LATEST ADDITIONS

"Why didn't they choose a color set?" I had been reminiscing about the early days of TV and how my parents bought a black-and-white set so we could watch the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. My daughter Emily's question had me stumped. It is difficult to explain to someone born 10 years after the launch of CD—someone who, for example, has never seen, let alone used, a typewriter, and who enjoys a comparatively infinite set of choices among mature 21st-century technologies—that it was not always thus.

<B>J.S. BACH: <I>The Goldberg Variations</I>, BWV 988</B><BR>
Glenn Gould, piano (1955); Yamaha Disklavier Pro piano, "Re-Performance" by Zenph Studios
Sony Classical 8697-03350-2 (SACD/CD). 2007. Howard H. Scott, prod. (1955 mono sessions); Steven Epstein, prod. (2007 stereo, multichannel, and binaural sessions); Peter Cook, Richard King, eng. (2007); Dennis Patterson, asst. eng. (2007); Marc Wienert, piano voicer (worked with Gould); Ron Giesbrecht, calibration. Zenph project team: Mikhail Krishtal, Anatoly Larkin, Peter J. Schwaller, John Q. Walker. DDD. TT: 77:02. <BR>
Performance *****<BR>
Sonics ****

When I saw Linn's <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/cedia2007/090809klimax/">Klimax DS</A> at CEDIA, I was impressed by the company's claim that it sounded "better than a CD12," the marque's (now discontinued) <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/86/">flagship CD player</A> for many years. Quite a claim, I thought, but I wasn't able to make it to a nearby hotel and actually <I>hear</I> the DS in action.

Thomas P. Colangelo, designer of some of the best regarded solid-state components of the last three decades, died in a single-car collision on September 5.

Bagheera thinks the space between the preamp and the upper shelf is exactly cat-sized.

Linguist John McWhorter casts a kindly eye on quotation marks conveying emphasis. Fine, but when he defends "impact" used as a verb, I suggest he goes too far. "Quite simply, the verbs view, silence, worship, copy, and outlaw all began as nouns. No one has a problem with them."

ELP

As Christmas approaches, the reissues have begun to trickle in. Today's bounty was Emerson, Lake and Palmer's <I>Brain Salad Surgery</I> or what the notes call "Prog Rock's masterpiece."