In My Notebook
She wrote your name down in my notebook and circled it and drew a bunch of funny pictures of cats.
LATEST ADDITIONS
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Deep Listening: The Video
Well, I wasn't able to attend Saturday's "Deep Listening" discussion at the Philoctetes Center. A plane to Mexico was missed and I wound up drinking exotic beers and helping newlyweds plan their honeymoon. Long story.
Check's in the Mail
The new high gloss, high performance <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/708rega/">Rega P3-24 turntable</a> complete with TT-PSU power supply (sold as an option with standard finish P3s) is now available. The updated P3 was a big winner in our <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208poty/">Products of the Year</a> celebration, taking home awards for both <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208poty/index3.html">Analog Source of the Year</a> and <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208poty/index7.html">Budget Component of the Year</a>.
Stereophile's Products of 2008
Times are hard. Our current economic landscape bears more than a passing resemblance to that darkest of American nightmares, the Great Depression. As I write this, the House of Representatives is set to vote on a $700 billion bailout plan to buy distressed mortgages and thereby offer a crutch to our ailing financial system. Times are hard, yet we persevere. Though we may lack some discretionary income, we find ways to maintain the essentials: food, clothing, shelter, and, for audiophiles, music. So for a short while at least, let's put aside our struggles and lighten up. After all, this great hobby of ours is meant to be fun, and is supposed to cure any depression. Let's celebrate music, and those wonderful audio components that bring us closest to it.
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Remember/Imagine
John Lennon left the planet 28 years ago today. I have a hard time contemplating that without tearing up.
What are your thoughts about multichannel music?
Last week's results demonstrate the diversity of system approaches when it comes to handling both stereo and multichannel sources. But what are your thoughts about multichannel music itself?
Do you use your system for both two-channel and 5.1 or 7.1?
Multi-channel music releases may have slowed to a trickle, but with home theater still going strong, reader Greg Abarr is curious: "How many people use their systems for both two-channel and 5.1 or 7.1?"
You Have Been Poked by Jim Thiel
"So what are you doing this Friday?" my father asked, trying to elicit information I could tell he already knew.
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VMPS SuperTower IIa/R loudspeaker
One of the nicest features of the High End is its diversity. Regardless of whatever trend is fashionable, there will always be manufacturers to buck it, and sell alternative concepts and sounds. VMPS is just such a case. With few exceptions, the recent trend in speaker systems has been toward small-to-medium-sized "monitors" with good imaging and high resolution, but limited bass and dynamics (footnote 1). The VMPS SuperTowers provide the former, but buck the trend by adding reproduction of the deepest bass and outstanding full-range dynamics.
Audio By Van Alstine Super-PAS Three preamplifier
If I had to pick one amplifier designer as having had the greatest continuing influence on the high-end market, as much as I admire John Curl, Audio Research's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/894z">Bill Johnson</A>, and Krell's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1203dagostino">Dan D'Agostino</A>, the name of <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11661">David Hafler</A> inexorably springs to mind. Not because he challenged the very frontiers of hi-fi sound, but because he combined a fertile, creative mind (footnote 1) with a need to bring good sound to as wide an audience as possible, both by making his products relatively inexpensive and by making them available as kits. (The Major Armstrong Foundation apparently agrees with me—they presented David with their "Man of High Fidelity" award at the summer 1988 CES.) It remains to be seen if the Hafler company will continue in this tradition, now that David has sold it to Rockford-Fosgate. But there is no doubt that many audiophiles were first made aware of the possibilities of high-end sound by Hafler products in the late '70s, and by Dynaco in the '60s.