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Whenever I’m at Tunes in Hoboken, getting my fingers all dirty on the vinyl LPs, I stop and stare at this one album, John Prine’s <i>Sweet Revenge</i>, and I wonder what it’s all about. Prine looks pretty bad-ass there in his convertible, decked out in so much blue denim, dark aviators over his eyes, a cigarette at his lips, the wind in his hair, legs crossed and flung out over the passenger side window like he’s seriously satisfied, like he really doesn’t care.

<i>Photo: Sebastian Mlynarski</i>

Three years after Dynaudio released its highly coveted 30th Anniversary Sapphire loudspeaker in a limited run of 2000 units, the final pair will be sold online by Danish auctioneer <A HREF="http://www.lauritz.com">Lauritz</A&gt;. All proceeds from the auction, which begins Wednesday, May 12, and ends at 2pm MEST on Saturday, May 22, will benefit Doctors Without Borders.

I was directed to this video via the <a href="http://twitter.com/stereophilemag"><i>Stereophile</i&gt; Twitter page</a>, in a tweet from <a href="http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/sound/formats/to-have-and-to-hold-vinyl-… & Wilkins</a>, who’d seen it first at <a href="http://www.audiophilia.com/wp/?p=4383">Audiophilia</a&gt;. Moments after I’d watched the video, <i>Stereophile</i> contributor Jim Austin also sent me the link.

Balanced performance isn't the be-all and end-all of product design. A person can listen to a product which balances the highs with the lows, detail with forgiveness, delicacy with dynamics, and still feel unmoved. Such a product might sound "proper," but it won't produce the illusion of a live performance. It takes a special window or two on reality to convince you you're listening to live music. Such a loudspeaker may have other deficiencies which keep it from being a universally appealing product, but it keeps reminding you of the live experience. It may appeal only to a small number of audiophiles, but their experience may well be more intense.

There's a fantastic new two-SACD/CD set of a demonstration-quality live recording of a rather obscure work you really should get to know, not only for its own merits, but also for what I believe is its underappreciated but major influence on music and on popular culture. The piece is by 20th-century composer Arnold Schoenberg, but trust me&#151;it's more than "listenable." It (or, at least, the music on the first disc) is beyond engaging; it is compelling&#151;a revelation, even. The work is <I>Gurrelieder</I> (Songs of Gurre), Gurre being a castle in medieval Denmark that was the setting of a real-life doomed love triangle, the story of which has since loomed large in the moodily brooding artistic consciousness of Danes. The 19th-century Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen wrote a collection of poems based on medieval legends, including this one, and a German translation by Robert Franz Arnold provided Schoenberg's dramatic texts.

<B><I>The Incredible String Band</I></B><BR>
Hannibal HNCD 4437 (CD only). TT: 45:15<BR>
<B><I>The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion</I></B><BR>
Hannibal HNCD 4438 (CD only). TT: 50:06<BR>
<B><I>The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter</I></B><BR>
Hannibal HNCD 4421 (CD only). TT: 50:12<BR>
<B><I>Wee Tam &amp; the Big Huge</I></B><BR>
Hannibal HNCD 4802 (2 CDs only). TT: 87:49<BR>
<B><I>Changing Horses</I></B><BR>
Hannibal HNCD 4439 (CD only). TT: 50:24<BR>
<B><I>I Looked Up</I></B><BR>
Hannibal HNCD 4440 (CD only). TT: 41:30<BR>
<I>All above:</I> Joe Boyd, prod.; John Wood, eng. AAD.