> about popping a CD into the hi-fi as simple background noise. My plan was to listen to Smog's <i>A River Ain't Too Much to Love</i> while feeding the cats in the kitchen.

At the show, there were&#151no kidding(!)&#151<i>five</i> people who came over and complimented me on this here blog. I was flattered. One was <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/101805asynth/">Josh Gladstone</a> who said he was surprised to learn that he was the first to buy Todd’s At Work CD. And, patting his pant pocket, he added: “I’ve already got it in my <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/934/index.html">iPod</a&gt;.” Another was Mike C., of <a href="http://www.hobokenrockcity.com/">Hoboken Rock City</a>, who keeps a blog of his own and frequently sends out fun <a href="http://www.hobokenrockcity.com/playlists.asp">podcasts</a&gt;.

<a href="http://www.ericswanson.com/">Eric Swanson</a>, the man who makes our covers look so awesome, is visiting from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’s in NYC to attend the <a href="http://www.photoplusexpo.com">PhotoPlus Expo</a> at the Javits Center, but was able to drop by our office today and treat me to lunch. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Eric for about four years, but had never met him in person. We’d only communicated via e-mail and over the phone. I always thought, by the sound of his voice, that he’d be a kind and thoughtful person. I was right.