LATEST ADDITIONS

<B>WAGNER: <I>Siegfried</I></B><BR> Teldec 4509-94193-2 (4 CDs only). TT: 4:00:09<BR> <B>WAGNER: <I>G&#246;tterd&#228;mmerung</I></B><BR> Teldec 4509-94194-2 (4 CDs only). TT: 4:27:03<BR> Siegfried Jerusalem, Siegfried; Anne Evans, Br&#252;nnhilde; John Tomlinson, Wanderer; G&#252;nter von Kannen, Alberich; Graham Clark, Mime; Philip Kang, Fafner, Hagen; Bodo Brinkmann, Gunther; Waltraud Meier, Waltraute; Birgitta Svend&#233;n, Erda, First Norn; Eva-Maria Bundschuh, Gutrune; Hilde Leidland, Forest Bird, Woglinde; others; 1991 Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus, Daniel Barenboim<BR> <I>Both:</I> John Mordler, prod.; Gernot R. Westh&#228;user, eng. DDD.

For a while, I've been hearing rumors that the record-club editions of popular compact discs differ from the original versions produced by the record companies. I've met listeners who claim their club versions are compressed in dynamics, and some have reduced bass. Perhaps the clubs, in their infinite wisdom, think the typical member has a lower-class stereo system (in fact, the opposite may be true). Maybe these lower classes could benefit from some judicious dynamic compression, equalization, and digital remastering.

<B>J.S. BACH: Suites for Solo Cello</B><BR> Nathaniel Rosen, cello<BR> John Marks Records JMR 6/7 (2 CDs only). Doris Stevenson, prod.; Jerry Bruck, eng. DDD. TT: 2:16:43

If you read much promotional literature for recently introduced high-quality equipment, you'll notice a common theme emerging: balanced connection. Balanced inputs and outputs are becoming a must for any audio equipment that has any claim to quality. The word itself has promotional value, suggesting moral superiority over the long-established "unbalanced" connection (for the purpose of this discussion, I will call this "normal"). What's my problem with this? Simply this: The High End could be paying dangerous, costly lip service to the received wisdom that balanced operation is the goal for an audio system.

<B>HILLIARD ENSEMBLE/JAN GARBAREK: <I>Officium</I></B><BR> Medieval & Renaissance Chant & Polyphony by Morales, Perotin, Dufay, de La Rue, Anon.<BR> The Hilliard Ensemble, vocals; Jan Garbarek, soprano & tenor saxes<BR> ECM New Series 78118-21525-2 (CD only). Manfred Eicher, prod.; Peter Laenger, eng. DDD. TT: 77:41

The future is rarely what anyone expects it to be. I still remember reading, as a child, predictions in <I>Popular Science</I> that everyone would have a personal helicopter by 1980. It never happened, though it sure seemed like a reasonable projection of events. Events, however, have their own agenda.

During a recent visit to Canada's National Research Council, I noticed stuck to the wall of the prototype IEC listening room a page of results from one of Floyd Toole's seminal papers on the blind testing of loudspeakers. The scoring system was the one that Floyd developed, and that we adopted for <I>Stereophile</I>'s continuing series of blind tests. "0" represents the worst sound that could possibly exist, "10" the perfection of live sound&mdash;a telephone, for example, rates a "2." The speakers in Floyd's test pretty much covered the range of possible performance, yet their normalized scoring spread, from the worst to the best, was just 1.9 points.