LATEST ADDITIONS

It was late last year, when the leaves and the temperatures started to fall, that I first became interested in Effi Briest, the hypnotic and alluring all-female band performing out of Brooklyn, NY. Their video for “Mirror Eye” was <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/effi_briests_mirror_rim/">a dizzying, hallucinogenic trip</a> that matched their sound and their sense of style.

On Thursday, May 20th, Seattle’s <a href="http://www.resolutionaudiovideoseattle.com/">Resolution Audio Video</a> (5459 Leary Avenue NW) will host an evening with renowned <a href="http://www.passlabs.com/index.htm">amplifier designer</a> and <a href="http://www.passdiy.com/index.htm">DIY advocate</a>, the long-haired and white-bearded Nelson Pass. This event should be really cool and interesting; Nelson Pass doesn’t make many big public appearances.

Every audiophile is born sometime, somewhere. My audio birth happened on a family visit to my Uncle John's house, when he played Information Society's "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" through his brand-new Klipsch Heresy IIs. Uncle John did three things at this listening session that turned 12-year-old me into the audiophile I am today: he played music I liked, he played it really loud, and afterward, he took the time to explain how his system worked and why it sounded so good. His Klipsches were powered by Nelson Pass&#150;influenced Nakamichi gear&#151;I'd never before heard speakers play music with such ease or such startling dynamics. I was immediately hooked. In many ways, nothing I've heard since that day has impressed me as much, or been as revelatory of what home audio can do. That single experience set me on a path of caring about re-creating musical performances in my own home.

We've got the new HRT Music Streamer Pro USB DAC in for review at <I>Stereophile</I>. We always try to find helpful tracks for putting a product through its paces during our listening sessions. What music selections would you like to see used for this review?

The American computer industry was a little shaken up to learn recently that the Japanese micro manufacturers had gotten together and standardized their component interconnections so that any Japanese computer will (supposedly) plug into any Japanese printer, modem, or competing computer, and work right off the bat. Anybody who has tried to fire up an Apple computer with a Diablo (Xerox) printer will appreciate what the Japanese move means in terms of compatibility. It means "For no-hassle interconnections, buy Japanese."

I had an experience at last summer's CES in Chicago that bordered on the religious. I heard the legendary $42,000 Wilson WAMM system.

There was a time, very recently in terms of human history, when high fidelity promised to free the music lover from the constraints of the concert hall and the local repertoire, allowing him to choose at his whim any orchestra in the world playing any work he desired under the baton of any conductor he preferred. "All the pleasure of concert-hall listening, in the comfort of your home," was the way one display advertisement painted this musical utopia which, only 20 years ago, seemed right around the corner.