LATEST ADDITIONS

We continue the search for the successor to Fried's Q loudspeaker of yore. Renaissance Audio is the former Morel USA, so they have a long track record in both OEM driver manufacture and making complete loudspeakers. As I mentioned in my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/608fifth/index1.html">June column</A>, their MLP-403.5 loudspeaker is a two-cubic-foot, sealed-box three-way with a dome midrange driver, at the near-improbable price of $1090/pair (footnote 1).

I can't stop smiling. Boris arrived today.

Boris is new to me, but <i>Smile</i> is the Japanese trio's 14th full-length album. The album boasts a metallic silver gatefold jacket and is limited to just 1000 copies.

And there's <i>more</i>. You remove the inner sleeves from the outer jacket to find not only are they sturdy and colorful, but they are accompanied by a large, full-color poster!

Alright, who's been hiding Natasha Khan from me? Friends, don't you know me by now? Is it not <i>obvious</i> that I would absolutely adore this woman?

Blame the Puritans! say I. The high end has always had an ostinato accompaniment of grumbles from those who appear to feel that it is immoral to want to listen to music with as high a quality as possible. In a recent letter, for example, <I>Fanfare</I> and <I>Stereo Review</I> contributor and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/reference/101">author Howard Ferstler</A> states that "the audio world has more products of bogus quality and shills promoting them than any other industry, bar none," and trots out the old saw that audiophiles "end up spending an excessive amount of money on equipment or tweaking techniques of surprisingly dubious quality."

“Good news!” Stephen exclaimed, the second I walked into his office. I saw my Usher S-520s plopped lovingly in my cubicle. “Check your email,” he instructed.

An email from JA read:

I couldn't find anything wrong, Ariel. I measured both speakers and also listened to them…they match very closely&#151as well as the individual responses of the tweeter and woofer of the sample that didn't have the biwiring jumpers connected.*

Could that have been the problem?

Could this have been the problem…

Could this have been the problem?

COULD THIS HAVE BEEN THE PROBLEM?!