LATEST ADDITIONS

Sometimes wandering the streets of New York I hear whining about how “far from nature’ someone is; or how there’s too much concrete; or how the exhaust–filled air is hurting their lungs. Well, boo hoo. If it’s purple mountains majesties you seek, NYC ain’t the place. You come here for the human culture not the natural beauty—although now that I think of it, there are other, very compelling forms of natural beauty in NYC, if you catch my drift, wink, wink, nod, nod, say no more, but I digress.

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.

JBL was founded 60 years ago, by Jim Lansing. Its history has been amply detailed in the book <I>The JBL Story: 60 Years of Audio Innovation</I>, by the late <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/052107eargle">John Eargle</A>'s (JBL Professional, 2006). Although it is primarily known for its pro-audio loudspeakers, the Californian company has offered a steady stream of high-performance domestic loudspeakers to the home market, including the 1971 Paragon, the L100 bookshelf speaker, and the JBL 250Ti floorstander, all of which remained in JBL's catalog for 20 years. In 1990, JBL produced the Project K2 S9500 flagship speaker for the Japanese high-end market. The K2 Project culminated in the $60,000/pair <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2007/010907mikeyjbl">DD55000 Everest system</A>, with its cross-firing asymmetric horns, and the subject of this review, the Synthesis 1400 Array BG, was a spin-off from the K2 project. It features horn-loaded midrange and tweeters to attain a flat response out to a claimed 48kHz.

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?

Now that audio technology seems to be on the verge of being able to do anything asked of it, it seems only fitting to wonder about what we should be asking it to do. We probably all agree that high fidelity should yield a felicitous reproduction of music, but felicitous to what? Should a system give an accurate replica of what is on the disc, or of the original musical sounds?

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.