LATEST ADDITIONS

This review should have appeared more than a few months ago. When I reviewed <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/phonocartridges/987linn">Linn's Troika cartridge</A> back in the Fall of 1987, in Vol.10 No.6, Audiophile Systems also supplied me with a sample of the Linn LK1 preamplifier and the LK2 power amplifier, which I had intended to review in the due course of things. As it transpired, however, I was less than impressed with the LK2, finding, as did Alvin Gold back in Vol.9 No.2, that while it had a somewhat laid-back balance, it also suffered a pervasive "gray" coloration, which dried out recorded ambience and obscured fine detail.

After a four-year hiatus, the <A HREF="http://www.vsac2008.com">Vacuum State of the Art Conference and Show</A> has been resurrected. Scheduled for next weekend, May 24&ndash;26, at the Hilton Hotel in Vancouver, Washington, just across the river from Portland, Oregon, VSAC owes its renewal to audio enthusiasts and software company owners Carolyn S. and Michael Kilfoil, who have taken over from founders Dan and Eileen Schmalle.

Some of the old audio names, such as Eico and Pilot, are gone. Others&mdash;Fisher, AR, KLH, H.H. Scott, etc.&mdash;have been rendered meaningless by corporate mergers and acquisitions. Yet more than 50 years after their founding, McIntosh and Marantz, arguably the two most prestigious names in American high-quality audio electronics, survive. The products they make today are probably closer in spirit to their original classics of half a century ago than at any time since the early 1970s.

And so, I turn back to the VPI. Or the Nitty Gritty.

I sent some crazed e-mails to my audiophile friends, all like: <i>Dude, I'm at my wit's end over here. I can't make sense of any of it. I know so-and-so uses a VPI and what's-his-name uses a Nitty Gritty, but what's YOUR method? Huh, huh, huh?</i>

<B>BON IVER: <I>For Emma, Forever Ago</I></B><BR>
Jagjaguwar Jag 115 (CD). 2008. Justin Vernon, prod., eng. AAD? TT: 37:15<BR>
Performance ****1/2<BR>
Sonics ****

<I>Due to an error in laying out the June issue of the magazine, the following announcements were omitted from the June issue's "Industry Update Calendar" section:</I>