LATEST ADDITIONS

I don’t know what Paul Motian’s doing, I don’t understand how he’s doing it, all I know is that it’s wonderful. I’ve just returned from seeing the Motian 3 at the Village Vanguard, a high-powered trio that consists of Motian, Jason Moran, and Chris Potter (and no bassist to hold the anchor). Moran, just shy of 33, is, as I’ve written many times, the most extraordinary jazz pianist around. Potter, 37, as I’ve noted a couple times, is a tenor saxophonist with a galvanic tone and fleet agility. But Motian, at 76 (older than both of his trio mates combined, playing topnotch jazz since his days with the Bill Evans trio a half-century ago, and more combustive now than ever), is the heart-racer.

Dudes! We're in Las Vegas. This town is bananas, all sex and smoke and blurry light, gambling and booze and deep fried foods.

Whenever I run into <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/092407leland/">my audiophile doppelganger</a>, Music Hall's Leland Leard, I'm sure to ask him about what's new in his playlist.

Bellari's pretty little boxes remind me of my guitar effects pedals. And maybe that's why I find them so attractive.

Shanling seems to have erected a shrine to the holy iPod with its new STP-10 stereo vacuum tube amplifier ($900).

It was midday at the Venetian and show traffic was intense when I squeezed into the Hansen Audio suite. Despite noise from the outer hall and chatter in the back of the room, the several listeners seemed swept away by Natalie Merchant's voice. Her warm wishes were followed by Aaron Neville's "Goodnight," a blanket of voices with impressive clarity seeming to wrap around the entire room.

Jon Iverson, our magazine group's self-proclaimed “Web Monkey”&mdash;that’s how his business card describes his role&mdash;mentioned that a reader, now living in Dubai, wrote him Tuesday night about Gallo Loudspeakers. "I'm hoping your CES 2008 show blog will bring me up to speed on the latest loudspeaker from Anthony Gallo," he wrote.