LATEST ADDITIONS

At the 1994 Summer CES, I was sitting in ProAc's room listening to Vangelis's <I>Blade Runner</I> score, when a couple of guys walked in carrying a shiny black board. "This is pretty interesting stuff," one of them said. "Want to hear it?"

What a thankless task! No, <I>not</I> reviewing audio equipment (though the case could be made). I'm talking about preamplification in the digital age: who needs it? The EAD DSP 9000 MK3 digital processor I'm using includes an ingenious full-resolution digital-domain volume control accessible by remote control.

<I>Stuff that works, stuff that holds up/</I><BR><I>The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall/</I><BR><I>Stuff that's real, stuff you feel/</I><BR><I>The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall.</I>

In the audio field, the British have traditionally thought "small," scoring hits both with their compact loudspeakers and with medium-priced amplifiers. The continued growth of the audiophile speaker market in the US, however, which favors larger loudspeakers, has at the same time stimulated the research and design of more powerful, excellent quality amplifiers. In their turn, these have placed increased demands on the speakers they drive.

<B>WALTON: <I>Belshazzar's Feast</I>; Suite from <I>Henry V</I>; <I>Crown Imperial</I> (Coronation March)</B><BR> Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone; Bournemouth Symphony Chorus (Neville Creed, Chorus Master); Waynflete Singers&mdash;semi-chorus L'Inviti (David Hall, Chorus Master); Andrew Litton, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra<BR> London 448 134-2 (CD only). Chris Hazell, prod., Simon Eadon, Jonathan Stokes, Philip Siney, engs. DDD. TT: 60.25

The inspiration for this project came from <I>Stereophile</I>'s Gretchen Grogan and Erich Vollmer of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Music Festivals are perhaps the healthiest aspect of classical music making, allowing <I>ad hoc</I> ensembles to chart the farthest reaches of the repertoire, as well as retracing the familiar ground of the great works. Why not, they thought, capture a representative selection of works performed at the 1995 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival? This would not only document some of the great performances to be heard, but also allow music lovers everywhere to participate in what has increasingly been recognized as one of the US's best summer music festivals.

SLAM! My left foot went numb. My fellow salesman, Danny Shapiro, had lost control of the Thiel CS5 that we'd been walking into place in Demo Room V, and it had come crashing down on my foot with unerring accuracy—all 180 lbs worth. As I stared down in horror, I remembered that we'd left the spikes on. But wait a minute—there was no pool of blood spreading out from under the CS5. How could that be? Convinced that the heavy cabinet was acting as a tourniquet, I levered it off my foot, expecting a grisly sight. I got one: my new Rockport pierced by the carpet-point—right between my big and second toes. And people ask me why I like small loudspeakers.