LATEST ADDITIONS

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>&#151;Oliver Heaviside, 1850&#150;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.

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.

YBA Design's new WD202 D/A processor and headphone amplifier showed up while I was turning the pages of Don and Jeff Breithaupt's Precious and Few: Pop Music of the Early '70s, recommended by John Marks in his October 2009 "Fifth Element" column. Each page drips with great examples of why the 1970s often wind up on the wrong end of the culture stick (the Osmonds, anyone? Terry Jacks?).

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I was greatly impressed by the performance of the Canton Reference 9.2 DC loudspeaker, which I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/308mitr">reviewed</A&gt; in the March 2008 "Music in the Round" in the context of a 5.1-channel system. Those beautiful jewels not only sounded balanced and transparent, they had more sheer grunt in the low end than could be reasonably expected from their size. I wanted to hear more from Canton, but couldn't decide whether to go up in size or down in price. The problem I've always had with Canton is that they offer such a wide range of products that it's like choosing food from a multipage menu at a fine restaurant: everything looks good. It's especially difficult when your hunger is further piqued by your own past experience and the recommendations of others. (Check out the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/1106canton">November 2006 issue</A> to learn how much Wes Phillips enjoyed Canton's flagship speaker, the Reference 1 DC.)