LATEST ADDITIONS

I would give just about anything to be Andy Macleod for even a single day. (Lord, hear my prayer.)

The whole idea that different CD transports have different sonic characteristics when driving the same digital-to-analog converter is a vexing problem. It is easy to prove that even the cheapest CD players recover the data stored on most CDs with bit-for-bit accuracy, thus disproving the widespread and erroneous belief that errors in the digital code are commonplace and affect presentation aspects such as imaging, soundstage depth, textural liquidity, etc (footnote 1). If the datastream driving the digital converter is comprised of the same sequence of ones and zeros, regardless of the transport, what other factors could account for the sonic differences between CD drives reported by many listeners?

The Type A has served as Snell Acoustics' flagship loudspeaker since 1974. The Type A Reference System reviewed here is the sixth update of the late <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/378snell/index4.html">Peter Snell</A>'s original three-way floorstanding design, and is the most radical departure from <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/378snell">Snell's original</A>. Gone is the pair of "upright bricks of polished wood and stretched cloth" (footnote 1) that delighted decorators because they functioned best against a wall. Today's Type A Reference $18,999 price tag (footnote 2) purchases two tall midrange-tweeter towers, two huge subwoofers, two short but heavy enclosures housing the outboard passive crossover networks, and a small electronic crossover.

Digital sales rep, Jon Banner, just shared with me this bit of beautiful brilliance.

I just got off the phone with Nathaniel Friedman, a writer working on a "vinyl revival" piece scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue of <i>Penthouse</i>, that finest of fine men's periodicals. I think it went fairly well. If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to buy the magazine.

"Experience which is not valued is not experienced....Value is at the very front of the empirical procession."</I>&#151;Robert M. Pirsig, <I>Lila</I>

<B>CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET: <I>Fish Out Of Water</I></B><BR>
Charles Lloyd, tenor sax, flute; Bobo Stenson, piano; Palle Danielsson, bass; Jon Christensen, drums<BR>
ECM 1398 (841 088-2). TT: 57:50<BR>
<B>KENNY WHEELER QUINTET: <I>The Widow In The Window</I></B><BR>
Kenny Wheeler, fluegelhorn, trumpet; John Abercrombie, guitar; John Taylor, piano; Dave Holland, bass; Peter Erskine, drums<BR>
ECM 1417 (843 198-2). TT: 61:17<BR>
<I>Both</I>: CD only. Jan Erik Kongshaug, eng.; Manfred Eicher, prod. DDD.