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Innovation can often come from unexpected places, but "thinking different" can also engender ridicule. Is audio's "lunatic fringe" good or bad for the hobby?

Show me a music writer who has no guilty pleasures and I’ll show you someone you don’t need to waste time reading. Anyone with passion for music, which is what drives you to try to put what you hear into words, has a brain studded with funny little weaknesses. Many is the music writer who has a Bobby Sherman record stashed somewhere. I have a friend, a blues nut extraordinaire, who one dark night admitted to me under the influence of single malt that he “had a few Beatles albums” hidden away under his bed like girly magazines. And then of course there’s always the issue of hipness overload. No one can be cutting edge all the time. There are times when you just want to hear Hall & Oates or Karen Carpenter’s dusky tones and you don’t care who knows. I like Grizzly Bear fine for example, but sometimes you just gotta give in, shed that uber skin and dive headlong into some accessible–as–hell Whiz.

In an ideal world, I'd have every phono section I've reviewed in the past 16 years on hand to compare with these three and with all that arrive in the future. But because I have a life, I don't, and I wouldn't even if I could, though some readers (and one retailer) have insisted that that's the only way that I could possibly be of any use to them. Ha! And for those who are concerned that I've neglected the Manley Steelhead, not so! It's still my reference.

We have just received the sad news that loudspeaker designer Jim Thiel has passed away. Following is the text of the official announcement:

Looking for <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/attention_screen_cd_release_party/">a good time tonight</a>? Meet us after work at <a href="http://www.ottosshrunkenhead.com/">Otto's Shrunken Head</a> to celebrate the release of <a href="http://stereophile.com/musicrecordings/ilive_at_ottosi_a_new_stereophil… Screen's new CD</a>.

<i>Me, in the middle of another intense stare-down with my computer screen. (The screen always wins.)</i>

This is weird: French hip-hop producer, Jean-Christophe Le Saout (aka Wax Tailor), is releasing "Say Yes," the lead single off his third album, <i>In The Mood For Life</i>, as a dual-layer compact disc/miniature-vinyl.